Loudoun Fox-Hunt Leader Killed in Riding
Accident On Sunday afternoon, Bedford led more
than two dozen riders from the Piedmont Hunt through the
fields and pastures, as he had done several times a week for
two decades. But what had seemed like a perfect day for
riding ended in tragedy when Bedford's horse collapsed under
him at full gallop -- apparently from a heart
attack. Bedford, 65, was thrown from the animal
and killed. "My father's passion, even long before he
became a fixture in the hunt community, was the land," said
Bedford's daughter Cricket Whitner, one of his four
children. "He couldn't have written himself a better ending.
He went to heaven with a horse." Bedford's death shocked the area's
close-knit equestrian community, which is reeling from a
series of accidents in recent months. In April, the joint master and huntsman
of the Loudoun Hunt West, Bay Cockburn, 41, was partially
paralyzed when he struck a tree while riding. And in
February, 10 thoroughbred racehorses and 15 hounds were
killed when a barn owned by another of Piedmont's joint
masters, Randy Waterman, was gutted in an electrical
fire. The Piedmont, which dates to 1840, is the
country's oldest fox hunt and covers about 90,000 acres. It
is one of seven hunts in Loudoun and 25 statewide, according
to Dennis J. Foster, a friend of Bedford's and director of
the Leesburg-based national Masters of Foxhounds
Association. The Piedmont and other hunts in the
United States, which have their origins in the English
custom of rooting out the foxes that prey on sheep and other
domestic animals, rarely result in killing their prey. The
fox usually escapes the hounds by taking shelter in a hole.
Animal rights groups, many of which protest the sport in
England, say hunting is cruel to the foxes even if the
animal is not harmed. Riders say they participate to enjoy
nature and the thrill of the chase. Foster said Bedford had been a joint
master since 1979, helping to run the hunt's finances and
dealing with local landowners. He also was the field master,
a rider who takes the lead and ensures that the field is
safe for other riders. "He's an amazing guy, and he'll be hard
to replace," Foster said. "He'd always make sure that if
there was a rider on a horse that wasn't up to par or a new
rider, he would take extra time with them." Friends said that although Bedford was a
successful stockbroker, most recently at a Fauquier County
firm, his true love was riding and spending time
outdoors. "He always loved the land," said Peter
Winants, director of the Middleburg-based National Sporting
Library, who grew up on a Maryland farm next door to the one
owned by the Bedford family. "I remember he often told me,
'I hate to leave the land, I love it so, but you have to be
realistic, and you have to make a living.' " Bedford spent every spare moment with the
hunt or working on his Upperville area farm, Winants
said. "Erskine was the perfect southern
gentleman," said Loudoun Supervisor Eleanore C. Towe (D-Blue
Ridge), a longtime friend. "He was always courteous and
mannerly, but he was never stuffy. He could speak easily to
a group of farmers with manure on his boots and then he
could . . . go to a party with the elite and be just as
comfortable." © Copyright 1998 The
Washington Post Company
By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 9, 1998; Page B08
Erskine Bedford, joint master of the nation's oldest fox
hunt, was known as one of the most experienced riders in the
rolling hills of Loudoun County's hunt country.