An event that’s never under the weather

It takes more than a little rain to put a damper on a custom that goes back decades.

A field of 20-plus riders braved the showers to ride their beautifully turned-out horses at the Essex Fox Hounds Thanksgiving Meet in Peapack, N.J.

“Rain, snow; we’re out,” said Lynn Jones, one of the four masters of foxhounds who serve Essex.

“This is a tradition that goes back 134 years, and we wouldn’t break tradition for a little rain. It doesn’t bother the hounds or the horses one bit.”

She wore a “hand-me-down” black Melton wool coat, difficult to find these days, but generally impervious to inclement weather unless it’s of the natural disaster variety. There was only one raincoat among the riders. Dee Osborne decided to go that route, but she wore a Barbour, with a British sporting pedigree that made it perfectly acceptable.

A hardy group of spectators also was undeterred by ominous weather predictions for an occasion that many have celebrated over the years at the picturesque Ellistan estate.

“We love it. We love gathering. We love seeing our friends every year. We like to see the horses,” said Susan McDowell-Harvey of nearby Bernardsville.

“And it’s always nice to get out of the house,” added her son, Jack.

Susan and her husband, Scott, began coming for the meet in the days when daughter Sarah McDowell (who now lives in London) rode with Essex. As usual, the family was enjoying mimosas and oysters Rockefeller.

The menu for Linda and John Quinn of New Hope, Pa., who were parked down the row, included freshly made Irish coffee, topped with whipped cream.

John is a native of Ireland, so to him the conditions probably were like what his compatriots call a “soft” day, a cross between a mist and a drizzle, though this version was a little more assertive.

“We’ve come every year since our children were three and five years old, and now they’re in their mid-30s. It was always our tradition to come, and we see people we don’t normally see all the time,” Linda said.

Some folks did look at the weather and decide to duck out. Suzann Johnson and her husband, Art Gertel, of Readington N.J., invited 10 people to the tailgate brunch they have staged for 30 years, but just one showed up. The conditions certainly didn’t deter an accomplished carriage driver, however.

“I compete in this kind of stuff,” explained Suzann, who was the Leading Lady Whip at the Orleton Farm Driving Competition in Massachusetts during August, when a hurricane was bearing down on that area.

Matt Tierney of Ramsey, N.J., was visiting his father, John, in Peapack and decided to bring his three children, ages 5, 3 and 1 to the meet. “I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “It was very special, very fun.” His kids really got into it.

“By the time the horses and hounds started going out of the gate and up the road, they expected to be able to follow them,” he reported. “So in the car we had some tears” when the vehicle went in the opposite direction from the animals..

Sally Ike, who chairs the Essex hunt committee, noted the rain was a bit inconvenient, but emphasized it is a badly needed blessing during the drought. She mentioned how important the hunt is for land conservation and thanked the landowners who allow the hunt to cross their property.

The chilly edge was taken off for riders and spectators alike by hot toddies courtesy of Ellistan’s owners, Hank and Sarah Slack (she is another of the Essex joint masters).

These stirrup cups are as traditional as everything else.

Ellistan estate manager Michael Webb doesn’t change the recipe from year to year. It consists of brandy, rum, sherry, “our apple cider that we make here and some of the honey we produce as well,” in addition to orange and lemon juice.“That’s it. Bring it to the boil and put it in a cup.”

Rain? What rain?

The Johnson family, which enjoys strong connections with the hunt (Jazz Johnson is also a joint master of Essex) had seven cousins riding. Christy Johnson Moynihan said her two sons, Rowan and Joe, took riding lessons for a month to up their game (they had only ridden as kids) so they could participate on Thanksgiving.

I, too, am a veteran of many years at the Thanksgiving meet, having written about it since Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis put it on the map in the days when she hunted with Essex and often brought her son, John.

While that’s how what otherwise would have been a routine holiday gathering of a local group became big news, once people came to see her, they kept coming, even after she rode off into history.