A Voice from the USA
Lurching in the Valley
Chris Allen
TMV USA columnist Chris 'Tiny' Allen (British bred and entered to fox) is currently connected with the Farmington Beagles in Virginia.
I’ve been Stateside for 14 years and initially came across to hunt the Los Altos Foxhounds in California, having previously been connected with the Bonnelle Staghounds in France. I was master and huntsman for the Stoke Hill Beagles 1983-84, and 1981/1983 I hunted the Wigtownshire Foxhounds for Lady Stair. I started in hunt service at the Tickham as second Whip in the sixties, much to the chagrin of my father who wanted me to follow him into the medical profession. Suzy my wife has supported me in every venture, and whipped-in. She's also an excellent skinner.
Each year in the Spring and the Fall the Locust Valley Lurcher’s meet at Five Thorns Farm at Churchville in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. For the past ten years Nick & Ann Hartung have played host to Lurcher Lure Coursing at their beautiful farm, which is about ten miles from Staunton (pronounced Stan-ton) near Interstate I81.
Richard C. Smith (Sewickley Hunt, PA.) & Suzy Allen (Author's Spouse)
Mr. Smith with Lurcher
Ann Hartung slipping her dog
The Dogs being slipped on the course
Hosts, Nick & Ann 'AJ' Hartung
Nick Hartung is a farrier of great repute and commutes to Maryland during the week for most of his business around the Pimlico track. He was previously professional huntsman for the Goshen Hounds in Maryland for eleven seasons, hunting a gorgeous level pack of big ‘Red & White’ American hounds. Nick is an ex-pat Brit, and started his hunting career with the New Forest Buckhounds under the mastership of that great horseman Sir Dudley Forwood, Bart.
An opportunity developed in the States with an offer of employment from Clayton Emig Doing MFH., for Nick to become Kennel-Huntsman & 1st Whipper-in with the Antietam Hounds, whose country was in the Panhandle of Virginia, Pennsylvania, W.Virginia, & Maryland, with the hunt taking the name of that defining epic battle during the American Civil War. After one season there, Nick moved on to be kennel-huntsman for Richard Moran MFH., at the Middleton Valley Hounds in Maryland for six seasons, before taking up the horn at Goshen.
Ann Hartung breeds lurchers, and when I first met the couple in 1994 I will always remember stepping into their kitchen which was seemingly covered in a ‘carpet of Lurchers’… Ann is a fearless horsewoman and has competed as a cross-country rider throughout the State. It is very nice to see her recovering well from double hip replacement surgery.
Friends come from all over Virginia and Maryland for the Lure Coursing at the Hartung’s, and perhaps I should explain for the un-initiated what happens: a pair of Lurchers compete against one another on a given course - a pulley & wire working from an electric motor twists and turns across the coursing field, simulating a live hare course.
Taking the place of the hare is a plastic supermarket bag, wildly flapping, which suffices for these Gaze Hounds to do their work. Many of the dogs competing on th is day are related to Ann’s large family of dogs that she has bred over the years.
The glass rose to a pleasant 60F on Nov 27th, and many old friendships were renewed and the latest hunting news from the UK was discussed with English friends Jo-Ann & Rob from Oxfordshire. With the sun setting, all-comers repaired to the farmhouse for venison stew and a multitude of complimenting victuals washed down with a vast array of alcoholic beverages, and it was “c-ya in the Spring”, if we survive what some say will be a very bad winter!
Chris Allen