AGAINST ALL ODDS

AGAINST

ALL ODDS

Tanheath Hunt Club members persist to save the hunt they love.

BY EMILY DAILY

FOR THE PASSIONATE AMONG US, CHANGE BREEDS COURAGE AND CREATIVITY, especially when it’s unexpected. When Tanheath Hunt Club’s previous Master resigned abruptly, the hounds went with her. Hope and the very existence of the club could have followed just as easily. But that’s not how Cathy Leinert operates.

With support from the club’s core membership, the MFHA, and the greater foxhunting community in the New England region, Tanheath rose from near ashes to become an innovative beacon respecting its history and finding comfort in breaking tradition in the name of comradery and safety.

NEW BLOOD When the club’s Master resigned in 2014, the hunt fell into reorganization status. Its membership dwindled to eight. At some meets, only staff showed. Live hunting in inhospitable weather yielded more standing around than chasing at most outings.

“The hunt was slowly dying,” Leinert says. “It needed an infusion of fresh blood. STAT.”

Leinert whipped-in for Tanheath and was the club’s president. The night she united the eight core members to determine the club’s future would ultimately define what the club has become today. Leinert was elected Master and would serve alongside longtime member and Joint Master Bill Wentworth. Their first order of business: shifting to a drag hunt. They also needed a huntsman with access to land, knowledge, the right horse, and enough time for the job.

“Sherri Colby and I had been whips together,” says Leinert. “I knew she had managed a sled dog team when she lived in Alaska and had lots of dog and horse knowledge. She was also a riding instructor, and her 30-acre property was central to all of our fixtures. It was a no-brainer to elect Sherri when she volunteered to be huntsman.” Huntsman, check. What about the hounds? That would take more time.

But before that fateful convening of members ended, they had defined a simple mission to revitalize and make Tanheath better than ever.

The mission boiled down to two questions: Is it safe? Is it fun?

That philosophy guided every decision the group made in their journey to revitalize the hunt.

THE HOUNDS Obtaining a new pack of hounds became the most challenging journey of all. “No sooner would we make arrangements and draft in a hound or two, then tragedy would strike, and we would lose a hound. Then we would lose another. Our hounds had the cleanest facility, best food, and members who were vets treating them. It was just a run of bad luck,” says Leinert.

Drafting hounds is challenging enough. The pack needs predictability and stability to thrive. Like any working staff, constant turnaround caused an unpredictable dynamic. Year after year, just as Leinert and crew thought they’d reached the summit of the challenge, they found themselves staring up the face of another mountain. Colby and her husband, Bob Colby, built a new barn addition specifically for the hounds — for free. For four years, they worked with the hounds in sickness and in health. Colby and Leinert attended as many MFHA seminars they could to absorb the secrets of building the right pack for their hunt.

Through those years, they all overcame more than their fair share of misfortune. Leinert’s house burned to the ground in 2017. Joint Master Bill underwent major surgery two years later. When a hip replacement prevented Colby from caring for the hounds, Leinert carried on with a new member named John Ryan, who stepped up to serve as huntsman while Colby recovered.

“[John] had taken a keen interest in the hounds and had been a hound walker. It helped that he had just retired,” Leinert says. He kept the program running through a period of unrelenting challenges. The misfortune continued: Colby’s husband, Bob, died in October 2019. John and the staff worked all through the summer and continued through that fall. “John was bravely carrying the horn and doing a most admirable job. The hounds loved him,” Leinert says.

THE TERRITORY Tanheath’s new pack evolved from the Penn-Marydel hound of the club’s past to more Crossbreds suited to their new style of drag hunting to suit the territory and climate.

“Tanheath may be a small club, and we don’t have a lot of land, but we make up for it in enthusiasm and hard work,” Leinert says. Ayer Mountain Farm, 400-acre property and part of the Ayer family for more than 300 years, is one of Tanheath’s primary fixtures. That land adjoins a 625-acre conservation tract.

Colby lives down the road from both properties and is an active member with the Friends of the Shetucket River Valley, a group that helps preserve the land. Tanheath Hunt now helps raise money for FOSRV through hunter paces.

“The dwindling of open space is a concern for all of us. No land, no hounds, no horses, no hunts,” Leinert says. “Sherri knew, as a close landowner, that the possibility was there for all parcels to someday connect.”

In the meantime, Tanheath uses 200 to 1,200 acres for each of its fixtures.

“Our territory is largely wooded,” Leinert says. “This means that our trails can be narrow, with a lot of rocks and roots. You have to keep single file, which means that it’s hard for the field to see the hounds. We don’t have a lot of open land where we can gallop.” Hence, the advantage of drag hunting over live.

“One of our favorite fixtures is through a pine forest where we have soft pine needle footing,” says Leinert. “Our ‘home fixture,’ where we hold most of our events and our Masters’ Dinner, is at Tyrone Farm in Pomfret, Connecticut, which is typical of our fixtures — mostly wooded trails and hilly with some open fields.”

Tanheath member Tina Credit leads hounds back to the trailers after a hunt.

As word spread, people gravitated to

JUDITH M. BOSCO

THE PHILOSOPHY Even with great hounds, the right approach, and protected accessible land, a hunt isn’t a club without its members.

“Our members make our hunt,” Leinert says. “I think because our hunt culture is a bit more relaxed and laid back, we can encourage fun over rigidity and tradition.” Tanheath’s mission is safety and fun. Their vision is a hunt with so much joy, people willingly, and literally, go the distance to be a part of it.

“Depending on the fixture, some members may have a 15 minute drive. Others will have up to two hours,” Leinert says. ward the low-key and inclusive atmosphere. The priority was a welcoming atmosphere, no matter the tack or the attire. They wanted a fun, safe time and good friends in the hunt field, period.

“Our most successful way of attracting new members has been the Intro to Foxhunting clinics we do every summer [and] sometimes in the spring, too,” Leinert says. “Currently, one of our members, Kara Waldron Murray, whose family owns a boarding and lesson barn, is working with her 4-H kids to get them active in foxhunting, too.”

New members brought friends. Then those friends brought friends. New and established members alike offered encouragement and advice to anyone who wanted it. They checked competition and any trace of pretension at the trailer door. Tanheath was about good, safe, oldfashioned fun.

“I think because our hunt culture is a bit more relaxed and laid back, we can encourage fun over rigidity and tradition,” Leinert says. “I wanted riders to feel safe, so if they wanted to wear a body protector and it happened to be purple and can’t fit under a hunt coat, then that’s fine. A square saddle pad is okay. Hairnets are preferred, but not required. Field boots are

fine for formal season. Start hunting with us in chaps or a Western saddle.”

When the weather is as New England can be — below freezing — they waive formal attire and encourage fleece breeches. The only thing Leinert fusses over is turnout. No shavings in your horse’s tail, no mud on his body, and no messy manes. Clean, safe tack is always required. Bling is not welcome.

Furthermore, “to combat the perpetual stereotype of foxhunters as crazy pell-mell riders galloping and jumping huge fences, I came up with the Tally Slo Field. Even the name is soothing,” says Leinert. “It was one of our greatest successes. It’s typically a walk-trot field for new riders, green horses, or those coming back from a fall. It goes as fast as the slowest rider can go. Talking is encouraged, as talking requires breathing. Breathing riders make relaxed riders.” In 2018, Tanheath regained its status as an active, healthy hunt, from reorganization status to thriving. It took four years, but the journey proved worth the uphill battle. Membership continues to grow. Members find the hunt fun, all while feeling safe, welcome, and included.

Emily Daily writes for Covertside and manages the eCovertside newsletter. She is based in Charleston, South Carolina.