BREEDING OF HORSES AIDED BY HUNTING

Southland Times, Issue 24000, 15 December 1939, Page 21

BREEDING OF HORSES AIDED BY HUNTING

Virile Type Of Animal In Early Days

THE pastime of hunting has developed the breeding of good horses in many countries and no organization has had a more beneficial effect on the pastime than the Birchwood Hunt. Some of the best jumpers produced in New Zealand have qualified with the hounds before winning honours on the turf. Many of the earlier horses later did extremely well at the stud and as they were of a virile type they improved the standard throughout Southland. It is now 54 years since the Birchwood Hunt was founded. It has had its times of trial, but today it is in a flourishing condition, with strong branches throughout Southland and an ever-increasing public interest in its activities. The hunt conducts an annual totalizator race meeting and wellpatronized point-to-point steeplechases and plays a very active part in maintaining interest in the breeding of hunters. Hunting in Southland owes much to the energy and enthusiasm of the late Captain James Gardner, of Birchwood. Captain Gardner, who was a fine horseman, was the first master and he was responsible for raising the standard of the hunt to a high level. On one occasion, shortly after the inception of the hunt, Captain Gardner saved it from disaster by taking over the hounds himself and inviting the leading sportsmen to a run over the Birchwood Estate. He hunted the hounds for five years. Captain Gardner’s son, Mr J. Camegy Gardner, who now lives in Invercargill, is still associated with the hunt after an experience lasting over 53 years. He is president of the recently-formed Invercargill branch. Before coming to New Zealand in 1875, Captain Gardner had hunted in England and Victoria. In Australia he had acted as outrider to a Melbourne gold escort. An injury to his right hand, suffered while hunting with the Forfarshire hounds, did not affect his ability as a horseman.; Besides being a hunting enthusiast Captain Gardner was a keen supporter of the volunteer movement, holding a commission in the Hussars.

Another old follower of the hunt is Mr Farquhar McKay, of Gummies Bush, members of whose family have been interested in horses for many years. His son, F. J. McKay, is private trainer to Mr W. T. Hazlett in Australia. Mr McKay and Mr J. Carnegy Gardner are the oldest followers of the Birchwood Hunt. Mr McKay on several occasions rode the winner of the Great Western Steeplechase. First Huntsman THE first huntsman was Mr E. Saunders, who was a member of a well-known hunting family. Mr Saunders was a splendid horseman. The hounds first met in the county of Wallace at Fairview, Mr Morris’s farm, near Thombury, at least 120 horsemen attending. At a dinner in the evening it was decided-to form a hunt club, the committee consisting of Captain Gardner, Dr Wilson, Messrs W. Woodward, E. Saunders, Morrah, Bridge, Sutton, F. Sutton, Eldridge, C. Basstian, sen., Morris, Tennant and Ritchie. Mr Lyle was appointed secretary. Several other meets were held during the first season, all of them being successful. Southland was so well suited to the sport that enthusiasm has never flagged, even in the later days when increasing mechanization has so seriously affected horse breeding.

There is not the slightest doubt that a steeplechase contested by a field of well-schooled and seasoned horses ridden by competent riders provides the finest sporting spectacle that can be seen on a racecourse. It calls for all that is best in horse and rider—courage on the part of both, correct conformation in the horse, and real horsemanship on the part of the rider—to make the combination a real success.

Steeplechasing was bom in the spirit of sport and cradled in the hunting field, where sportsmen measured their prowess and horsemanship against all comers that rode to hounds. The horseman “in at the death,” or entitled to “the brush” was the envy of the hunt, and pride of place could not be gained except by exceptionally wellmounted followers and capable and courageous horsemen, who did not require a liberal dose of “jumping powder” to keep to the true line of a run.

It must have been obvious from the outset that hunting gave a great stimulus to breeding in order to produce the weight-carrying hunter which could face any fence, and gallop on to the end of a long and trying run when some “old man" fox endeavoured to beat the hounds. The right type of horse did not exist solely in the imagination of the famous artists who put hunting scenes into pictorial his-tory-pictures which are treasured today by those fortunate enough to possess them. Hunting laid the foundation of sport and horsemanship, and, in fact, good claims can be advanced that, in the true sense of the word, it is the only true sport in existence, because only those who ride to hounds can be classed as sportsmen. Racing is a sport only in a minor degree in comparison, and owning a racehorse or two does not necessarily bestow a mantle of sportsmanship on an owner.

The title of sport has been usurped and bestowed on what are really games and pastimes, involving nothing really serious in the way of risk to life and limbs. Hunting may, in fact, be said to have originated the word sport, and so coined a term that, rightly bestowed, ranks as the highest honour that can be paid to a man. Steeplechasing THIS then is the origin of steeplechasing, which stands today as the most magnetic attraction in the racing world. Emulation in the hunting field led to matches and races across country from church steeple to church steeple, and as time marched on, without any diminution of the sporting spirit, to the more or less circular course, which enabled spectators to view the sport from start to finish.

The inauguration of the _ English Grand National Steeplechase just on a century ago placed cross-country racing on a pinnacle, making _ the world famous race at Aintree rival the English Derby as a star of the greatest magnitude in the racing world. The glamour of steeplechasing spread from England and Ireland to wherever the English-speaking world “pitched a tent.” Steeplechasing can be traced as far back as 1752, and Ireland seems to have been the land of its birth. The first important steeplechase was run at Liverpool in 1836, but the Grand National Steeplechase did not have its birth until 1839. Cross-country racing, from all accounts, was also of early birth in New Zealand, and the Dunedin sportsmen of the early days had their sport between Uie flags shortly after the early settlers found their feet implanted on the ground. The spirit of sport the early settlers brought with them has waxed and waned according to circumstances, but has never been allowed to become extinguished.