IN & AROUND HORSE COUNTRY • OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013
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FIELD HUNTERS
Youth No Barrier to National Championship Croce, Greyland Woods Claim Field Hunter Title By Betsy Burke Parker She may have been one of the youngest competiBoucher plus Middleburg Hunt’s Karen Nutt tors, but if the 20-year-old college sophomore felt Kingsley and Loudoun Hunt’s Beth de Stanley) to the pressure, it didn’t show. confer once again. They opted for a second test for Riding Thoroughbred gelding Greyland their five favorites, asking riders to canter a small Woods, Teresa Croce beat out some 40 of her eldjump with a red hunt coat draped across it (to sugers to claim the coveted North American Field gest a coat hung over a wire fence, McCormick Hunter Championship October 6 at Middleburg’s explained), gallop to a large drop jump, and finish Glenwood Park. It culminated a long and testing with a strong gallop towards the crowd and halt. week of qualifying competition and an arduous Karen Russell went first aboard Magalen O. championship finals held prior to the second day of Bryant’s Thoroughbred mare Turnadieu, riding for the Virginia Fall Races steeplechase meet. the Orange County Hounds. Next up was 2012 “I can’t believe it,” Croce chanted over and champion Gold For Glory, another Thoroughbred, over after she was announced best following twin with Lissa Green representing Piedmont. Croce “final test” rounds held on the infield of the historic followed with Greyland Woods, with 2011 Virginia steeplechase track. “There are so many good riders Field Hunter champion Chase and Karyn Wilson here, so many good horses. I’m so excited.” for Loudoun Fairfax next. Keswick’s Marilyn Ware Croce wasn’t faking humility: the field was on Bellevue’s Gray completed the test. one of the most competitive yet in the 28th annual Again, not a single horse had a visible bobble, Field Hunter Champion Greyland Woods and Teresa Croce. event. The field included last year’s winner, a pair forcing another lengthy conference between the Janet Hitchen photo of Virginia Field Hunter Championship winners, four judges. and a clutch of finalists from the Masters of Foxhounds Centennial Championship “We loved Teresa’s horse,” Boucher said after the announcer at last called out as well as professionals and hunt staff from some of the nation’s most premiere the winners. “There was a lot of discussion, because all the horses were so very, hunt clubs. very good. But her horse really stood out.” “It was a top group,” said judge Jean Derrick of Georgia’s Belle Meade Hunt, “You really have to gallop in the hunt field,” said Boucher, a former steeplepart of a four-person panel that scored horses and riders all week during the Sept. chase jockey and active jump and flat trainer, as well as a regular in the hunt field 30-Oct. 4 preliminaries, and Sunday at Glenwood for the finals. Derrick and the with Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds in Pennsylvania. “Sometimes, you have other officials rode alongside competitors hunting with the Keswick, Casanova, to ‘hold hard’ from a real run. That’s what we wanted to measure. I think we set Snickersville, and Piedmont packs, marking scorecards and selecting favorites up a real, legitimate test.” based on movement, style, manners, and tractability. It takes brains plus beauty, Other prizes included Best Turned Out champion Patti Brantley and Debonair judge Lilith Boucher noted. “There were a lot of very nice horses,” she said. Still, representing Florida’s Live Oak Hounds, and reserve Eduardo Coria and Denali judging for a real, bona fide foxhunter, Boucher added, is about form, function, riding for Casanova. Patricia Smithwick, riding for Snickersville Hounds on Nottingham’s Friar Tuck, was given an Honorable Mention nod in the Best Turned and a whole lot more. Out competition. Lucy Wallace’s Orion, riding for Keswick, was judged Most “It’s about having the skill to gallop a fence, maybe race down a hill and all Suitable. Live Oak rider Kathy Noffsinger won the Sportsmanship Award. of a sudden ‘hold hard,’” sliding to an abrupt—and complete—halt at the bottom if necessary to avoid freshly planted crops, hardtop road, or errant hound. College Girl Greyland Woods presented the entire package, Boucher said. The gelding has Croce is splitting her time between horses and school right now, carrying a full hunted 12 seasons, primarily with owner Karen Martz, Croce’s mother. “He’s just course load as a sophomore liberal arts major at Lord Fairfax Community College. a good horse,” Martz said of the 17-year-old veteran. “One of those horses that She’s uncertain of her plans after graduation, only sure that she’ll continue until was always good at hunting, from the first season we had him” at age 6. she earns enough credits to graduate. Greyland Woods was chosen on the final day of preliminaries at Piedmont, She’s ridden her whole life: a member of the Middleburg Orange County but all week the gray stood out for his striking good looks and kind eye, fluid galPony Club, Croce qualified for the U.S. Pony Club mounted games national chamlop, and floating gaits, Boucher said. “I noticed him right away” early in the week. pionship three times, and earned a slot at the President’s Cup and a berth in the Judges confer, organizer Pippy McCormick explained, at each check during the Virginia Regional championship in show jumping. hunting week, and after each portion of the final testing process on championship She quit after she earned her C-1 and started racing on the Virginia point-today. point circuit in junior field masters’ ‘chases. Croce works for steeplechase trainer The Specifics Twenty-five took part in the finals, starting with judging for the Best Turned Out awards. Next, Piedmont and Snickersville joint-master Gregg Ryan led the group on a mock hunt route that began and ended on the Glenwood course, looping to the north around Middleburg Hunt territory. Judges were posted along the route to mark their cards, though Boucher stressed that the final day was only “a portion of the overall judging. The horse’s manners and hunting ability make up a great deal of the scoring.” Nine were picked for part one of the final test, a short handy-hunter course that included galloping a fence away from the simulated “field at a check,” jumping up, and back down, an earthen bank (a three-day event obstacle built for the Middleburg Horse Trials,) an open gallop across the racecourse infield, and the all-important “hold hard” before quietly “popping” a small jump and halting on the far side in front of a row of pumpkins that judges told competitors represented a freshly seeded crop field. Not a single major mistake was made in the test, leaving judges (Derrick and
Jimmy Day at his farm near Millwood when not in class. “I’m not sure it can get any better than this,” Martz said of the title. “It’s my two babies, winning the championship.” History The championship began in 1984, brainchild of the late Dot Smithwick and Kitty Smith. They created the event as an avenue to showcase the nation’s top foxhunters—typically left out of show competition, and another way to support the Virginia Fall Races beneficiary, the Loudoun Hospital. The championships are named for longtime Piedmont Fox Hounds master Theodora Randolph, whose Armanative won the first championship. Though most competitors come from the mid-Atlantic region, the event is open to all foxhunters; riders this year traveled from Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia. For details on how to get involved in the 2014 championship, log onto www.VaFallRaces.com.