#73 - Inside Santa Fe Hunt Fox Hunting Club with avid huntsman Steven Thomas

Steve Thomas is a retired oral and maxillofacial surgeon and now the honorary huntsman for the Santa Fe Hunt in Temecula. A Missouri farm kid who rode western and coon hunted with his grandfather, he found fox hunting by accident when a Kansas neighbor turned out to be a master who'd ridden across his property for thirty years. One ride in a pickup and he was hooked. Twenty-five years of staffing later he's chaired the MFHA's Hound Show and Performance Trial Committee, hunted hounds across the US, Canada, England, Ireland and New Zealand, and turns seventy next year still called young for the sport. This is his first season with Santa Fe Hounds.What we get into:How he fell into it: a Kansas neighbor, a pickup ride, and an instant hook.Why hounds come first: breeding to your country, biddability, and a summer teaching the puppies (Milo included) to come back to the horn.The misconceptions: no guns, not a blood sport, failed coyote control, all about the chase.Hound shows versus performance trials, and what a guest huntsman does at Belle Meade.Making Santa Fe Hounds a destination hunt, and keeping an aging sport alive.Steve has hunted on three continents, but the thing that lights him up is a puppy learning where his invisible line is. He explains why he'd pick hounds over horses every time, and how a sport most people never try is as addicting as golf. There's a story about losing count of the jumps in New Zealand, a mid-hunt reprimand, and a real walkthrough for anyone wondering how you actually start.Subscribe and follow Horse People for more cross-discipline content and stories!