Few people have been as proactive as Eve Fout in building a path for the future of foxhunting. She founded the Middleburg-Orange County Pony Club more than 45 years ago to teach children about the sport, and she’s been working tirelessly for more than 20 years with the Piedmont Environmental Council to make sure those children have someplace to follow hounds when they’re adults.

Now in her 70s, the slim, business-like Fout still rides with the MOC Beagles and with the Orange County Hunt, in whose territory the Beagles primarily pursue their fox. Her strong, positive leadership in the local equestrian, preservation and art communities reverberates beyond her home near The Plains, Va.

She was born in New York, but her family came to Virginia when she was a youngster, the place she’s ever more called home. She’s been following the Orange County hounds around the countryside she loves since her teen years.

When Interstate 66 cut its swath through a pristine countryside to connect Washington, D.C., with Interstate 81, some 60 miles to the west, two decades ago, Fout, and others, embraced the call to action to preserve Virginia’s hunting country.

“I was 10 when we first lived here, and I could ride my pony everywhere, even to spend the night at a friend’s, which is now cut off where the highway went through,” she said.

As chairman of the board of the Piedmont Environmental Council for the last eight years, she’s been a driving force behind slowing the urban sprawl creeping toward her beloved rolling fields and woodland. The mission of the PEC, founded in 1972, is to save the land so future generations can
enjoy the beauty of the landscape and the life it supports.

Fout noted that the region’s geography has helped their cause. The Bull Run Mountains, running northeast to southwest, border the eastern edge of the Virginia Piedmont, with only two gaps to the west. The mountains have served as a buffer against the development raging east of the range.

Chris Miller, president of the PEC, credits Fout for having more land placed under protection than in any other period of the organization’s history.

“She is directly responsible for promoting an awareness for land conservation and preserving a place where people can own, ride, breed and train horses and just enjoy being in the outdoors,” he said.

“I think she does things in a quiet, modest way, and there aren’t many people who do good works only because it is right,” he added. “She has an ability to take care of people, and she’s taken care of the PEC. She’s helped a lot of people over the years in ways that those people never forget. The staff at the PEC appreciates her respect for everyone, and they respond to that. I enjoy every day I spend with her because she makes things happen. She is a combination of being a visionary and a leader.”

Perhaps the PEC’s most momentous action to date was their success in halting the monster Walt Disney Corporation from building a history theme park, to be called Disney’s America, in eastern Fauquier and western Prince William Counties, a plan announced in 1993. Fout credits the incredible unity between the PEC’s leaders and members and other preservation organizations and members of the local community for fending off the assault, which would have changed miles of precious landscape in untold ways.

The coalition of foxhunters and conservation-minded citizens and Disney executives “take a second look” and cancel their plans in September 1994. During this period, Ambassador Charles Whitehouse, Fout’s predecessor as PEC chairman and an Orange County MFH, also helped push the American Farm and Ranch Protection Act through Congress.

To this day, Fout said, “Calls come in from around the country to find out how to do these things.”

In the fight against Disney, Miller, then an attorney with expertise in environmental and transportation policy, greatly assisted the PEC. In 1996, Fout was among those who urged the board to nominate Miller as president, the position he still holds.

“We have something very precious here, and we want to take care of it. I think we need to attract young people like Chris, who adopt our causes as their own. Load the board with young people so they can carry on,” said Fout.

Family, Horses and Hunting

Fout’s husband of 50 years, Paul R. Fout, died on Aug. 16. The duo was a force in the steeplechase and foxhunting community.

Paul trained numerous top horses in both flat and jump racing. Life’s Illusion, owned by Virginia Guest and trained by Paul, was the first filly or mare to be recognized as Steeplechase Horse of the Year, in 1975. He also saddled Colstar, who earned acclaim in 2000 as a multiple graded stakes winner on the flat.

In 1964, Eve made her mark in steeplechasing when her bay gelding Moon Rock won the 39th running of the Virginia Gold Cup. She was the first woman trainer in the four-mile timber race to saddle the winner.

But Eve is best known for her contributions to young people in the community. Inspired by the generosity of mentors in her youth, she has returned the favor to untold numbers of blossoming equestrians.

She began right at home with children Doug, Nina and Virginia. Doug was a top steeplechase jockey before turning to training stakes winners about 20 years ago.

The children often got to ride Thoroughbreds who weren’t successful candidates at the track for their father, a plan that put Nina on the road to the Olympics. Riding her father’s ex-steeplechaser, 3 Magic Beans, she earned the team bronze medal at the 2000 Olympics and has placed in numerous four-star three-day events. Virginia still rides the family horses when she visits from Los Angeles.

Eve organized the Middleburg-Orange County Pony Club in 1959 to teach young riders good horsemanship. And to encourage children in the joys of foxhunting, she and former Orange County huntsman Melvin Poe organized the MOC Beagles in 1961. The Beagles hunt fox, just like their much larger foxhound cousins, but with a higher-pitched cry and at a slower pace, ideally suited for children on ponies. The children ride at the front, serve as whippers-in and as fieldmaster, and help out in the kennels.

“We teach them to dress properly, and safety is a big thing. If they’ve never been out before, we find an adult to sponsor them,” said Eve, the pack’s master. “The land is always open to a polite child. They learn to lead the field, and when adults come, they follow behind the kids.”

Many adults try to join in the fun at a gentler pace than behind foxhounds, but the policy is they must first find a child to sponsor them.

All MOC staff members are volunteers, including the huntsman, Shelley O’Higgins. O’Higgins was formerly the huntsman at Bull Run (Va.) and has judged the National Beagle Club trials. She’s outgoing, articulate and a positive influence on the children–just like Eve.

“Eve truly has vision, and she has worked hard to create something special,” said O’Higgins.

If children don’t have a pony to ride, Eve will often line up one that’s suitable. “Kids that don’t have a horse or ride can enjoy the hounds. The kennels are a destination for kids after school, on weekends. We have more than two dozen kids who come to walk out the hounds,” Eve said.

“Shelley has really done a lot to get the kids oriented; she lets the kids play with the dogs in the yard, and we never have a problem when a hound needs a new home,” added Eve.

Two years ago, O’Higgins asked permission to take some children and Beagles to the Bryn Mawr Hound Show (Pa.). They’ve been there twice now.

“They won the junior handler class,” said Eve with a smile. “The kids just loved it.”

An Artistic Side Too

Eve spent most of her career as a professional artist painting fine oil portraits of horses, hounds and regional wildlife. Her affinity for animals and involvement in horse and field sports gives accuracy and depth to her work. But six years ago, she switched to creating bronze sculptures.

“I started when my eyes began to change. I find it very rewarding to work with my hands,” said Eve, known in the art community by her maiden name, Prime.

Eve established herself as a talented sporting artist early in life. She loves her horses, but she believes art was her vocational calling.

“Mom said she didn’t care what I did as long as I could make my own way,” she recalled.

Eve returned to New York to begin her formal art education as a young adult at the Three Arts Club. But in art, as in riding, she believes that there’s “no substitution for working under the people who do it, and I’ve found horse artists to be very generous in sharing their knowledge.”

Never one to do anything second rate, she sought out the best in the field of sporting art to learn her craft. She traveled to Long Island to study with Paul Brown at his home. Brown (1893-1958) was perhaps the most prominent illustrator of books on horses for much of the 20th century. His precise drawings appear in more than 130 fiction and non-fiction books on horses, steeplechase racing, horsemanship, polo and foxhunting for adults and children.

Eve then apprenticed in painting with Richard Stone Reeves, the highly respected painter of Thoroughbred portraits, in New Jersey. Reeves has created commissioned portraits of such superstars as Citation, Kelso, Secretariat, Native Dancer and many more.

She also commuted to Maryland to learn more from Franklin B. Voss (see p. 8). And she also worked with Else Tuckerman Biays and Jean Bowman.

With a keen understanding of her subjects, her work moved to the forefront early. At age 21, one of her first commissioned paintings, “Irish Luck, A Hunting Hunter Sire” was published on the cover of The Chronicle of the Horse. Irish Luck, a Thor-oughbred stallion and field hunter, belonged to Albert P. Hinckley, MFH of Old Dominion Hounds (Va.). To date, her artwork, either oil paintings or sculpture, has graced the Chronicle’s cover 20 times.

Over the next several decades she painted portraits of famed steeplechase horses, hounds, horses and other beloved creatures. “Most people would rather have their horse or dog painted than their wife,” she noted with a smile.

In 1980, Eve was a founding member of the American Academy of Equine Art. “So many young people needed a center for sporting art,” she noted.

She worked with nine other noted painters and sculptors including Bowman, Reeves, Biays and Sam Savitt. They modeled the AAEA after the Royal Academy of England to teach young artists, share creative ideas, and organize exhibits.