PrintThe IHSA riders at the University of Montana Western get out of the classroom in more ways than one.
Emily Cornell can vividly recall one of her most memorable lessons in horsemanship. She was riding
a 4-year-old, out foxhunting.
“The hounds hit on a hare in a huge field of sage, and everyone was flying,” she said. “I was burying my face in my horse’s neck, galloping flat out. And all of a sudden, my rein snapped in half—at a dead run, on a green draft cross.
“I was trying to think of a way to fix this without falling off or getting run off with, or losing the hounds, which is a big deal. I just braced myself and held on like a little Indian and slipped my finger into the ring of the snaffle. I was eventually able to get the horse stopped.”
Cornell’s wild ride isn’t the norm for an Intercollegiate Horse Show Association rider, but Cornell isn’t on the typical IHSA team. She’s on coach John Xanthopoulos’ squad at the University of Montana Western. Xanthopoulos, a lifelong foxhunter, has shared his love of hounds and hunting with his students, and they’ve been bitten by the bug.
“They didn’t know what they were getting into, especially my western students. But it’s like a new religion, and it’s like I’m Jesus and they’re the apostles. They’re thrilled. They are hooked for life,” Xanthopoulos said.
Xanthopoulos, chairman and professor of the department of education at UMW, founded the UMW IHSA team in 2001. He also founded the Treasure State Hunt in 2009, a private pack out of his farm in Dillon, Mont. The Treasure State Hunt celebrated its first anniversary on March 4. IHSA team members whip-in for Xanthopoulos, who hunts the hounds, and help care for the hounds in the kennels.
“They love to walk the puppies, and they watch the hounds work. Part of the experience is cleaning the kennels and taking care of the hounds. They help me vaccinate the hounds and feed them,” Xanthopoulos said.
Getting out into the hunt field has enriched UMW’s riders— both western and English—in ways they never imagined.
“It’s those types of experiences that have made me able to react and think on my feet. I’ve learned to judge situations—if you’re cantering over slippery shale or through sagebrush, [you] need to be careful. You have to know what ditch you can take at a gallop and which ones you can’t,” Cornell said.
“We’re familiar with the terrain, but when the hounds hit a scent and are off you have to use your judgment and trust your horse,” she added. “I think that’s what’s missing from a lot of IHSA experiences. If you’re in the IHSA and competing at shows in a ring, you don’t have to worry about much. But when you’re out in the wide-open country, it’s a much deeper connection with the horse.”
Such A Rush
“When I first heard about [foxhunting], I thought it was pretty crazy—I’d never seen anything like it. I thought it was absolutely nuts running flat out across a field chasing a pack of dogs, but now I just love it. It’s an adrenaline rush,” said Tesla McDowell, a sophomore who competes in the novice western IHSA division. “I was raised in Montana, and I’d never even really heard of foxhunting, other than seeing it in the movies once in a while.”
But now McDowell has started to whip-in and become an integral part of the hunt.
“I like it a lot better than riding in the field. You’re up in the action and get to see the hounds work,” she said. “We get to do a little bit more than the usual IHSA program!”
