WHAT do you do to celebrate your 90th birthday?

Well, some people probably go on a cruise while a few may go on a pilgrimage, then others are just happy to be upright! But not Stella Smith, to her, age is just another number, so she went for a day’s hunting with the Tara Harriers, hunted by her son Henry.

But this was not just an impulse as Stella rides out most mornings on her family farm at Corballis, Donabate, North Co Dublin, on her coloured hunter, out of a mare that happened to be in foal without them knowing, hence the name “Surprise”.

A consummate horsewoman, endorsed by the great master and former huntsman of the Galway Blazers, Michael Dempsey, who said of Stella: “She was the most natural horsewomen ever to cross Galway stone walls, getting the most from any horse she rode.”

Stella (Briscoe) who her mother described as, “A lovely mistake,” as there was such an age gap between her brother George and her sister Constance, was born into a hunting and racing family. You would be under no illusions as her walls are adorned with hunting and racing photos going back for nearly a century.

One photo is of her as a five-year-old, on her first hunt with her pony Archie with the Meath Foxhounds at Ardsallagh, led by their groom Addie James. Another photo consists of her competing at the Castletown House hunter trials with her brother George and a striking photo of her winning the Tara Harriers Members Race on her good horse King’s Shilling.

There is also a nice photo of her whipping in to her husband Lancelot when he was master and huntsman of the Galway Blazers. She was born in Bellinter House on the River Boyne, a beautiful Palladian style mansion designed by Richard Cassells, who also designed Leinster House, Powerscourt House and Carton House.

Her family’s association as masters and huntsmen stretches back for generations. Her grandfather, GV (Gussie) Briscoe, took over the Bellinter Harriers pack from John Preston, first Baron of Tara about 1870 and renamed them the Tara Harriers.

Her father, Cecil Briscoe, was master of the Tara Harriers from 1942-55. Her brother George was master of the Tara Harriers from 1942-2015 and also chairman of the Meath Foxhounds.

Stella’s husband, Lancelot, was master and huntsman of a number of packs, including the Fingal Harriers 1944-48, East Galway 1949-52, Galway Blazers 1952-55, Island Foxhounds 1955-62 and the Meath Foxhounds 1965-71. Stella’s son, Henry, has been master of the Tara Harriers for 30 seasons, and huntsman for 15 seasons.

She went to Preston School in Navan and cycled five miles each way in hail, rain, or shine. She looked forward to pony camp, usually run by Brigadier Bryan Fowler and held on Donald Delaney’s farm in Laytown where they camped out in tents for the week near the beach.

Her life was hunting with the Meath Foxhounds and the Tara Harriers, hacking her horses to meets often 15 miles away and returning home in darkness. She recalls the present kennel huntsman of the Tara Harriers, Sabine Dowdall’s grandfather Christy, who hunted the pack at the time bringing hounds to meets hacking on horseback and coming home leading them on a bicycle in the dark. When he got to Bellinter where they were kennelled, not content with a day’s hunting, they usually headed off hunting in the woods while he got their feed ready.

Stella was very lucky with hunting injuries having only suffered a broken leg, the result she maintains was the fault of her brother George who plied her with too much port before a hunt!

Family life was never dull and the annual trip to the Galway Races was always looked forward to. It took the form of a small cavalcade of their caravan, named ‘Mae West’, pulled by one of their hunters, a few of the family on bicycles and a spring trap pulled by Stella’s pony from Bective in Co Meath to Gengian Hill in Galway city. The trip usually took about three days and at night, they put up tents and camped in various parish priest’s fields along the way.

Then, on Galway race days in Ballybrit, they all mounted the spring trap, sometimes accompanied by her aunt, Gladys Brabizon, who was the mother of the great Aubrey Brabizon, who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup three times on Cottage Rake, and also three Champion Hurdles on Hatton’s Grace for trainer Vincent O’Brien.

They often raced the local milkman, who took great pride in his trotter pulling the milk dray, so most days there was a good contest with Stella’s pony pulling the spring trap towards Ballybrit! They also used their ‘Mae West’ caravan as accommodation when they went to fish the Mayfly on Lough Sheelan.

Used to spending holidays with her grandparents in Wales during World War II, Stella went to help the war effort at the Army Remount Centre in Melton Mowbray, training ponies to work as pack animals behind the lines. She shares Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday so it was only appropriate that she also helped to prepare the Queen’s Household Cavalry ceremonial horses, many of which were sourced in Ireland, and were used on Victory Day, May 8th 1945, in London.

Just as Stella could dash across any hunting country, she was equally proficient at qualifying the point-to-pointers and fiercely competitive race-riding. Her best racehorse was King’s Shilling, on who she won numerous races. Another was Moyadd, who had such a strong mouth that even the great Cheltenham winning jockey Aubrey Brabazon could not hold, but Stella could somehow manage him.

Other horses she remembers are Hope, New Hope, which produced Happy, the latter went to hunt in Cork. She always maintained that she was no good at naming hunters as her ponies were either Archie 1, Archie 2, Archie 3 and so on.

PERFECT MATCH

Stella met her future husband Lancelot Smith (who sadly passed away in 1991) for the first time at Navan show and the fact that both were passionate about hunting, romance blossomed.

He was an intensive vegetable and cereal grower, particularly peas for Batchelors, that went on to be freeze-dried. He was considered ahead of his time in farming practices. He bred pedigree Polled Herefords, having brought the first bull in from Scotland. He worked his large farm intensively during the summer so he could take the winters off for hunting hounds.

Lance could be considered a journeyman huntsman as he was master and huntsman of five different packs: the Fingals, East Galway, Blazers, Island and the Meaths. They were the perfect hunting match; Stella made the hunters and Lance concentrated on producing his type of pack, which included Welsh outcrosses which were not popular with some hunt committees. But like Ikey Bell before him, they proved the doubters wrong, such was the standard of the sport.

Stella, being such a good rider, whipped in to Lance particularly when he hunted the Galway Blazers and the Island. The story of Lance hunting the Blazers at Knockdoe in 1953 has gone down in hunting folklore. On the December 19th, hounds found a fox at Cregg Castle Woods and after four miles, they came to the Clare River where hounds and fox swam the river that was flooded towards Ballyglunin.

Lance, without hesitation, jumped his mare into the river and was immediately separated, eventually managing to hold onto a twig while his mare disappeared down river to be later rescued. Lance, still clutching to the twig, saw World War II submarine commander Bill King take off his boots and jump in and rescue him.

Now safe on the opposite river bank, Lance borrowed a horse and both he and King, the British Navy Mile Champion, now on foot, set off in pursuit to find the hounds that had accounted for their fox in a field of kale near Annagh House, a point of seven miles and probably twice that as hounds ran. Hot baths were enjoyed by Smith and King that night!

Stella has shown horses at the Dublin Horse Show and paraded the Island Foxhounds at the RDS, taking the opportunity to jump all the natural fences, the Irish Banks and the Stone Wall in the Main Arena for fun.

Stella still likes to follow the Tara Harriers, enjoys her grandchildren, and takes an interest in Corballis Farm and their Horse Trekking and Therapeutic Riding Centre that her son Henry runs with fellow instructor Lisa Dandy. She says she has had a wonderful happy country life from childhood and no special diet.

She still rides out most mornings, and leads an active social life, so why change the habit of a lifetime? Her daughter Hilary, who lives in Australia, enjoying the surfing life, described her mother as having: “a huge kind heart.”

What more can one say?