Dave Striley, Jill (Reader), Ginny Whalen, Phyll Hull (Heck),
Helen Sproat, Cathryn Hosea (Hilker) & Peter Coggins
(audio)
Helen Sproat, Ginny Whalen, Phyll Hull (Heck), Dave Striley,
Cathryn Hosea (Hilker) Herb Whalen. (1959)
MIAMI VALLEY HUNT BALL By Dr. Peter R. Coggins
When my Mother suggested that I initiate a fox hunt, hardly
did I realize the size of the fences that would have to be
overcome. Obtaining a sizeable hunt territory with owner-farmer
antipathy, securing a self-sustaining huntsman and a close-in
hunting pack of hounds, negotiating five foot page wire fences,
cultivating the scarce red fox, interesting enough sustaining
jumping members and putting all of this together in four months
was a totally insane idea in an area where the coonhound reigned
supreme.
My doubts evaporated on a Sunday in May when I met Mrs.
Phyllis Heck at a horse show on her farm. Her enthusiastic
response made the Miami Valley Hunt a reality. She set about
enticing Dave Striley from NCR as huntsman, Jack Reeder as the
five foot fence fixer, Carl and Sally _______ to develop trails
and the Whalens to purchase land. She then threw herself into
the even more difficult task of convincing reticent land owners
that we would not be a destructive hell-bent force of yahoos on
runaway steeds. A few anecdotal comments will give you an idea
as to Phyllis’s multi-task abilities all of which MVH members
are well aware of.
We had permission to hunt through a 300 acre farm that was
used for pasture feeding of hogs with five and a half foot page
wire fences in the Bellbrook territory. There was no way that
the owner was going to allow us to cut the fences for chicken
coop jumps and of course, the height was totally out of the
question for anyone other than an Aintree England steeplechaser.
The thought occurred to me that we could take a page from the
English race course and build platforms on either side of the
fences, placing a chicken coop that was two and a half feet over
the crown of the fence and in that way jump onto the platform,
over the coop onto another platform and then onto the
ground…thus breaking the entire fence into a series of two and a
half foot jumps. Now where do you get enough fill for the
platforms? Phyllis enticed Jack Reeder into solving the problem
with a caravan of Coca-Cola trucks bringing in load after load
of fill along with the railroad ties to build the platforms on
either side of the fences to be completed by Dave, Sally, Carl,
Catherine, Pat Campbell, with the help of Pat’s dad, Major John
Campbell from Wright-Pat who assisted with surplus lumber and
supplies to accomplish this Herculean feat.
The jumps, known as “Mighty Mo’s” were an integral part of
our first combined meet with the Camargo Hunt. . Since we had a
problem with a dearth of foxes that year, Phyllis and I settled
on a drag hunt for the first cast. Sergeant Marion, the base
postal officer was given instructions to set the drag up with
smaller fences to start and then into the “Mighty Mo’s” to show
off MVH’s jumping prowess... Of course, the MVH horses were used
to these platform jumps and led by Phyllis on her trusty grey
“Colonel”, Jill Reeder and little Pat Campbell on his standard
bred, sailed easily over - while the “extremely accomplished”
hunt horses from Camargo were total refusers.
This gave MVH a modicum of respectability.
Of course, the remainder of the story was even more
hilarious. Sergeant Marion was poking along through the woods
laying a scent so heavy that even Phyllis and the field could
pick it up. When the hounds came coursing up on him, he had to
climb a tree to escape with the scent bag. Imagine our
embarrassment when the hounds were at the base of a tree in full
cry while the Camargo hunt looked on in bewilderment.
Without Phyllis’s dedicated nurturing, the hunt would never
have become registered, and members would not have enjoyed the
successful years of hunting you are all celebrating this
evening. To me, personally, MVH will always be a wonderful and
satisfying memory.
I am indeed saddened that I can not be present to share in
the celebration for Phyllis with the other founding members as
well as the current MVH members. All of you are to be
congratulated on your support for Phyllis and the pack, and I
raise a toast on behalf of the hunt to Phyllis for her many
years of nurturing the MVH pack and her encouragement of members
old and new. Here’s to the continuation of this wonderful
chronicle.
Pictures from the first MVH Hunt Ball
Ginny Whalen
