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Thomas B. Bishop Jr.’s love for foxhunting led to 30 years as feld master with Farmington Hunt. He served two years as a joint-MFH and for the past four years he’s been an honorary whipper-in.

In 1973, Tom and his wife Claiborne established The Barracks (Charlottesville, VA). They host fve “A” shows annually, headquarter the University of Virginia IHSA team, and also buy, sell, train, board and show in hunters, jumpers and equitation. It’s a family business. Claiborne does most of the teaching. Tom, who became an amateur 20 years ago, says he “specializes in paying the bills.” They have two children, both married: Maria Shannon rides and teaches professionally for them and Marianna Wade, an amateur, helps Tom with bookkeeping, etc.

Tom: My mother (born 1909) loved to ride. My grandfather was convinced that the automobile was here to stay and there wasn’t much point in learning to ride. I grew up in California and Michael Page was at Pebble Beach: he had enlisted in the Army and rode for the US. He took on a couple of us kids and trained us. Part of our exercise was foxhunting with Los Altos. All my family had gone to the University of California at Berkeley, but it was a little rough there in 1964. My other choice was University of Virginia. I really fell in love with foxhunting there. The stables where I rode, fve minutes’ walk from the frst year’s dormitory, belonged to Miss Ellie Wood Keith. We could hack to the meets with Farmington, about an hour away. Claiborne brought along feld hunters for Miss Ellie Wood and that’s how we met.

Tom: It’s a completely different thing altogether. The feld master shows what the huntsman and whips and hounds are doing to the best of his ability. When you whip-in, you’re helping to create the sport: helping the huntsman, helping hounds do what they’re supposed to do. It’s a very different job. It’s been fun. I love doing both of them.

Tom: I’ve had so many. Too Tall, 18h Hanoverian, big gray horse: we just retired him. One of the very few horses who was a feld hunter by profession when he was donated to UVA. He was as much fun as anything I’ve ridden. Snowden Clarke brought him down and led the horse off the van. Our barn manager Bugsy Grey, 4’8”, found herself staring at the horse’s elbow and said, “He’s too tall – put him back on the van.” I said, “I think you just named him!”

Sidelines : You’re a two-time winner of the Piedmont Foxhounds Invitational Hack at Upperville. Is part of your success due to Claiborne’s coaching?

Tom: Oh, certainly. The horse I rode belongs to Earle Betts, one of our customers. Cartier had just come back from Devon – Claiborne’s been training him for the last two years. There wasn’t much for me to do. All I had to do was sit on him. To make a horse look really good, you

Claiborne: Safety, a good jumper with a good brain. It takes a long time to make a foxhunter. Quicker to make one up for the show ring – you can ride fve horses in the time you go foxhunting. Thoroughbreds still seem to be, for the most part, the best foxhunters. I think the hardest horse to fnd is the feld master’s horse. The whip’s horse can be a little hotter, a little braver, willing to go out front on point somewhere.

Tom: I certainly wouldn’t bring home a horse without asking Claiborne frst. She tells clients if a horse isn’t suitable. They trust her judgment. So do I.

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