It may have looked like Kathleen O’Keefe was all alone as she rode Gol Lee to the win in the Theodora A. Randolph Field Hunter Championships of North America, but she didn’t feel it.

O’Keefe claimed not only the field hunter championship finals, held Oct. 8 at the Glenwood Park in Middleburg, Va., but also the prized “best turned-out” award in the appointments judging.

“This is an absolute thrill. I always pride myself on being well turned-out, so to be recognized for that is quite an honor,” she said.

“One of the things that I enjoy the most about doing the appointments is that I have a pair of leather gloves that I inherited from my grandmother [Veronica Quinn Drinkwater] in 1979,” O’Keefe added.

“The only time that they ever come out is when I do appointments. I always wear her stock pin, and I always use her sandwich case, so it’s almost like she’s with me. The top hat was given to me by a very special friend. All my things have a very special meaning when I pull them out. It’s an honor to be able to put them together.”

O’Keefe comes from a long line of foxhunters. “My grandmother introduced me to hunting as a very small child, and I come from lifelong horsemen,” she said. “My father [Peter Drinkwater] many years ago hunted and whipped-in for Blue Ridge [Va.], and to be able to accomplish something like this while your father is still around means a lot.”


Exceptional Hunting
The Field Hunter Championships of North America have a unique format. During the week before the finals, contestants hunted with some of Virginia’s most prestigious hunts–Piedmont Foxhounds, Old Dominion Hunt, Fairfax Hunt and the Loudoun Hunt West.

During those four hunt meets, the judges–Julie Gomena Bonnie, Michele Rouse, Snowden Clarke, Michael Elmore, Paul Cronin, Robert Banner and Rowena Ramsey–hunted right alongside them. The judges selected four or five finalists from each of the meets to contest the finals.

At the finals, the riders and horses participated in a mock hunt around Glenwood Park, after which six finalists were chosen for a final test over a handy hunter-type course. The six finalists–O’Keefe, Will Coleman, Linden Wiesman, Nina Fout, Susan Fitter and Rea Stone–included two Olympic eventing riders, Wiesman and Fout. Fout ended up as reserve champion on her mother, Eve Fout’s, Morning Pleasure.

O’Keefe is a veteran of the championships–in fact, she won in 1996 on Lord Hugh.

“I’ve done this competition a lot, and while the most obvious attraction is the good hunting, and the opportunity to hunt with some of the best hunts there are, one of the nicest things is that you end up meeting people that you normally wouldn’t come in contact with,” she said. “I’ve made some nice friendships over the years, and that’s probably what I enjoy the most.”

O’Keefe chose to hunt with Old Dominion on Oct. 3, and was selected for the finals that day. She hunted again two days later with Piedmont at the St. Bride’s Farm meet, located just behind the late Paul Mellon’s historic Rokeby Farm. By all accounts, those two days of hunting were vintage Virginia days, with long runs, big fences, and great sport.

“It was unreal getting to hunt the Mellon country. I’d never had that opportunity, so that was a privilege,” she said. “The hunting was just phenomenal. The day at Old Dominion was some of the best hunting we’ve ever had. And the day with Piedmont was just as good, just unbelievable. To have the opportunity to do it on such a nice horse makes it all the more fun.”

And Gol Lee was more than up to the challenge of the big days. “He will do what-ever you want him to do. He loves to run and jump, but he’s also very clever.

“He’s good in trappy country,” O’Keefe said. “He’s 16 hands, so he’s a smaller horse, and very athletic. I’m small, so he’s the perfect size for me.”


Springing To Action
O’Keefe had her eye on Gol Lee (Horatius–Spring Decca, Spring Double) while he was running over fences for former owner Bay Cockburn.

“I watched him race for two years and kept telling my husband that he was my next field hunter,” she said. “He’s a very good jumper. That was one of the things that impressed me when I was watching him run over fences. He ran with nine different riders, and he always took very good care of whoever was on his back. And he takes very good care of me.”

After the Potomac Hunt (Md.) races in May 2003, the O’Keefe’s sprung at the opportunity to buy Gol Lee.

“They had hunted him some. He’s just one of those rare Thoroughbreds who’s laid back. No matter what you ask him to do, he does it. He’s got the greatest attitude. That’s what I saw, watching him come to the paddocks and racing. I really took my time with him and started slow,” she said.

O’Keefe started hunting Gol Lee in the fall of 2003, his 7-year-old year, and the pair are also familiar faces on the hunter pace circuit. They contested the championships last year and qualified for the finals, but a sticky first fence kept them out of the results. O’Keefe took Gol Lee to local schooling shows this summer to help them prepare for the final test.

And Gol Lee seems to have overcome his race horse past. “One of the nice things about Gol Lee is that when you’re hunting, he will let the horse in front of him get 25 lengths ahead–he doesn’t care. He’s a pleasure to hunt on the buckle,” said O’Keefe.

O’Keefe hunts with the Casanova Hunt, and gets out at least once a week. She and her husband of 15 years, Will O’Keefe, live at Morven Park in Leesburg, Va. Will is the executive director of Morven Park, and Kathleen works part-time in the Central Entry office, organizing steeplechase entries. They have a four-stall barn on the property, and O’Keefe keeps her horses there.

“It’s a great place to ride cross-country; there are lots of hills to condition horses, and it’s beautiful,” she said.

For Kathleen, winning the championships was merely affirmation that she’d accomplished a mission. “The biggest thing I enjoy is making the horses. It’s the big test of, ‘Have you done a good job?’ For me, that’s what I see it as. You’re being judged by these well-known, well-respected horsemen. When you’ve got people like that complimenting you on your horse or your turn-out, it’s gratifying,” she said.

Molly Sorge