Ottawa Valley Hunt Club | newsletter0505.html

Ottawa Valley Hunt Newsletter

May 2005

Greetings!

Our long protracted cold wet spring is hopefully past us. It’s been a very active “off season” for the OVH!.

At the AGM in February we elected three new board members, Anne McKibbin, Normand Major and Pierre Poitras. Anne’s father Colonel Arthur McKibbin, and her mother well known equestrian Brenda McKibbin, hunted the OVH hounds back in the 50’s. Arthur was subsequently MFH at the Frontenac Hunt. So Anne comes by the addiction honestly! Norm comes to us from the “Horse People” our corporate member and represents all their collective enthusiasm. Pierre, like Norm has a strong business background and is relatively new to the sport. All three are dedicated hunters and will be a great asset to our Board. It’s a pleasure to report a big problem that the nominating committee had; namely getting our candidates list down to three people. We could easily have filled another complete board with top notch people. What a nice problem!

We want to acknowledge the Terrific contribution and effort of the outgoing Board members, Bob Sulpher, Joyce Kinson and Mark Nelson; a big Thanks. We’ve also made a number of changes to encourage more involvement of our expanding talent resources, mostly by the addition of a number of Teams (we don’t like “committees”!). Several of these are off and running and we hope to more effectively deal with many items on which we want to boost our focus – all in an effort to continually improve our sport.

As most of you know Antony has taken the Huntsman position with the Montreal Hunt. We have decided to promote one of our own, namely long time hunt member Suzanne Hobin who has taken over the pack. We’re all very excited about this development and look forward to a great season with Sue and her whips, Jill Bryant and David Mattinson.

On behalf of all our members, I would like to thank Antony for six excellent seasons and especially for leaving us a very strong pack of hounds. We wish him well in his new position and hope to have the opportunity to share some sport in the future.

Anne McKibbin and Normand Major have been appointed Field Masters – and both have rather sophiscticated tastes in the drinks department – so be forewarned about passing them!

OF COURSE, we had another great Robbie Burns - Thanks to Team Coghill and Friends. They just get better every year! And Thanks to Gary Hobin for a great Race Night. Gary you missed your calling! Big winners were Sue Allen, Michael Deverell and yours truly.

Our Hunt Ball and Silent Auction were once again a big success; huge Thanks to Janet Strome and all her helpers, the decorations were once again wonderful, thanks to Bill and Skip Walker, Basia Anders and Dennis Beaudoin. Kay and I had the privilege of awarding colors to four very deserving members who have all brought a great deal to our hunt field. Congratulations to Megan Hobin, May Raad-Young, Barry Cronin and Pierre Poitras. May you have many happy years with the OVH.

We’re busy doing some renovations to the club house apartment; a lot of hands have pitched in, Thanks to Art, Pete, Sylvia, Janine and all the ones I have forgotten to mention. Jill Bryant is our new “tenant” and will be looking after the hounds much of the time in support of Sue.

A special Thanks to Doug McIntyre who donated his time to do an electrical assessment which saved the club considerable money.

We are happy to welcome three new members, they are

Sigrid Kenny , Proprietor Senior Hunting

Ian Kenny, Junior Hunting

Ann Matthews, Proprietor Associate

We wish them all many happy years with the OVH. Let’s have a great Spring Season.

Until next time, Happy Hunting,

Ted Thomas MFH (Joint)