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Long Run Hounds
History
Don Terry at the kennel was
getting on in years, so In July of 1981, Lindsey Burns took
over the kennel management full time on a paid basis. She
was good with hounds, attentive to their needs and was a
great help to Nash in hunting them, acting as a whip. On a
volunteer basis, Charles McLaughlin, Joy Bennett and Terri
Roach assisted Lindsey in care and walking out of hounds.
The time and care given the hounds by these hunt members was
indeed a great contribution in making a truly outstanding
pack of fox hounds.
Also in 1981, because of failing
health, Bud Waits gave up his job as Treasurer of the hunt.
Virginia Dalton, Stuart’s wife, agreed to assume those
duties. This job had become more complicated because of the
amount of money involved and the increase of expenses.
Virginia holds the job today.
In the middle of the Long Run
Country is a 500 acre farm which was always a key piece of
territory. In July of 1982, Millard and Nash were able to
secure a three year lease for the hunt on this farm. This
lease has been extended over the years and the land is still
under the control of the hunt. To control this piece of land
was a real blessing and so it was appropriate to have a
Blessing of the Hounds in the fall of 1982. This was the
hunt’s first Blessing of Hounds ceremony which was performed
by the Rev. H. Sheppard Musson.
In early 1985, Nash brought
to the hunt’s attention that the Harrods Creek country was
becoming more urban and difficult for the exercise of
hounds. It was being surrounded by housing and development.
A committee of Courtenay Ball, Nina Bonnie, Frank Lehn, and
Carl Rankin was appointed to investigate the possibilities
of moving the kennel to Long Run. It was a logical move.
Nash felt it was also time for someone else to hunt the
hounds.
In June of 1985, the membership
voted to appoint a search committee, chaired by Courtenay
Ball, to interview professional huntsmen, and make concrete
recommendations on property in the Long Run country suitable
for a new kennel and a house for a huntsman. Nash still
hunted the hounds during the 1984-85 season but more and
more he was turning over the handling and hunting of hounds
to Lindsey Burns who would always ride up next to him in a
hunt. She was thoroughly familiar with the hounds and did
hunt them from time to time. She very much wanted the job as
the paid professional huntsman but the hunt voted on this
subject and decided to go outside of the membership for
what they considered more professional help in hunting
bounds.
The summer of 1985 was very
eventful for the hunt as the search committee came back to
the membership and recommended that a professional huntsman,
David Gordon Jones, be hired. Jones was an English huntsman
who was brought to Canada originally and had for the last
six years been huntsman for the Metamora Hunt in Michigan.
The committee also recommended that the Stamper farm in the
heart of the Long Run country be purchased as the eventual
home for the huntsman and for a kennel to be built on the
property. Thanks to Nina and Ned Bonnie, the Stamper
purchase was made practical for the hunt since they
personally agreed to purchase 46 acres of the 60 acre tract.
The 14 acres remaining had the house and barn and a suitable
place for a kennel.
All the changes contemplated
meant increased expense and the membership voted to increase
the dues to $1,350 per family annually and an assessment of
$2,500 per family as a capital improvement fund. The 2,500
would be returned on the death of a member or upon
resignation from the hunt.
The Long Run Hunt was becoming
increasingly a democratic organization and the younger
members were more vocal in their opinions and desires. This
same summer, a lawyer member of the hunt, Winston Miller,
was asked to draw up articles of in corporation and by-laws,
providing for the election of officers and directors who
would be the governing body and Master or Masters. This was
truly a turning point in the operation of Long Run.
David Jones arrived on July
20. 1985 and took over running the Nash kennel at Harrods
Creek. He was put up in a house at the Sutherland Farm in
Prospect, thanks to members Dace and Bruce Purer. Nash
provided horses for Jones and he trucked hounds back and
forth to Long Run while work began on improving the house on
the Stamper farm and a kennel was started. This project went
on throughout the fall and winter season of 1986 During
Jones initial employment, Long Run member Joy Bennett was an
invaluable aid in helping with hounds and acclimating Jones
to the country and the membership. At the same time Charlie
McLaughlin Terri Roach, Sally Cronan and FL M. (Junie) Alien
did outstanding work on the building of the kennel and
improving the existing house for the huntsman.
Lindsey Bum’s services, of
course, were no longer needed. She left the area to seek
employment elsewhere and interestingly enough became the
huntsperson for the Metamora Hunt, the position Jones had
left.
In the winter of 1986, the
annual Hunt Ball was held at Sutherland Farm in the main
house prior to the sale of the entire farm due to the death
of the owner, Trudy Albrecht, mother of Dace Farrer. It was
a most successful and memorable occasion and marked the end
of the hunt’s presence in the Harrods Creek area.
Jones proved to be a good
huntsman, knew fox bounds and was a good woodsman. He was
not always so attentive to all his huntsman’s duties and was
somewhat difficult to manage. Nevertheless, the hunt signed
him on for a second year in the Spring of 1986 and he moved
in the Stamper house and brought the hounds to the newly
built kennel. Jones hunted the country in a sensible manner,
never overhunting an area. This drew some criticism from
members since he sometimes brought hounds in early. However,
he believed the relatively small Long Run Country needed
rest for the foxes if another day of sport was to be
enjoyed.
December 2, 1985 was a wet
miserable hunting day for the Long Run Hounds when no one
expected sport and the instructions to David Jones were to
make a swing of the country south of the kennels and give
hounds and riders about an hour of exercise.
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