Melvin Poe gets a gate during the Centennial joint-meet of Piedmont and Orange County in 2006. His uncanny fox-sense still serves him well while hunting the Bath County hounds.

By Lauren R. Giannini

Born August 24, 1920 to a foxhunting farming family in Virginia, Melvin Poe has 'been there, done that' when it comes to learning the rhythms of nature and the ways of wild creatures. His legendary reputation is well deserved, but the best thing about Poe is that he's still doing what he loves. He hunts his own pack of hounds twice a week and still makes weekly jaunts in the fall with hounds, horses and a select group of enthusiasts to hunt the Bath County hounds: "It's only three and a half hours if you drive fast!"

Poe and his wife Peggy live on their farm where they keep hounds, field hunters and a herd of cows. Several of their children are still involved with hounds and hunting. Poe has won numerous jousting tournaments, plays a wicked game of croquet, and loves to make fox wine. His best memories involve great running foxes and the pack of red ring-necked American hounds that, during his professional career, won many trophies, blue rosettes and championships at hound shows.

Davenport Films made a documentary, released in 1979, featuring Poe's life as huntsman with Orange County, called "Thoughts on Foxhunting" that was narrated by Alexander Mackay-Smith. The film received rave reviews. Peter Winants, former editor and publisher of Middleburg's Chronicle of the Horse, wrote his biography, "Hunting With Melvin Poe."

Poe is an all-American original, savvy in the ways of nature and all its wild creatures. Equally at home with aristocrats and politicians, he's a good will charmer with people from all walks of life.

It's too bad they don't make them like that anymore.

Sidelines: How many years have you been hunting?

MP: Don't know, can't count that high!

I started with Old Dominion November 22nd in 1945 - that was my first organized hunt. But my daddy and my granddaddy hunted their own hounds - we go all the way back [see next question].

When I went to Old Dominion, they had 16 dogs. It was after the war and the dogs were pretty old and decrepit. I got my dad's dogs and the neighbors' dogs and before the first season was over, we had a pretty good pack.

I had been drafted by the army. When the war was over, and my number come up, I went home.

Old Dominion needed a huntsman. Hounds were being hunted by Shirley Payne from the Front Royal Remount. He had two soldiers whipping in to him: Carl Schilling from Chicago and Gus Riggs [Augustus Riggs IV, who later became Master of Howard County Hunt, MD]. When Shirley got that piece of paper I had picked up two months before, he went home.

Then Col. Horner, commander of the Remount, hunted the hounds on Saturday and I hunted them on Tuesday and Thursday, but that didn't work out too well.

I got hired by the next master, Albert Hinckley, to get things going.

Sidelines: Who were the major influences on your hunting?

MP: My family were hunters, and my uncle Roy Pearson had dogs and he lived over the hill, just a holler away. He'd say 'see you Sunday' and we'd go hunting - his family, my family, all of us boys.

I was just thinking about it this morning. Every day at Christmas, we worked and when the weather got too bad outside, we'd go home and we'd go hunting. From Christmas Eve to New Year's Day, we hunted.

Sidelines: What about riding when you were little?

MP: We rode ponies to school or three on a horse. There was a stable for the horses to stay in. We always had Shetland ponies to ride. There was a doctor who lived between Marshall and Markham, and he had hundreds of Shetlands. He would let any kid have a pony for a year. After a year that pony would be well-broke and you'd return him and the doctor would sell it and you'd take home another one. I had three like that.

I was riding one time with my uncle. He had a big tall 17-hand horse and he popped over a coop. The pony's back wasn't as high as the coop. I didn't know what the hell I was going to do. I'd jumped a lot of loose stuff, but I never jumped no coop. My uncle said, 'Come on, over boy - you can jump that!' And I did and I was ready to go after that.

Sidelines: Any favorite horses that stand out?

MP: I had real good horses all my life. If you don't have good staff horses, you don't have good sport.

I got this one horse at the Front Royal sale. He was nicknamed the Killer, because he jumped so high. Tommy Lee Jones' father got this horse to make into a jumper for Tommy Lee (he's been huntsman for Casanova a long time and he's a distant cousin). When they were schooling him, this horse jumped out of the ring. He could jump anything, but Tommy didn't put a lot of time into bad horses. He called the man to take him back, and the man said take him to Front Royal and put him through the sale.

Well, I just happened to go to the horse sale and ran into Tommy's father. He said, 'Boy, you should have been here a while ago - I just sold a good horse.'

I said, 'show him to me.' So we walked down, and I see this good-looking horse with flop ears, gray, Thoroughbred all the way, and I said 'what did he bring?' He said $104 dollars. This was in the late 50s. So, I said 'I wonder if he'll take $150? He said, 'I'll go ask him.' He disappeared and come back and said yeah, he'll take $150.

So I got him to bring the horse to Orlean that night and I had him at Old Dominion. A couple years later when I left Old Dominion, Killer was still there. When I got to Orange County in 1962, we didn't have staff horses, so they bought him for me. That was a great relief for me to have a good horse.

I never saw a horse like this one. He could run uphill for a half-mile or a mile and when we stopped, he'd let out a huge breath - whoosh - and he'd be all ready to go again. He had the biggest heart and the biggest spring of any horse that I ever seen. When we put him down, I had to see that heart - and physically he did have the biggest heart.

Sidelines: How long did it take after your retirement for you to get your own pack? Are you still keen on American hounds?

MP: Oh sure - I got 10 couple here.

Before I left Orange County in 1992, George Ohrstrom went down to Bath County and bought land, because he wanted to start a little hunt. We started going down in the fall 1992, every other week. We'd go Wednesday, hunt Thursday and Friday and come home after hunting. We got back here in time for racing and hunting on Saturday.

We take maybe 20 people from this area, and it's about 10 or 12 down there. So that's about 30 - makes it better. They ride right up with me and see the hounds work. I don't raise or break these dogs. They're gifts from other huntsmen. The dogs are older, but they do real good with me. I don't blow the horn a lot and make noise. I let the hounds do their work. We have a good time.

Sidelines: What's important for people wanting to whip in or hunt hounds?

MP: Best thing is to get a beagle pack. I learned a lot from beagles - they show you where the fox went. If the fox jumps on a rock, the beagles will jump on the rock, too. Hounds will run right past. Beagles teach you a lot about chasing fox.

Sidelines: What's the bottom line for Melvin Poe? Are you going to keep on going till there's no go?

MP: I don't hear the hounds - I got two hearing aids and two people ride behind me who can hear the hounds. That's how I know where to go when I can't see them. Miz Mars, Jackie Mars, has the best ears - she's rides around in the car and hears great. I can't hear a peep, but I still see real good.

The thing in Bath depends on me. I'm 88. There's an old saying: the young might die, the old must. You have to try to figure out what's going to be the best thing to do: buy a new truck or wait a couple years. I'm going to keep going and sooner or later, something's going to give. The bottom line - that will be the bottom line. We don't know when that's going to happen. I'm not scared over a fence. As long as I'm able to ride and do it safe, I'll keep hunting and Bath County will keep going. It all depends on me.