62 SIDELINES JANUARY 2014
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
Rita Mae at home with her household pets. The Jack Russell
Terrier on the right seems to have an opinion about having his
photo taken.
Photo by Mary Motley Kalergis
hunting has made me much more sensitive to the environment,
but it has also made me more sensitive to people. I’ve realized
most people aren’t really doing what they want, and there’s a lot
of unhappiness. They are dutiful, but they don’t have that great
passion, and if they do they don’t think they can do anything with
it. I want to just say, yes you can! Get outside of that crazy swirl
of constant news, just bag it for a couple of hours a day if you
can and go outside and be grateful for the birds and anything out
there. Live! Don’t sit inside!”
“Foxhunting is not a sport for the tepid,” Rita Mae says, of riding
in the hunt field. “Anybody out there is pretty capable and gutsy,
but also they’re people that love life. Foxhunters tend to be vivid
personalities; you meet the most interesting people.”
“One of the greatest stories I have to tell is about two people I
hunted with for years, theWilliamsons’s - Dick and BeaWilliamson.
They died close to one another, and they lived to a good age. Dick
was a triple air ace so there was nothing wimpy at all about him.
Their son had them cremated, which was their wish, and he put
them on a little bag on the back of his saddle and he kept them
there. Their son was also a foxhunter and, finally, one day on a
run that he thought was worthy of mom and dad, he opened the
bottom of the bag to scatter their ashes. That is so perfect!”
The individuals riding with the hunt are led by a Field Master
who keeps up with the action so that riders may watch the
hounds, and even possibly get a glimpse of the fox, an event in
which it is proper to shout, “Tally Ho!” The group riding behind
the huntsman is the first field, which is also known as first flight,
because it can seem like flying when galloping fast to keep up with
hounds. Everyone in the hunt field is on equal footing, literally and
figuratively. Those riders who have kept up and are still on their
horse at the end of a hard, fast run share mutual respect. Rita Mae
points out, “It doesn’t matter how rich you are, you still have to ride
the horse, and you can’t buy your way over the fence.”
She explains, “We have people in our club that barely have two
nickels to rub together, God bless them, and I’m right there with
them because with a writer it’s chicken one day and it’s feathers
the next. And then we have people that have considerable
resources, not a lot but a few. Nobody cares! It has no place in
our hunt club and I would hope that it has no place in any other.
There are too many parts in our society where you can buy your
way in and money is the only value.” Rita Mae goes on to say of
her hunt’s friendly members, “The deal here is you show up, if you
can hang on through this territory and you have a sense of humor,
there’s a good chance we really want you!”
Oak Ridge Hunt now has two other Joint Masters. Rita Mae
laughs, “They’re my victims! I talked them into it. I was the sole
master for a long time, but we were growing. I couldn’t do it all
so first I asked David Wheeler, and basically I just lassoed him
into it. Then both of us ganged up on Bob Satterfield and, oh,
what a difference it’s made to have those two guys.” Bob and his
wife Sue, who also leads the first flight, are in charge of the hunt
breakfasts. A shared meal following a hunt is always referred to as
a breakfast, regardless of the time of day.
“It’s such a joy to sit down with people that you went through hell
and high water with.” Rita Mae says of the Satterfield’s ability to
organize hunt breakfasts, “They usually pull it together and I don’t
know how they do it, but they’re always pulling rabbits out of a
hat. They send out an email and everybody brings something and
before you know it, it’s a caloric nightmare. But I figure anything
you eat at a hunt breakfast doesn’t count against you.” Her thinking
is probably right because riding hard for two or three hours uses
Continued on page 64
Rita Mae riding through a pumpkin patch during a cub hunt.
Photo by Barbara Bower,
