Washington Winter Show 2013

45 “awarded their colors” by the Master. Brass coat buttons, known as “hunt buttons,” and a coat collar in a color particular to each hunt are presented. STEEPLECHASING Steeplechasing developed as a country pursuit as a natural outgrowth of foxhunting. Instead of chasing a fox, the endeavor was undertaken as a competitive test of equestrian skill between men: The bright spirits that housed themselves at Melton 9 devoted themselves to riding of the hardest; and, as the pursuit of the fox did always afford scope for a display of their nerve and prowess, the introduction of steeplechases was welcomed as giving the opportunity for testing the merits of man and horse…It’s easy, therefore, to understand that, in the infancy of steeplechasing, the best man to hounds was the best man for a steeplechase. 10 The sport’s name is derived from the early races run from church steeple to church steeple, jumping fences and traversing ditches across the countryside. The first recorded steeplechase was run in Ireland between two foxhunters, Blake and O’Callaghan. They started at the Buttevant church steeple and ran a four-and-a- half mile race, ending at St. Mary’s steeple in Doneraile. The first English steeplechase was run in 1802. The new sport was a fast and unpredictable pursuit: Next to gaining a battle, we fancy there is no gratification of a more manly character than the winning of a steeplechase… Look at the bold rider, who has cleared fifty double hedges, half-a-dozen five barred gates, besides streams, hahas, ravines, downhills, ditches, palings, railings, and copses; look at him when the brush is won and his own; what mortal can be more an object of envy? 11 The activity was, however, damaging to farm land, and by the mid-1800s steeplechases were run over courses of brush jumps. Some included water jumps, such as Aintree founded in 1836. Located in Liverpool, England, it is home to the most well-known steeplechase still run today, the Grand National. 12 By the late 1800s, in America a specialty steeplechase was also developed to run over solid post and rail fences known as timber. A prestigious timber race still in existence today is the Maryland Hunt Cup which was first run in 1894 by members of the Green Spring Valley Hounds and the Elkridge-Harford Hounds. By the twentieth century timber races came to be ridden by steeplechase jockeys [Fig. 13]. HORSE RACING A particular allure has always surrounded the jockey whose career, lifestyle, and habits hang in the balance of weighing-out before a race and weighing-in afterward. The practice which was put into place as early as the 1660s to curb cheating has historically captured the imagination of collectors, artists, illustrators, and poets alike with satire, paintings, illustrations, and poetry: Oh! Had I a Grecian Pindar’s muse and fire! See the slim Lord, and the once bulky Squire, Smit with the glories of a private racer High in a jockey’s scales their bodies place; Their weight, if not their value, known, and grac’ d With jacket strip’ d, close cap, and belted waist, They mount their rival steeds; no more afraid, They scorn the groom’s broad grins, nor ask him aid. Each heart quick beating in the glorious strife, Venturing at once his wager and his life; Whilst younger brothers praise the heroic deed, And calculate their chances to succeed. 13 With advancements in measuring equipment came various contraptions. The human-size apothecary-type balance scales were quite a spectacle with the jockey suspended in a seat on one side balanced by weights on the other. More utilitarian versions were the standing scale [Fig. 14] and, later, the stylish Victorian wooden furniture with leather-covered seats and decorative tacks. Modern horse racing is modeled on the first English courses of the early eighteenth century. By the mid-1700s jockeys were already wearing silks as uniforms representing the horse owners, much like This page is sponsored by Suzanne Cross and Heather Nolan Fig. 11: Paul Mellon’s Riding Boots. Leather, 19 x 11½ x 3½ inches. Gift of Paul Mellon. Paul Mellon was an avid foxhunter for over fifty years. His well-worn boots speak to the time in the 1950s when he was joint Master of the Piedmont Foxhounds. He and Franklin Brooke Voss often hunted together in Northern Virginia.