ntil now, Gin Fizz was only known in the hunting field. But after he and Jacqueline Stahl won the New York/New Jersey District competition, qualifying for the finals of the Centennial Field Hunter Competition, his name might be more well known.

“He’s kind of been termed a legend in our hunt field,” said Stahl, who hunts with the Millbrook Hunt (N.Y.).

Stahl showed “Fizz” in the competition, but the gelding is really her mother’s horse. Her mother, Nancy Stahl, has been an MFH at Millbrook for 10 years, and they’ve had the elegant gray for 14 years.

“Mom says he’s the horse of her lifetime. He’s her primary hunt horse. She’s been very good over the years, hunting him regularly, but not running him into the ground. He’s 19, but he feels like he’s 8 or 10. Age hasn’t caught up with him yet. She takes the field on him, she whips on him, and whenever I get the chance, I hop on him,” Jacqueline said.

Fizz and Jacqueline, of Millbrook, N.Y., showed in the New York/New Jersey district competition, which was held at the Golden’s Bridge Hounds kennels, North Salem, N.Y. The competition–one of 16 district competitions planned across the country–qualifies riders and horses for the finals of the Centennial Field Hunter Competition, which will take place on May 27, 2007, in conjunction with the Virginia Hound Show.

The field hunter competition is just one of many activities under the umbrella of the Masters of Fox Hounds Association’s centennial celebration. The festivities include hound performance trials, a traveling art show, joint meets, a ball, and a book and DVD.

Each of the district competitions has an appointments judging, a flat phase and a mock hunt. After the mock hunt, the judges select a group to compete over a handy hunter course, and then select their winners. The top four finishers in each district are invited to compete at the finals.

Jacqueline and Fizz started the day winning the appointments judging with their elegant, traditional turnout. And then they went into action.

“The mock hunt was kind of crazy. We galloped everywhere, jumped God knows what, went through just about everything, and that was about 45 minutes,” she said.

Selected for the handy hunter course, Jacqueline wasn’t too sure about how Fizz would perform. “He hasn’t competed a lot in the past, and I had never competed on him before. He’d done some stuff when he was younger, but foxhunting has always really been his life. He was never really cut out for showing, because he loves to buck after a big fence. I didn’t know what to expect–he could have bucked and been terrible–but he was such a good boy,” she said.

Jacqueline, 23, just graduated from Bowdoin College (Maine). “I’m just kind of figuring life out at the moment, so being around and being able to ride more has been a nice treat for me,” she said.

She grew up riding and hunting. “It’s in my blood. I love to hunt, and I love to show in the hunters. Whenever I get a chance to compete, I jump on it, because I’ve been away at school and haven’t had the chance.”

And Jacqueline is “definitely” planning to travel to Virginia next year for the finals.


Rambo Conquers
Lance Beaulieu will have a longer drive from Elizabeth, Ill., for the finals next year, but he plans to go after winning the Midwest District competition, held at Dunham Woods Farm, Wayne, Ill.

“It’s kind of a milestone in your riding, in my estimation. You’ve hunted all these years, and it’s a culmination of everything you and the horse have learned,” Beaulieu said.

Beaulieu, 56, has hunted his entire life and hunts with the Cornwall Hounds (Ill.)–who he represented–and the Wayne-DuPage Hunt (Ill.). He runs a fencing business.

Beaulieu rode Rambo, an 8-year-old Thoroughbred, to the win. “He’s my best hunt horse, and I just thought he’d be the one to do it. I hadn’t done a hunter trials since the ’60s, so it was a lot of fun,” said Beaulieu.

Rambo came off the Arlington, Ill., racetrack three years ago. “We gave him a month to regroup, started feeding him more, and started riding him. We brought him out in the early fall, to walk hounds, and he handled it well, so we just kept going,” said Beaulieu.

“He just picked up the foxhunting so well. He thinks on his feet, and he’s a very talented jumper. My son has done a couple of events with him, and even showed him in the adult amateur jumpers, so he’s pretty versatile.”

Beaulieu’s son, Lance Jr., 30, lives in Chicago, hunts whenever he can, and shows during the summer.

And while Rambo was a runner, Beaulieu claims he doesn’t live up to his kamikaze name. “He’s got a very good mouth. I hunt him in a slow twist snaffle and no martingale. His behavior is great. He’s quiet on the checks, but he can put out when he has to on a gallop. He puts it into road gear if he has to move up to the hounds. He’s versatile that way–in speed.”


Young Ones Prevail
Stahl and Beaulieu will have their work cut out for them at the finals, competing against two talented junior riders. Courtney Cliffe and Devan Donato–both 13 years old–topped the New England District and Great Plains District qualifiers, respectively.

Cliffe rode Benjamin Franklin, a medium pony, to win the New England competition, held on the grounds of the Myopia Hunt in Hamilton, Mass. It was a hometown win for Cliffe, Boxford, Mass., who hunts with Myopia.

Competing was a last-minute decision for Cliffe, because of a busy school schedule. And she wasn’t really expecting to win.

She recalled that when her trainer, Patrick Keough, was telling her the handy hunter course, “I was thinking to myself, ‘Why would I need to know what the course is, since only the top ones jump the course, and all the best horses in the Northeast would be there?’ I couldn’t imagine that I would be considered to go into the final round. I was sort of intimidated because some of the other people there were huntsmen and masters and staff. I ended up beating some huntsmen!” she said.

Cliffe started out in the show hunter ring but began hunting four years ago. “My mom knew of the hunt club, and it worked in with our schedule because there aren’t as many horse shows in the fall,” she said.

She wasn’t intimidated by the faster pace. “I thought it was fun because it was really fast, and you’re moving and jumping and galloping the whole time. It seems so real and alive. In the hunters, you get judged on the pony, but when I hunt, I can go out there and run Ben around and not be judged. It’s so realistic–it’s the way horses should be,” she said.

Cliffe leased “Ben,” 15, for a year before buying him three years ago. She keeps him on their farm, and she and her mother take care of him and her medium green show pony.

“When you ride him at home, he’s really lazy,” Cliffe said of Ben. “But as soon as he goes out in the fields, and with the hunt, he’s energized and excited. He’s older, but he still has that spunkiness and attitude to him. He loves hunting, and he gets very excited when he sees the hounds.”

And Cliffe appreciates how hunting has helped her riding. “I think it’s good because it makes me a tougher rider. Ben never backs down to a jump–I’ve never experienced him stopping. But it’s made me a more aggressive rider and taught me that I don’t always have to be a pretty rider, like I do in the show ring. I’ve learned that whatever happens out there, it doesn’t matter how you look, as long as you can get the horse over the jump, or do what needs to be done,” she said.

“I’m usually at the end of first flight, because some of the jumps are a little big for Ben. Even though he’s a medium pony–he’s 13.1 hands–he can jump 3’6″ and higher. We jump almost everything, but we go by some stuff that’s not safe or is a little too big.”

Donato has been hunting with the Moingona Hunt (Iowa) since she was 6. “I like jumping and going fast and all the com-motion. I hunt pretty much every Saturday,” she said.

She bought BeBe, a 13-year-old Quarter Horse cross, five years ago. “I was taking lessons on another horse, but I started riding him and we made a connection and bonded. He’s taught me a lot, and I’ve taught him a lot. He’s very attentive. Some horses are all over the place and pulling on you. He’s very laid back, and he’s a very safe jumper,” she said.

“He means a lot to me,” she added. “I’ve really bonded with him over the last few years. We’ve grown up together. But he’s a small horse–he’s 14.3–and I’m kind of out-growing him.”

BeBe, a palomino gelding, is of somewhat unknown breeding. “He actually wasn’t expected. His mom was pregnant, but they didn’t know it, so they don’t know who his sire was. They kept cutting back on her food, and she kept getting bigger, and one day he popped out,” Donato said.

Donato showed in the hunter/jumper ring for a while, but she’s just gotten into eventing and hopes to be competitive in that discipline too. She rides BeBe in hunter paces and hopes to join the other finalists in Virginia in May 2007.


Molly Sorge