64 SIDELINES JANUARY 2014
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
up considerable calories.
“Foxhunting also makes one really wake up to how precious
and fragile our environment is. I think there’s no such thing as a
foxhunter that isn’t an environmentalist.”
Rita Mae has agreed to make allowances for those interested
individuals who do not yet have the horse or the talent to ride
with the first field. Like many hunts, Oak Ridge Hunt has a slower
group known as second field. For those riders who are just starting
out in foxhunting, they have an even slower field on occasion, a
third field. Rita Mae admits, “I opposed it in the beginning. I was
really blindly stupid about it and then my joint masters made me
realize that not everybody has grown up with horses. In fact, there
were fewer and fewer as time has gone on. So many people come
into this now in their middle years. Thank God they talked me into
it because it has made a world of difference for us. I think it has
made a world of difference for the people in it, too.”
But of course, as the huntsman, Rita Mae rides ahead of first
field. When asked about the fast pace and possibility of injury,
she replies with her usual gusto, “If you’re gonna ride you could
get hurt, but at least it’s on your own terms. If you get injured at
least it’s because you are doing something! You could get hurt in
your car.”
Riding and foxhunting is challenging, and the lessons learned
there can also apply to other phases of life. A response to fear,
whether it be in the hunt field or life, can apply equally. As Rita Mae
advises, “You just go forward. Grab mane and kick on! There’s no
turning back, you just gotta ride through it.”
About the writer: Doris Degner-Foster lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma and rides with
Harvard Fox Hounds when she is not interviewing interesting individuals in the horse
sport. She also enjoys writing fiction and is working on a middle grade book series
about teenagers who ride horses and solve mysteries.
Riding, Writing and Reading
A New Sneaky Pie Novel
Rita Mae Brown’s fans will be excited to know that a new
Sneaky Pie novel,
The Litter of the Law
, was released in Oc-
tober of 2013. If you haven’t joined Rita Mae and her feline
companion Sneaky Pie in an action packed murder mystery, or
taken a fictional foxhunting adventure with “Sister” Jane Arnold,
or cozied up for a canine mystery with Baxter – then it’s time to
saddle up and ride along with Rita Mae.
In the “Mrs. Murphy/Sneaky Pie Brown” series, which
encompasses more than 20 books, Rita Mae collaborates
with feline co-author Sneaky Pie Brown in a mystery starring
Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen, the curious cat detectives Mrs.
Murphy and Pewter, and Tee Tucker, the valiant crime-solving
corgi.
Wish You Were Here
(1990) is the first book of the Mrs.
Murphy/Sneaky Pie Brown series. In Crozet, Virginia the town’s
thirty-something postmistress, Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen,
has a tiger cat (Mrs. Murphy) and a Welsh Corgi (Tee Tucker),
a pending divorce, and a bad habit of reading post cards
not addressed to her. When Crozet citizens start turning up
murdered, Harry remembers that each received a card with a
tombstone on the front with the message “Wish you were here,”
on the back.
In her foxhunting mysteries, which currently includes eight
novels, Rita Mae writes about “Sister” Jane Arnold, the Master
of the prestigious Jefferson Hunt Club. Sister is the most revered
citizen in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountain town where a rigid
code of social conduct and deep-seated tradition carries more
weight than money. Nearing seventy, Sister now must select a
joint master to ensure a smooth transition of leadership after
her death. It is an honor of the highest order – and one that any
serious social climber would covet like the Holy Grail.
In her canine mystery series, Rita Mae writes about a
former Wall Street trader and her faithful companion, Baxter, a
wirehaired dachshund.
A Nose for Justice
, the first book in the
series, follows Mags as she moves to her Aunt’s Nevada ranch
from New York. When a hundred-year-old skeleton is unearthed
on the family ranch, Mags is on the case with the help of Baxter
and her Aunt’s German shepherd, King.
Rita Mae has written numerous books, including
Rubyfruit
Jungle,
a coming of age novel about a young lesbian woman,
and her autobiography
Animal Magnetism
, in addition to her
multiple famous murder mystery series.
For more information on Rita Mae or her books, visit
www.
ritamaebrown.com
.
Rita Mae enjoys
a few moments
with some
of her feline
friends. In her
newest novel,
The Litter of the
Law, Rita Mae
collaborates with
feline co-author
Sneaky Pie
Brown
.
Photo courtesy of
Rita Mae Brown
Rita Mae wearing traditional brown tweed, informal cubbing
attire.
Photo by Barbara Bower,
