Since she runs a thriving lesson program in Culpeper, Va., Susan Deal knows well how to teach young riders to enjoy the hunting field. And, at the Theodora A. Randolph Field Hunter Championships of America, she proved she can lead by example too, winning the championship aboard her Penn Park. “After I found out we were in the competition, I didn’t want to be embarrassed. I did a lot of practicing. I made sure I went out hunting as much as I felt I could, and I did a lot of exercises at home. I did as much as I could riding in groups. I took him out with the students, and we do a lot of hunting pass-go kind of exercises,” she said. The hard work paid off. Deal and Penn Park were selected for the finals, held Oct. 2 at Glenwood Park in Middleburg, Va., on their first hunt in front of the judges. For the championships, participants hunt with five different Northern Virginia hunts in the course of the week before the finals. The judges—Julie Gomena, Michelle Rouse, Snowden Clarke, Michael Elmore, Douglas Hytla, Liz McKnight, Chris Petticord, and Rob Banner—watched all the entries in the hunting field and then selected about 20 to for the finals. There, the riders participated in a mock hunt around Glenwood Park, then had to negotiate a test course of jumps, which included a trot jump, a gallop, a halt, and a gate. “I was thrilled to win, but really surprised. I didn’t go there thinking, ‘I’m going to win this.’ I went there thinking ‘I want to be picked so that I can jump the course,’ because I thought it’d be fun. I really wanted to be respectable, so winning was just terrific. If I hadn’t prepared, I wouldn’t have been able to do all the tests so well,” said Deal. “I had so much fun doing it. It was kind of nice to do something for me. I enjoyed really working on my horse and having a goal to concentrate on,” she added. w Kid-proof And More Deal had the luxury of being selected for the finals on the first day of hunting, with Warrenton on Sept. 25. “I was waiting for my friend at one point, and we stayed at the back, then we ended up at the front, so I think several different judges saw me. My horse stands like a rock, so with a lot of people waiting to jump, he stands out. He just trots right up to the big coops and goes too,” Deal said. Deal grew up hunting with the Rappa-hannock Hunt in Culpeper. She spent a few years out of the area, teaching at Sweet Briar College (Va.) and St. Andrew’s College (N.C.), but she moved back four years ago to start her riding school at Grovespring Farm. Deal concentrates on young riders and enjoys introducing them to hunting. “Kids love it. It’s galloping and jumping—what could be better!” she said. “Kids are my thing. I run a summer camp that’s not just riding—it’s an adventure camp. They get to ride, and go canoeing and hiking, and do all kinds of outdoor things,” she said. Deal kept all this in mind when she decided to buy Penn Park as a field hunter. “Rocky” had been the mount of good friend Ann Cronin, who hunted with Orange County. When Ann died last year, her husband, Paul-he former director of riding at Sweet Briar—sent Rocky to Deal, who knew him well. “He was exactly what I need, and I ended up buying him because he was perfect to use to take kids out hunting. I needed a horse I could trot up to a big coop, holding the mane and looking backwards and screaming at a kid to look up and kick. That’s the reason I bought him. But I also know he can go up front, and keep up and jump well,” said Deal. w A Colorful Time While Deal is a Virginia native, Patti Brantley drove more than 15 hours from her home in Tallahassee, Fla., to claim the reserve championship. Brantley had heard stories about the championships, but she hadn’t witnessed the competition. “I said, ‘What the heck.? I’ve come up several times for hunt week, and I love it. But I’m the fieldmaster at Live Oak [Fla.], and hunt week is right when our opening meet is. But I had a friend who wanted to come up with me, and everything fell into place,'” said Brantley. Brantley, who also shows in the adult amateur hunters, brought Her Foxhunter up for the win. A 12-year-old black-and-white Paint, he excelled in Virginia. “He’s so handy, and he knows where the hounds are and where to go. When I’m fieldmaster, if I lose the hounds on a major coyote run in the woods, I can just drop the reins and he’ll find them. He’s safe, sensible and comfortable,” she said. Her Foxhunter has hunted with Live Oak for eight years, and they’ve hunted with many other packs on the East Coast. Brantley, who breeds colored sporthorses on her Flying Colors Farm, and stands the pinto stallion Claim To Fame, had to look far and wide for Her Foxhunter. “Every other horse on my farm but him I’ve bred. I used to hunt a beautiful black-and-white pinto. When I went to replace him, I looked all over the country, and I was particular. I realized how hard it was to find an over-16-hand, good-looking, good-moving, black-and-white pinto. That led me to start breeding pinto sporthorses,” she said. Brantley found Her Foxhunter in northern Minnesota. He was just turning 4 and he had just been a winner at the North Dakota State Fair. He’s a registered Paint with a lot of Thoroughbred in him. “The owner trucked him down six hours to meet me in Minneapolis. He’d never hunted, but I bought him. I just knew he was basically what I was looking for, so I brought him home,” she said. Still, the Virginia hunts presented a new challenge. “The one thing that was hard for us is that we don’t have hills. We have flat land, and we chase coyotes, which run extremely fast and extremely long, without hills. So I didn’t even have a hill to condition on,” she said. Brantley hunted Her Foxhunter every other day, going out with Warrenton, Orange County and Loudoun. “He was a tired little bunny by Sunday!” she said. And the final test of the championship had another new challenge. “I had to ask everybody, ‘How do you open a gate?’ because we don’t have any gates down in Florida. I had never even seen this competition before, and I’d never been in an appointments class or a handy hunter class, or done anything like that,” she said. But Brantley had been practicing at home on a 14-foot pasture gate, so the four-foot-wide hunting gate at the final posed no problem. “It was a wonderfully fun thrill to know that I was riding with some of the best foxhunters in the country. And hunting with some of the best hunts, over the most beautiful country. It’s just been such a dream come true,” Brantley said.