The present Otago Hunt, formed in 1911, is a revival of the original body founded in 1883 with as President Mr FW Petre, Vice-President Mr C Samson and committee comprising Messrs H Gourley, McMastern Smith, Cameron, Jones, Hepburn, J Cotton, the hounds used were 10 couple belonging to one Mr Bradley, with kennels at Forbury.  Mr Bradley was both Master and Huntsman for several seasons.  Other later Masters appear to have been a Mr Hart, a Mr Taggart and possibly a Miss McMaster and the only other recorded Hunstman was, in 1889 J Poole.  This organisation could at times muster of following of 50, non-subscribers of which were warned that they could be sued for trespass should their nuisance value be such as to bring them under the notice of the Hunt officials….. a novel way of adding to the coffers and civilising the field.  Wire jumping was just not the thing to do, either, according to this rebuke published in the columns of the local paper:

“One Mr Baker, on noticing himself astray, rather foolishly put his horse over the wire to correct his course – happily without accident – we would advise him in future to leave well alone if only out of respect for his horse…”

The Hunt held its first race meeting in 1883, with stakes totalling £310 for the seven races carded.  This was held on Forbury Park, as was its two-day meeting in 1886 (£700 in stakes) and its last in 1896, so presumably the steeplechase was an annual affair.

This was the last to be heard of hunting around Dunedin for 15 years.  However, in 1911 Mr Harry Divers convened a meeting in the hopes of reviving the sport and such was the support his efforts attracted that by September of that year the new Otago hunt was formally established, and a pack took to the paddocks for the first time in April of 1912 with as Huntsman C Cornelius and as Master Mr Hugh Gourley.  As had been the case with the original hunt, due to the scarcity of hares, the Otago hounds followed aniseed drags.  They continued to drag hunt for many years, not only because hares were not numerous in the area but because members prefer it this way.

Because it takes more than subscriptions to maintain hounds, hunt servants and hunting country, the Otago’s first off-the-field activity was the inevitable one of the Steeplechase race meetings which was held in September of that formative year at Wingatui. A hunt social was held, with some trepidation, in 1913, and proved such a financial success that an annual ball was established the following year.  The hunt affiliated with the National association in 1912 and incorporated in 1913 and apart from some very stormy executive meetings in its early years, settled down to running its affairs in a highly satisfactory manner as far as its finances are concerned, especially when in 1916 it ran its first totalisator race meeting at great profit, followed in 1918 by a similarly successful day.  For the six years from 1916 to 1922 the hunt shared its permit alternatively with the Birchwood hunt, gaining its own annual one in 1922 – a red-letter year for both club and hounds, an annual permit being considered the making of any hunt (although later to prove something of a mixed blessing when meeting after successive meeting could be run at a loss), and the pack taking its place in history by being show-stealers on stage for the local production of the light opera ‘Dorothy’.

As far as kennelling is concerned, the Otago’s hounds have had a far more settled life than most packs in the Dominion in view of the length of time established.  In 1912 when the first pack was secured, arrangements were made with the Ocean Beach Domain the lease of one acre of ground adjacent to Tahuna Park, against the sandhill in the city.  The hunt paid an annual rent of £5 for this section and on it built kennels, stabling for its two horses, and a hut for the Huntsman as well as gallows and a feed room. Considerable labour was expended by members in levelling and beautifying the area – not without cause either, for these dunes in their wild state grew lupins of great size, and impenetrable to all but the odd hound who escaped and went rogue in them for weeks at a time. Before they were suitably fenced off.  Hounds remained here until March 1968.

In 1930 the local Whippet Club was graciously permitted the use of one side of this section for a cinder track to course on – a gesture which bore unexpected fruit in 1934 when the Domain Board suddenly doubled its charge for rental. The hunt was able to defray its out-of-pocket expenses by sub-letting the whippet portion to the whippet blokes for the extra £5 per annum and life went on as usual.

In 1927 the hunt was presented with three hounds from the Oakland Hunt Club, Victoria. A stallion hound, Hearty, and a couple of bitches Windy and Widgeon, which proved a boost for the existing blood.  In 1936 a further presentation, this time from one Mr Keep in England, resulted in the addition to the pack of a bitch from the Scottish pack of Sir Jock Buchanan-Jardine, MFH of Locherbie, and a West country lemon-pied stallion hound from Devon. This latter was to have a profound effect on many of the South Island packs, throwing not only his colouration but his tremendous ability as well, and his sought-after descendants still crop up and stand out in many a kennel.

For a pack housed for 56 years within the confines of a growing city, Otago’s caused astonishingly little trouble.

However, there is one skeleton in its kennels – at one period it appears to have had a penchant for Pomeranians. In the first instance back in 1927, the Huntsman’s report on the occasion would have one believe that in slaying its small victim the pack acted in self-defence, having been set upon from the ambush of a pillar box and finding it necessary to take drastic action before being allowed to proceed on its law-abiding way to the far side of the Octagon, near the Town Hall, for its appointed meet that day.  The court did not credit this.  The second occasion was in 1932. The action was deliberate, the little assailant died of injuries received in the encounter.  The culprit was punished, and again the hunt paid up. It was still several years, though, before the executive considered it necessary to invest in a trailer to convey hounds to meets.

The slump years from 1932 saw the curtailment of hunting in the Middlemarch area and a complete stoppage in the newly broached Balclutha district. Hounds were culled and the Huntsman Kydd reduced from £3/10/0 weekly to £3/0/0, on account of his being appointed Clerk of the Course to the Dunedin Jockey Club at £28/7/0 the year, and assistant to the Forbury Park Trotting Club at £28/7/0 the year.  Schooling jumps were erected in the kennels property at Tahuna Park to assist members schooling horses in the hope that there would be less damage done, hence less maintenance and repairs to fences during qualifying runs: the race meetings ran several consecutive losses, and only the points-to-point and the ball kept finances swinging. The turn of the tide in the later thirties saved the situation: the race meetings paid great dividends, there was talk of investing some of the surplus in a hunt farm, there were extensive repairs to Huntsman cottage and the kennels at Tahuna Park and then came the war. For two years this seemed to have little effect on the hunt except for the lack of able-bodied members to pitch in and help at the point-to-point, and none were available as Huntsman. The situation here was rescued by Mr AS McKay, a gentleman well into his sixties who hadn’t put horse to jump for years but whom now loaded his pipe, reefed up his braces and set sail with all the aplomb of a twenty-year-old.

Wars may come and wars may go but horses must still be qualified for racing.  It was now that the hunt applied for and won permission to hold its qualifying runs over the steeplechase schooling fences at Wingatui racecourse.

Following the war, the executive took advantage of the better times to purchase its own freehold property of 67 acres at Sea View on the border of the city. This was done with the idea of eventually establishing the kennels there, of planting and beautifying the entire acreage, and making thereon a showplace plus a set course for schooling and qualifying.  However, not until 1968 were the new kennels finally built and occupied, the house and farm meantime being leased to the huntsman Stan McKay, while hounds remained still at Tahuna Park.

The type of hunting country in Otago varied considerably in these times.  Near Dunedin it was enclosed, tightish and fairly steep with railed wire fences, gorse hedges and the odd stone wall. Further out on the Taieri it was mostly flat with wire, hedge and ditch, and open ditch.  At Middlemarch, Balclutha, and Palmerston it was open and rolling country with wire fences, and the odd gorse and thorn hedge.  All country was sparred.

Otago Hunt recalls many names over the years that stand for long and faithful service – notably Mr BS Irwin who became vice-president in 1912, president in 1915, and held that position a full 44 years before becoming patron prior to his death in 1963. Mr LC Hazlett figured largely for years, as did Mrs F Conn, Mrs J McKay, Miss Edith Smythe, Miss Dolly Mowat, March Stratham (Mrs Jack Talbot), Mrs T Dalziel and Edna Greenslade (Mrs Ray Howard).  Mr Jim Brunton was Master for 36 years and saw great changes in his 45 years of hunting.  He witnessed the almost complete discard of the hack and hackney-type of hunter in favour of the thoroughbred or near-thoroughbred; the continual increase in the number of followers and the vastly improved standard of jumper and rider; the disappearance of the hired horse and private stables, and the very favourable influence of the Pony Clubs on the standard of riding to hounds.