Just when you’re thinking things couldn’t get any prettier… go to Maryland. It’s always nice to get an unexpected surprise, and today was just that.
Woke up feeling at home at Cindy & Ned’s, right in the midst of beautiful Maryland horse country. After a relaxing morning, I just headed out of the farm, away from the road, mostly on horse trails where I made up a few miles from yesterday. There was no backpack, some warm clothes, pain free everything and my trusty iPhone camera. Today is one of those days that I wished I had brought a great camera, but even the best camera couldn’t have done the countryside justice, and of course couldn’t capture the peace and tranquility of my 9ish mile walk.
Then it was off to the Green Spring Valley Hounds to watch a cool point-to-point race, I was volunteered to help my host but wasn’t given a task, so instead I just took it all in. Fox Hunting is one of those cool sports steeped in tradition, with some modern changes involving the fox itself. According to the internet (which never lies), the first record of fox hunting in the US was in 1650, almost 370 years ago! For those of you reading this and worrying about the fox, please know that the fox is never deliberately killed in a hunt, and many of the local foxes are known, even have funny names! It is in the hunters’ best interest to keep them alive.
Also in the best interest of the hunt is land conservancy, and most hunt clubs are very active in their areas to preserve and really take care of the land upon which they hunt and protect it from urbanization and over-development. Can’t remember the exact number, but thousands of acres in this part of Maryland have been put into conservancy programs and will remain as such for many years to come. The same holds true for other Hunt clubs around the country who take stewardship of their own and adjacent lands, so even if we are not active hunters, their passion for land preservation benefits us all.
It was a great cold Fall afternoon, horses, new friends and a couple of old ones. I was very happy to see one of the old ones, who unbeknownst to me, lives almost within earshot of the club. Funny the way things work out, but I hadn’t seen Shockey since the late 1980’s. I actually spent one of my most memorable Sundays with him and his now wife on a knoll beneath an old church in Leeds, nursing the aftermath of a mutual friend’s great wedding. ‘Tis always nice to reconnect. Then new friends at a local pizza place and bar, and a couple of those beers from Dublin VA.
The day got me thinking. I have an almost blank slate upon which to write when I end this journey, and though I’m not sure exactly what path it’ll take, there is a new word on my chalkboard, and that is, HORSES. Barns are where I’m happiest, and horses and dogs are sometimes preferred over people! I’ll keep you posted.
