Bull Run Hunt wins bragging rights (and large silver trophy) at Morven Park Fox Hunters Challenge

Fox hunters and just about anyone else who has a horse and likes to ride cross country hit the jackpot at Morven Park May 15 with a seven-mile-plus romp around the rolling meadows and steep slopes of the Catoctin Ridge.

The occasion was the second annual Fox Hunters Challenge Hunter Pace, a benefit for Morven Park and the Loudoun Therapeutic Riding Foundation, based at Morven Park.

And, for the second year in a row, the Fox Hunters Perpetual Trophy went home with the Culpeper-based Bull Run Hunt, whose members captured The Masters Class and  the First Field Optimum Time. And then Bull Run Whipper In Kathy Broaddus took first in the Crack-A-Whip and the Best Horn and Bull Run’s Chris Allen got the nod for Best Flask.

A Loudoun Hunt West member was heard to remark that her club would be back in force with all eyes on the trophy next year.

The Second Field Optimum Time winner was the “Dynamic Duo” of Irina Berra and Rebecca Uziel. Hilltoppers – same course but no jumps required – went to Team Fly Away – Hillary Edgar, Kim Ginn and Pam Woolley. The Feisty ladies – Samantha White and Elizabeth Wiley – took the juniors division.

Junior Lorenzo Solari with the Warrenton Junior Boys Team won the Best Halloa ( unique cry to get the attention of the hounds).

And the Loudoun Hunt West spread romped off with the award for Best Tailgate.

A hunter pace sends teams of riders out on a course that in the fall and winter would be fox hunting terrain, but for this event there are no hounds and no foxes. Riders walk, trot and gallop a marked course and try to meet an optimum time – but they don’t know what that time is until after the awards are made. The only guidance is to proceed at a “fair hunting pace.”

The optimum time for the First Field (fences on the course) was 58 minutes, and Bull Run’s Kathy Broadus, Master Rosie Campbell and Lani Newcomb hit the finish line in just a little over 56 minutes for the win in the Masters Division. The time there may have been inconsequential since no other hunt club managed to field  a Masters Team (must be made up of Masters of Foxhounds and hunt staff).

Bull Run First Field  Team HH – Sallie Hill and Katherine Houston –made it around in 57 minutes, 36 seconds, followed by a Fairfax Hunt team and Loudoun Hunt West.

IN Second Field, the optimum time was one  hour 13 minutes, and the Hilltoppers were allowed one hour 20 minutes.

At 3p.m., with the Hunter Pace steeds all cooled off and back in their trailers munching hay, the History Trail Ride set out. Riders proceeded at a slower pace, met along the way by historic interpreters.

The money raised will go to Morven Park's execution of its master plan, which includes a dedicated facility for the therapeutic riders. That facility, when built, will allow the group to offer equine assisted therapies and therapeutic riding and driving on the weekends, when more volunteers are available.

Loudoun Therapeutic Riding plans to start offering classes and activities starting this June for U.S. veterans of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.