"If we do not have the gameboard, we cannot play the game." The line comes from the Piedmont Fox Hounds Conservation Fund's 2025 annual report. The fund posted the report on October 1, 2026, a few weeks before America's oldest organized hunt starts its formal season.
In Upperville, the board in that metaphor is the fields, woods and fence lines between the farms. They look permanent. They aren't. A hunt can only ride where landowners let it, and it can only keep riding there if the land stays open. Much of what Piedmont does before opening day is aimed at keeping both of those things true.
The Last Days of Cubbing
At the end of October, the hunt is wrapping up its autumn hunting, known locally as cubbing. Middleburg Life describes cubbing as conditioning for horses, hounds and riders. It moves a little slower than the formal season, and riders dress less formally. The groundwork starts months earlier. In a Middleburg Life season-preview piece, Piedmont huntsman Jordan Hicks said he takes the hounds out with horses three days a week starting in July. Most of August goes to staff-only outings that start training the young hounds. The Conservation Fund still listed Hicks as huntsman in an October 1, 2026 post.
By tradition, the formal opening meet falls on the first Thursday in November at Oakley Farm in Upperville, according to a Middleburg Life history of the hunt. That custom goes back a long way. The same article says Col. Richard Henry Dulany founded Piedmont in 1840 and that the hunt began at Welbourne, in Upperville. The Masters of Foxhounds Association also gives 1840 as Piedmont's founding year, and it separates Piedmont from the older Montreal Hunt in Canada. Anyone planning to watch opening day should confirm this year's date and meet location with the hunt itself. Tradition is not a published schedule.
Every Gate Is a Permission
Piedmont describes itself as a private hunt club based in Upperville, and its kennel sits on Newlin Mill Road. Middleburg Life reports that the current kennel was built in 2015. A season covers far more ground than the kennel, though, and most of that ground belongs to other people.
The hunt says as much in public. On September 22, 2026, Piedmont Fox Hounds and the Conservation Fund held their annual Landowner Appreciation Reception at Salem Farm, hosted by landowner Shelby Bonnie, MFH. The fund's account of the evening thanks "the families and individuals who open their farms, fields and woodlands to the hunt." It adds that "every gate opened, every field crossed and every mile of countryside made available to riders reflects a relationship built on mutual respect."
That makes the reception part of how the season runs. Each property the hunt crosses is a standing permission, and a permission can be withdrawn. The fund's own words are that landowner support "can never be taken for granted." When hounds cross a field off Route 50 this winter, they will be on land whose owner agreed to it.
Permission has an obvious limit. An owner can say yes to the hunt, but a yes does nothing for land that is sold and subdivided. That is where the second half of the off-season work begins.
What the Off-Season Ledger Shows
The fund's 2025 annual report sums up its year this way:
- 12 events
- 772 participants
- 293 acres protected
- 5 partnerships
The report also names the properties behind its conservation work, and each one came with a specific alternative:
- Quaker Lane, 189 acres, 2024. The fund says it led the effort to keep the land from becoming a 15-house subdivision, and calls this its most significant victory.
- Bull Run Mountains, 200 acres, 2025. The fund says it played a key role in protecting land that had already been approved for a 6-house subdivision.
- Green Garden Road, 93 acres. The fund made what it calls "a significant financial contribution" toward protecting the property.
The report puts the three together at "~500 acres" that are "now permanently protected." That figure and the 293-acre headline measure different things, so they shouldn't be added together or used interchangeably.
Quaker Lane had been headed for 15 lots and Bull Run Mountains for 6, and the Bull Run lots already had approval. Together, that is 21 planned house sites that will now stay open fields and woods, ground a hunt can keep crossing season after season. The report calls these protections "the most impactful work we do."
How a Hunt Ends Up Funding Easements
The fund does more than celebrate protected land after the fact. Its homepage says donations help it promote conservation easements and give landowners financial help with the upfront and transaction costs of an easement. Its conservation easements page describes easements as permanent protection against unwanted development and says the fund educates and assists landowners who are considering one.
This covers a specific gap. A landowner who already lets hounds through may be open to protecting the land for good. The legal and transaction costs of an easement can still stand in the way. Helping with those costs is the fund's direct route from goodwill to permanent protection. The annual report asks readers to call "right away" if they know someone considering an easement, or if they know of property "threatened by imminent development." It says the fund is determined "not to stop until we finish turning the map green." Easements have legal and tax consequences, and this post is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. A landowner weighing one should go over their own situation with an attorney and tax professional.
Training the People Who Will Hold the Gates Later
Keeping the land open is only part of the long-term question. The other part is whether the next generation stays connected to it. Two scholarships answer that. The Andrew Looney Scholarship sends a local young person to learn and work at the hunt's stables and kennels, and the 2025 report names Gwenevere Putnam as its recipient.
The second is new. The Piedmont Countryside Scholarship offers grants of up to $2,500, according to the annual report. On October 1, 2026, the fund named its first two recipients: Sophie Leftwich of Ashburn, who attends Texas A&M University, and Beatrice VanSant of Middleburg, who attends the University of Georgia. The fund says the program is meant to support young people in school "while encouraging a continued connection to Virginia's rural landscape." The goal is the same as with easements. Land stays open longer when the people who will one day own and manage it already care about it.
Where Someone Who Doesn't Ride Fits In
A seat in the hunt field isn't the only way in. Middleburg Life explains that a hunt usually rides in several groups. First field stays closest to the hounds, second field moves more slowly, and hilltoppers ride at a leisurely pace. For people who don't ride at all, the fund lists public hound walking, kennel tours, trail rides and walking tours among its activities. It hasn't posted fall or winter dates for them, so it's best to ask the fund directly.
The next date on the fund's public calendar is its 5K Run & Walk for Conservation on May 25, 2027, from 8 a.m. to noon, a course the fund's events page describes as running through open fields and forest along Little River. The fund describes its events as open to the public and suitable for families. People who want to give more steadily can join the 1840 Club, the fund's donor circle. Membership starts with a $1,000 annual gift, and the Old Gold and Scarlet levels begin at $2,500 and $5,000. The number in its name matches the year Piedmont was founded.
If you own land the hounds cross, or you're thinking about how a protected parcel near Upperville fits your long-term plans, I'd be glad to talk it through with you. Bretton Molenaar brings firsthand experience owning and preserving a working horse farm to questions about land, access and conservation. Let's Connect.
