Oak Ridge Fox Hunt Club – Opening Hunt 2010

[ 0 ] November 8, 2010 | Nelson County Life

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Oak Ridge Estate / Arrington
Nelson County, Virginia
Each fall the rolling hills at Oak Ridge Estate come alive with an annual tradition. This past weekend (November 7, 2010) The Oak Ridge Fox Hunt Club held their opening hunt. A tradition that spans decades and decades here in Central Virginia.

Club members leave the Oak Ridge mansion to begin Sunday's hunt.

According to the ORFHC website:

“The Oak Ridge Fox Hunt Club was founded in 1887 in Lynchburg and transferred to the Oak Ridge Estate in 1910. The group was a nationally recognized hunt in Nelson County for three years, although more informal fox hunting occurred throughout Thomas Fortune Ryan’s ownership. Ryan himself was an avid hunter. The Bedford Hunt was established as the institutional successor after World War I. In 1993, Dr. Rita Mae Brown, Master of Fox Hounds, re-instituted the Fox Hunt at Oak Ridge.”

Riders in the open fields of Oak Ridge Estate in Arrington, Virginia.

The hunt is more about tradition than actual hunting. The ORFHC site continues:

“We respect the traditions of this greatest of sports without being haughty. The Oak Ridge members are warm, delightful people and if they have a motto surely it is: A stranger is a friend I haven’t met yet.”