DO NOT DRIVE TO THE CACHE.
YOU MUST PARK AT THE PARKING LOT ON ROUTE 273. THESE COORDINATES ARE ON THE CACHE PAGE AND ARE N39 42.129 W075 51.626. YOU MUST PARK AND WALK TO THE CACHE! IF YOU HAVE ACCESSIBILITY NEEDS, REACH OUT TO THE DUTY RANGER TO MAKE ACCOMMODATIONS.
THERE IS ALSO A PARKING FEE THAT IS AN HONOR SYSTEM.
The history of Ms. Patsy and her beloved Foxcatcher Hounds. Many years ago, I had the privilege of tagging along with an old timer named Duke as he hunted with them.
Like many du Ponts, Miss Patsy grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, but she attended St. Timothy’s School in Baltimore County. After the death of her father, Archibald du Pont, in 1942, the family estate, Montchanin, was sold. By this time, William du Pont, Jr. had established the 8,000-acre estate in Cecil County known as Foxcatcher Farm. Miss Patsy acquired an adjacent 500 acres, establishing her own stronghold known as Fairview. Already a well-known horsewoman in the hunter show world, Miss Patsy began hunting regularly with Foxcatcher Hounds, becoming a Joint Master for several years around 1949. Photos show her in informal hunt attire, which she preferred. However, her formal turnouts were traditionally impeccable, and she was always mounted on a well-schooled, good-looking horse.
In 1953, Mrs. Dean (Louise) Bedford proposed the idea of creating an American Pony Club organization to Miss Patsy. Based on the original British Pony Club, the goal was to teach youngsters the proper approach to good horsemanship with proper care, grooming and riding skills essential to the welfare of the horse or pony being of utmost importance. It was that concept that most inspired Miss Patsy. In 1954, 22 Pony Clubs were registered, with the Fair Hill Pony Club one of the first. Miss Patsy began filling her stable with suitable mounts and equipment for youngsters 11 and older. Unlike other Pony Clubs, the Fair Hill Pony Club received the benefit of being completely underwritten and sponsored by Miss Patsy. She maintained over 30 mounts, taught summer sessions, and provided trips to the Madison Square Garden Horse Show in New York City. She hired the notable instructors Sylvia Hector, Fred Pinch, and others to give youngsters the best experiences she could provide. By 1958, some of the early FH Pony Clubbers were teaching the beginners, parents became involved, and their numbers grew. For forty years hundreds of children benefited from the program—and many of those Pony Clubbers are to this day still actively involved with horses.
In the early days of the Pony Club system, it was required that the clubs be associated with a pack of hounds registered with the Masters of the Foxhounds Association, so the Fair Hill Pony Club was attached to Mr. William du Pont’s Foxcatcher Hounds. The more experienced riders who had proven themselves under Miss Patsy’s watchful eye were given the opportunity to hunt with hounds over the Christmas school break, and to participate in a staged mock foxhunt in which all roles of the hunt were enacted by the Pony Clubbers. The most experienced riders would assume the roles of fox, hounds, huntsman, and field master. Others enjoyed the chase as members of the field. After Mr. du Pont’s death in 1965, Miss Patsy arranged for her pony clubbers to foxhunt with Ross Taylor and quietly supplied staff horses and paid some of the staff.
In the early ‘70s, Miss Patsy acquired a pack of Penn-Marydel hounds, hunting her own hounds on Fair Hill as an informal farmer’s pack, while Foxcatcher continued to hunt Fair Hill as the primary formal pack, now with William du Pont’s daughter, Jean Sheehan, as Master.In 1974, the du Pont family sold the 5,000-acre portion of Fair Hill that was in Maryland to the State of Maryland as a state park, but Master Sheehan was able to retain exclusive foxchasing rights.
When Master Sheehan retired the hunt colors and disbanded the pack in 1980, Miss Patsy arranged a lease with the state of Maryland to allow foxchasing to continue on Fair Hill. She sponsored the hunt and allowed others to hunt with her under guidelines established in the lease. She continued to hunt hounds until she felt she could no longer follow hounds on horseback. She then hired local farmer/huntsman Andy Ford to hunt her hounds under her supervision and direction. Kevin White, a du Pont employee, apprenticed with Mr. Ford, and assumed the horn as huntsman in 2005, continuing as huntsman until Miss Patsy’s death this year.