I WAS back in drumlin country in County Down with its well-tended thorn hedges, double banks, drains, stone walls, gates and a serious amount of wire, definitely not for the faint-hearted. Only well mounted horsemen and women need apply!
One of the most celebrated guests that hunted with the County Downs was that swashbuckling, heartthrob and Hollywood actor of the era, Errol Flynn, who hunted from Michael O’Reilly’s Pub in Dromara in 1935. Flynn’s grandparents on his father’s side were from Co Leitrim and Meath.
O’Reilly, I am reliably informed, was a great character and hunted mainly on the very best of black horses which he would loan to Flynn when he was visiting Ireland.
But they needed to be versatile, as on non-hunting days, they could be seen pulling a funeral hearse! And while his hunters required a full flowing tail on hunting days, the style called for a dock tail on funeral days. O’Reilly was known as a man of great ingenuity, and he was probably one of the first to have designed an artificial horse tail that he could plait into the dock tail.
I had the experience of retrieving one a couple of years ago in the Main Arena of the Dublin Horse Show. When the winner of a showing class was being called forward, the horse swished his tail, and the full tail extension flew through the air as I was taking a photo of the winner! I rescued it quickly, I think before the judges noticed.
Incidentally, the inventor of the Grey Fergie tractor, Harry Ferguson, which caused such a dramatic decline in farm horses, was born in Dromara. I decided to attend two meets of The County Downs as I was enjoying the countryside so much.
My guides were Janine Porter at Shanboo and at Curley’s Cross, my guide was Dr Ken Livingston who hunts with the Newry Harriers and the Tynan & Armagh. He is also master of the Armagh and Richill Beagles, a pack I am acquainted with, now hunted by Geordie Walker for the last 40 seasons.
When I hunted the Russelstown Beagles, we had joint-meets with them at Peter Downs’ Russellstown Stud in Mullingar. I met Edwin Bryson, whose father George was a former master and huntsman of the County Down Hunt. Edwin was master and huntsman of the Newry Harriers when I hunted with them at the Sheepbridge Inn outside Newry in the 1990s with Terry Smith, Ann Ferris, Peter Quirke and Ian Baxter.
I had never seen so many wire fences at which the followers did not bat an eye at! I recall Edwin, a fine rider, jumping a five-bar gate with ease that was sitting a couple of feet off the ground, in true show jumping style.
Huntsman
Lee Peters is hunting hounds that are mainly Old English or Old English and Modern Cross with some recent Brockelsby bloodlines. They looked a picture and, like the huntsman, know their job. Lee makes the hunting horn talk, he gets so much volume into the calls that it was a pleasure to hear it echoing across the valleys between the drumlins. Whipping-in to Lee is Jamie Price with Paul Kinane helping out on the day.
Paul’s friend former Czech champion jockey and three-time winner of the Velka Pardubicka Josef Bartos hopes to be over next season and Paul aims to get him out hunting. Paul is a great admirer of the bravery across country of point-to-point producer Wilson Dennison who was out on the day. He remarked: ‘There is only one Willie Nelson, and there is certainly only one Wilson Dennison, he is made of steel’! But some would say that both of them are two of the best horsemen over any hunting field.
Paul Kinane jumping a hedge while out with the County Down Hunt at their final meet of the season at Curleys Cross \ Noel Mullins
Followers
Former Northern Region champion jockey Ian Buchanan is now in his 40th season with the County Downs. Also hunting were Wilson Dennison, Ian Wilson, Ian Bryson, Erroll Kelly, Ian Moore, Ross McCandless who also acts as field-master, and former Newry Harriers huntsman Mark McIlroy. Ellie Livingstone was hunting her smashing grey Connemara Pony Atlantic Hazy Storm (by Fredericksminde Hazy Match) with the grandam by Ashfield Sparrow. She events and show jumps, but her brother James Anthony, while he hunts in the winter, his summer sport is cricket of which he is a fine up and coming talent.
His father Ken was familiar with a former neighbour of mine, Eoin Morgan, who played for Rush in North County Dublin and as his mother Olivia was born in England, he qualified to play for England. He went on to become the most successful T20 English Cricket captain when they beat New Zealand in the final to win the ICC World Cup in 2019 for the first time. His grandmother Maureen babysat our children and I know she would be so proud of him.
Gary Porter was on another class Irish Draught by King of the Mournes. Gary is a very progressive farmer and uses a drone to count his sheep and particularly if he wants to watch Premier League football, or get to a hunt quickly, he can watch his stock while he is getting ready for a hunt!
At Carnew, Meath follower John Flood, who was hunting with his 17th different pack of hounds this season, showed his style over the County Down hedges. Other equally talented riders across country were Gary Porter, David and John Nelson, and Barry and James Steele. Paul Kinane jumped a very strong hedge with a steep drop in William Cubbison’s.
Local farmer Herbie Magowan, a long time follower of the Newry Harriers, was wearing a lovely woolly hat, perfect for the sharp East wind on the day. He is looking for a three-year-old as a summer project ready to hunt next season. He is one of the most respected men to make a hunter, something he did regularly when his father Bertie and mother Madge were alive. They would find them and Herbie would break them. Janine Porter, and son Curtis and father Jim know the country like the back of their hands and were well ahead in all the right places. Following also were John Savage, Bill McCandless and John Harvey, former field-master of the Iveaghs Foxhounds.
Non-stop
Hounds worked up a line straight away and it was non-stop with few checks, only on sown ground, where the huntsman helped them out a couple of times on foot. All the time the wonderful Mourne Mountains, Slieve Donard, Slieve Gullion and Dramara Hills and Slieve Croob made a beautiful backdrop. There are some wonderful names of townlands, roads and all the fields have names.
Meanwhile hounds worked up a line and away left-handed crossing Ouley Lane and on over the Ardarragh road in the townland of Gancia where hounds struggled over stubble ground. They then picked up a scent on the grass over the Grancia road in the townland of Drumgreagh. They swung right-handed back over Ardarragh back towards Curley’s Cross and left-handed again by the Ardarragh road, passing the Free Presbyterian Church, onto the Newry to Rathfrieland road at Johnnie Arthurs Pub. They then ran on down the lane by Saint Patrick’s Primary School and up the Milestone Hill in Barnween by the Sugarstown Road where they called it a day.
The County Down hunt country incorporates the best of bank country, together with stone wall and hedge country. But there is no hunt country that I know except what I saw in South Island, New Zealand, that has so much wire - all of which has to be jumped if you want to follow hounds, making it a real challenge.
History
The hunt was established in 1881 by Captain RB Ker, and you need a good horse to cross the country made up of every type of obstacle, hedges, double banks, single banks, walls, timber and wire.
County Down Hunt
Chairman – James Steel
Master and Huntsman – Lee Peters
Whipper-in – Jamie Price
Field-Master - Ross McCandless
Honorary Secretary – Ross McCandless
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