Noel Mullins
CLONES, County Monaghan has some famous sons, like the World Featherweight Champion Barry McGuigan, and writers Eugene and Patrick McCabe. However, the people’s champion is no doubt Fermanagh Harriers senior master Billy Vance.
How does one find superlatives to describe Billy Vance? Some say he is a legend, others say they threw away the mould when Billy was born, and it could be true because his rugged appearance would sometimes remind you of someone as tough as granite.
Master of the Fermanagh Harriers for 53 seasons, and huntsman for 50 of those seasons, and at 84 years of age, he is back in the saddle after a serious accident off a young horse that he was schooling which caused serious head injuries. For nearly two years, Billy was out of action either in hospital or in a nursing home convalescing.
His family, finding that he was not making progress and the possibility of spending the rest of his life in the nursing home, took a courageous step and moved Billy to England - along with his terrier Poppy - under the care of his son Andrew, who practices as a doctor. Taking him off all medication and getting him back exercising and involved in the day-to-day family activities to build him up, remarkably Billy lead the pack with his son Johnny at this season’s opening meet at the family’s home, Scarva House. Riding his seasoned hunter Sonnet that he bred 24 years ago was all the more special as Billy hunted hounds off Sonnet for 17 seasons. He is the pride not only of his family, but also all his friends in the hunting fraternity.
Vance’s life has been eventful, he was born at home in the breakfast room in Scarva House. The house is like a gallery to the equestrian exploits of the family, with photos from the time on ponies as children to the more formal as masters, and point-to-points. The Vances are a traditional hunting family, combining hunting with point-to-pointing and breeding horses, so there are always young stock to be backed and schooled.
Billy attended the local national school in Clones and then High School. However, he did not stay long because while he was always interested in learning, as he was left-handed he had to endure unwarranted punishment and reprimands from his teachers due to general ignorance and lack of understanding.
LEARNING THE ART
He worked on the family farm with his father James and learned the art of buying and selling cattle, particularly dark red shorthorns, together with buying farm machinery off the ferries in Belfast Port and selling it locally.
They also took over a local butcher shop which Billy managed before selling it on. Billy rode ponies and horses bareback until he decided to make a saddle himself from old canvass belts from the pulleys and buckles that were lying around in their own saw mills.
As working on the farm took precedent, Billy’s first hunt was not until he was 17 years of age when visiting his cousin, Cecil Vance, a solicitor in Cootehill. A friend failed to turn up to go shooting so instead they offered Billy a horse and asked him if he would like to go hunting with the Ballymacad Foxhounds. He got bitten by the bug so much so that by the time he was 27, he became joint-master and huntsman of the Fermanagh Harriers.
The pack is the oldest in Britain and Ireland, founded over 300 years ago and like a number of other Irish hunts originally formed as a garrison pack in Enniskillen by the Inniskilling Fusiliers known also as the ‘Skins’. The hunt livery is the green jacket and buff collar of the Fusiliers.
Billy met his future wife Maeve Scott, a practicing veterinary surgeon in the area, and he maintained that only for the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 1967/1968 which stopped hunting, he would not have had time to get married. They enjoyed a relaxing honeymoon skiing in Austria.
Point-to-pointing is a passion of the Vances and his son Johnny recalled the circumstances of Billy’s first race. As he had no horse trailer, Billy hacked his point-to- pointer from the farm four miles to Clones and put his horse on the train for Enniskillen. He then hacked to the course at Dunbar another three miles and held the horse until he was due to ride in the last race which he won and then hacked back to the train in Enniskillen and hacked home from Clones that night.
He has had some significant racing successes, with an outstanding half-bred called Sandy who won five half-bred races for him and one open race. Another mare Pegasus won two races and Ginger Bread Man was placed on a number of occasions.
However, the special horse was Annie Sue VI who is still remembered by race followers. She won 23 point-to-points including the Barbour Cup in Castletown Geoghegan and twice placed third with Billy on board in the La Touche during the Punchestown Festival, before he put Tony Martin up to win it. She carried 13st 5lbs six times and still won.
Billy could not get her into foal so he covered her with his Connemara pony stallion Tabragh and the result was an amazing mare - Sonnet - that has carried Billy hunting hounds for 17 seasons and now at 24 years old, will carry him this season as well.
Due to her exceptional ability across any type of country, Billy was offered a blank cheque for her, all he had to do was put down the price he wanted but he turned it down. The Vances have had a number of other point-to-pointers in the meantime, like Ninaprettyballerina that Johnny won three races on and was rated 98 and she has produced a number of foals. Voldi won seven races and was placed 37 times.
Both Billy and Johnny have won over 20 point-to-points each. Johnny’s best day was a treble at Oldcastle at the Ballymacads. Finea won at Tallanstown, Enniskillen, a hunter chase at Downpatrick and East Galway. Annies Arthur won five races and the Vances have also supplied Marshall Watson’s first win on their Potters Wall at Tytella. Folduff won at Tallanstown and Necarne with Ryan Treacy on board.
DETERMINATION
Just one example of Billy’s determination was when he broke his leg during Autumn hunting. Rather than ask anybody else to take on the pack until he got better, he got a loan of a side saddle and propped the broken leg on the top pommel and away he went with his hounds who just adore him. Hounds were always more than hunting hounds to Billy, they were his family pets, and if any were injured, he would get very distressed.
Johnny recalled one of his best days hunting with his father. He took a day off school at 15 years of age to whip in to him as there was nobody at the meet near Ballybay. Hounds hunted at lightning speed for two hours and 20 minutes and Billy never touched hounds or opened a gate all day.
On the day of the opening meet at Scarva this season while all the family were concerned about Billy’s welfare, halfway through the hunt somebody asked, “where is Billy”. The reply was as expected, “He is gone on with the hounds”. And when Johnny blew for home, Billy looked at him and said, “We’re not going home already, are we”?
Billy was always a consummate and talented rider and crosses the challenging hunt country with style. During the time he was convalescing after his fall, he may have lost some strength in his legs but it is compensated by his almost perfect balance in the saddle. If Ireland is in need of a role model then Billy Vance more than fits the bill.
Welcome back to the hunting field, Master Billy Vance.