“The care of the earth is our most ancient and most worthy and our most pleasing responsibility.
To cherish what remains of it and foster its renewal is our only hope.”
― Wendell Berry
©Tod Marks
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Learning to love Middleburg, Virginia’s Glenwood Park |
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(Hint, it’s super easy to fall head over heels for
Daniel Sands’ legacy)
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The tale of Glenwood Park is a love story for the ages.
Mr. Middleburg himself, sportsman, conservationist, foxhunter and civic supporter Daniel Sands loved the open rolling grasslands that fed his beloved Guernsey herd. And he loved both of those just as much as he loved the rocky crags on the hillside overlooking what became the infield on his beloved Glenwood Park racecourse in 1932. (©Tod Marks)
First run in 1955, the Virginia Fall Races were born out of love, too, initially added to the NSA calendar to boost a then-flagging fall circuit. Orange County Hounds president George Ohrstrom Sr. and longtime Piedmont Foxhounds master Theo Randolph conjured the autumn event, linking Glenwood and the National Sporting Library that Ohrstrom Sr. had helped establish in 1954. They tied both to the legacy Sands had created in support of sport and open space, all of which continue through to today.
Ohrstrom Sr. died just a month after that first Virginia Fall meet, but son George Ohrstrom Jr. played it forward until his 2005 death. He passed the baton to his family, still actively involved and ardent supporters of the gifts left by Sands, Ohrstrom and many others.
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Love the library
Saturday’s feature is the $25,000 National Sporting Library and Museum Cup timber stake.
Founded in 1954 from the personal collection of George Ohrstrom Sr., the National Sporting Library and Museum was first located in the Duffy house, then, later, at historic Vine Hill. Today, the 6-acre campus at the west end of Middleburg has custom-built buildings for the library and the adjacent Chronicle of the Horse magazine. The newer sporting museum is housed in the refurbished and expanded Vine Hill mansion.
A world-class research library and museum put focus on the rich heritage and tradition of country pursuits in northern Virginia’s horse country as well as around the nation and around the world.
Angling, horsemanship, shooting, steeplechasing, foxhunting, flat racing, polo, coaching and wildlife are highlighted in the institution’s general stacks, rare book holdings, archives and permanent and rotating art collections. The NSLM offers an array of educational programs, exhibitions and family activities year-round.
Photo courtesy of the NSLM.
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Charlotte Haxall Noland and Daniel Sands, joint Masters of the Middleburg Hunt in the 1940s, by Edward L. Chase
Photo courtesy of the NSLM
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Remember the name:
Daniel Sands
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Integral to the origin of Glenwood Park, Daniel Sands was the only son of Quaker parents, born Nov. 22, 1875 in New York City. As a boy, he divided time between the city and a family farm in Westchester County.
In 1907, he moved to Middleburg, buying the historic Spring Hill farm north of the village. He renamed it Benton after the original owner-builder. Sands purchased contiguous, and non-contiguous, land in the area between the village and Goose Creek which runs southwest to northeast north of Benton and Glenwood.
Glenwood Park was one of Sands’ farms; he grazed part of his pedigreed and prize-winning Guernsey herd there and cut hay from the mostly open property.
Sands served as joint-master of the Piedmont Foxhounds 1909-1915, and joint-master of the Middleburg Hunt 1917-1954. He’s the longest-serving master of Middleburg in history – 44 years.
Sands was famously skillful in the saddle, and considered one of the best field masters in the history of hunting. Mrs. Neville Atkinson once wrote of Sands: “He was always with hounds, in spite of their speed. No fence was too high, and he gave us a lead.”
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Glenwood Park trustee Turner Reuter
on Sands
Turner Reuter never met Dan Sands, but he feels connected.
The art galley owner, former steeplechase jockey and trainer and current Glenwood Park trustee says they share a lot in common, from horses and hunting to an abiding love of the land.
“Dan Sands was a conservationist before his time,” Reuter says. “He established the first Middleburg races mostly to entertain his neighbors, mostly farmers. He knew without open country, the foxhunts would have nothing.
“He was a visionary.”
Sands left Glenwood in trust when he died, open for specific uses. Today, it’s protected by open space easement in a 501c3 trust. Uses in addition to the spring and fall NSA meets, and the Middleburg Hunt Point-to-Point have included horse shows, pony club events and a horse trials.
“There’s not a steeplechase course in America that can top our topography, and the ability to view the entire spectacle,” Reuter maintains. “From the paddock to the (hillside, stone) grandstand to the rail to the parking area, you have a beautiful Virginia Blue Ridge background. There’s not a bad seat in the house.”
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Sands was also famously civic-minded, becoming known as “Mr. Middleburg,” founding the American Foxhound Club in 1912, and the Middleburg Bank in 1924. He sponsored the first steeplechase at Mount Defiance in 1911 and developed the Glenwood Park racecourse from his cattle pasture in 1932.
Sands served on the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, was a director of the Loudoun Hospital Center and president of the Middleburg Community Center.
Sands died in 1963 at age 88. He’s buried at Sharon Cemetery at the east end of town.
Wife Edith, one-time president of the Garden Club of Virginia, died in a car accident in 1948.
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Love the layout
Daniel Sands purchased Benton, once known as Spring Hill, in 1908.
Benton was built by William Benton, a brickmaker, around 1831. Benton had returned to his native Wales to collect an inheritance in 1822. While in Wales, Benton admired a handsome brick home that he wanted to replicate when he came back to Virginia.
He called it Spring Hill – a two-story Federal-style structure with five bays and a center hall. Wings of three bays flank each side.
Benton continued to work as a brickmaker and builder after the construction of his Spring Hill home; he was employed by President James Madison among others.
The Bentons stayed until 1894, when it was purchased by Joshua Hatcher, who sold to Daniel Sands in 1908.
Sands undertook renovations, established extensive gardens and changed the name to Benton. Sands bought surrounding acreage to expand his horse farm.
Benton was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
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Portrait of George L. Ohrstrom, Jr. (1927 – 2005), by Thomas S. Buechner (American, 1926 – 2010), oil on canvas
Gift of the Ohrstrom Family, 2003
Photo courtesy of the NSLM
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Remember the name:
George Ohrstrom Jr.
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Integral to the continuation of Glenwood Park, George Ohrstrom Jr. died in 2005, but his family continues to ardently support the venue through the Virginia Fall Races and the National Sporting Library timber stakes they sponsor in Ohrstrom’s memory.
To understand the living legacy, and George Ohrstrom’s continuing role, follow the story from the point of view of widow Jacqueline Ohrstrom. (©Douglas Lees)
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She grew up in California’s San Fernando valley, showing reining and cutting horses, later graduating to show hunters and taking up foxhunting. Jacqueline hunted with the West Hills Hunt, famous as President Ronald Reagan’s hunt.
Widowed at 34, Jacqueline had moved from California to Virginia when her kids went off to college. “I had absolutely no interest in being married again,” she recalls. “I’d been alone for 20 years and had gotten pretty used to it.
“One day Gordy Keys says to me in the hunt field, ‘You’re not half bad looking. Why haven’t you managed to find a man yet?’
“That Gordy. He’s funny. But I had no idea what was next.”
A few weeks later, a friend introduced Jacqueline to George Ohrstrom Jr. and changed the trajectory of her life.
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“I thought he was the most handsome man I’d ever seen. He was charming, funny, smart. Totally swept me off my feet.”
Eight months later, they were married.
“Right from the beginning, we had so much fun together. He loved it that I was interested in (the racing) that he so
wanted me to be part of.”
George Ohrstrom died following an extended illness in 2005, but he’d gotten his wife intimately involved with steeplechasing, and the sporting library, two things that were very important to him, she says.
“I remember once when he was sick, we were sitting on the back porch, looking out over the cattle pasture. I was sad, and I said, ‘what can I do to make it better, George?’
“He replied something that I’ll never forget. ‘It’s good enough. It’s good enough,’ he said. He was looking out over this beautiful, protected land, in this beautiful, protected place, and he knew we’d take care of it when he was gone.
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“I love it that we’re carrying on where he left off. He loved the sporting library. He loved the Piedmont. He loved Glenwood. He loved racing. He loved hunting. He loved his family, and he’d love that it’s all carrying on.” (©Tod Marks)
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Love the lineage
George Ohrstrom Jr.’s obituary gives a glimpse into the life of a titan of both the horse world as well as the business world:
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Longtime Ohrstrom trainer Richard Valentine (left, after 2013 Maryland Hunt Cup win with Jacqueline's Professor Maxwell. ©Douglas Lees) says the sport, and the region, have benefited from the family’s involvement in horse sports and conservation alike.
The first time he met George Ohrstrom Jr. was as memorable as when Jacqueline met him.
But for different reasons.
“I met Mr. Ohrstrom was when I was working for (Pennsylvania trainer) Betty Bird,” Valentine recalls his first visit to Glenwood Park. “We had quite a good horse we brought down. The Ohrstroms must have sponsored that race, because every single person from Whitewood seemed to be in the paddock.
“I remember thinking, ‘Whitewood must be a magical place.’ There were a lot of people.
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“Mrs. Bird was – everybody remembers – a very particular person. And I remember Mr. Ohrstrom had quite a way with her, almost like he tamed her.”
Valentine started training for Ohrstrom in 1996; he’s stayed at Whitewood, training for Jacqueline, son Clarke and other Ohrstroms since. He’s got outside horses for other clients, and cares for special Ohrstrom retirees, including 2014 NSA leading earner Demonstrative.
“I thank George Ohrstrom every time I walk out of the barn and look around,” Valentine says. “Conservation was very important to him.”
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Love thy neighbor
Longtime publisher of the Chronicle of the Horse and lifelong steeplechase and foxhunting horseman Peter Winants once shared his ardor for Glenwood Park. “The Winants family …. lived for (more than three decades) on a small place that borders Glenwood Park. Of course I’m biased, but I am convinced that Glenwood is the most picturesque racecourse in America.”
(©Douglas Lees photo from 1988 of Raymie Woolfe and Peter Winants at the Warrenton Point-to-Point)
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Too, Demonstrative’s chief rider Robbie Walsh attributes his standout riding career to the Ohrstrom clan. (©Tod Marks)
“I never met Mr. Ohrstrom, but I feel like I ended up beneficiary of some of his very nice horses, and (of) the wonderful setup at Whitewood,” says the Pennsylvania-based Walsh, this month in the process of moving his family back to their native Ireland after 20 years in the States.
The Ohrstrom clan remains intimately involved in racing and race sponsorship – Jacqueline has two horses slated to run Saturday; Clarke and other Ohrstrom siblings helped fund the purse for the NSL stake.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: This profile of longtime Glenwood Park manager Bryon Pope was first printed in the Fauquier Times before the 2016 race meet.
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Glenwood Park facility manager Bryon Pope knows every blade of grass and every twig in every fence on the 112-acre property. Having it in pristine condition for race day has been his focus for nearly 20 years.
©Betsy Burke Parker
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The 'magician' of Middleburg Spring
Not a blade of grass will be out of place at Saturday's rich NSA meet, thanks to Pope's careful caretaking
By Betsy Burke Parker
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Bryon Pope stands, momentarily motionless on the tall hill overlooking the Glenwood Park racecourse. His gaze shifts left, studying the tall patrol judges' standing sentinel at the head of the homestretch. His head swivels right as he scans the dark hedge just out of the sharp top bend. He looks straight ahead, eyes following the meticulously manicured infield that seems to reach to the Blue Ridge looming some 20 miles west. Pope himself mowed fussy little stripes on the grass earlier this week – back and forth, back and forth, making the 100-plus acre racecourse look like an undulating baseball diamond.
Pope exhales audibly. It's race week, and the facility manager's hard work of prepping one of Virginia's top tracks is nearly done. (©Tod Marks, below)
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The weather's perfect he says, for final touches and setup over the next few days: He'll drag the wooden program sales kiosks into place, set beacons and flags, and count down for what he expects to be more than 15,000 spectators and 75 of the circuit's best horses arriving for the April 23 Middleburg Spring Races.
“All year,” Pope says when asked how long it takes to care for Glenwood, host to Middleburg Spring, next Sunday's Middleburg Hunt Point-to-Point, the Virginia Fall Races in October, and a handful of pony club events, horse trials and a few horse shows. “It takes all year long.”
Pope has helped care for Glenwood Park 14 years, made official facility manager in 2013.
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Love of place
“I know I'm prejudiced, but the Glenwood Park racecourse is my favorite,” says race committee member and racecaller Will O’Keefe. “Everyone can see the entire race. I can't think of any course where there have been anymore exciting stretch duels and close finishes.
“In this racecaller's opinion, I love it.”
©Tod Marks
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“I've been at this type of work all (my) life,” learning turf management around the world, horticulture practice from his native England to Australia to Virginia's Piedmont, and diesel mechanics learned in part during a stint with the British Army, says the 53-year-old native of Cheltenham. “It has to be right for the horses and the horsemen. Footing, jumps, flags. Everything has to be just so.
“It has to be right for the spectators. Signs up, boxes marked, cars and (foot traffic) going the right way, no one going into the wrong enclosure, nobody getting onto the racecourse.”
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Add to that orchestrating the lively country fair and vendor's row, and Pope's dance card is full. In the past few months, he's engineered the sharply increased electrical draw on Glenwood's private service to installing by hand a sophisticated rainwater management system in case a race-day downpour sends sheets of water slicing off the hillside overlook onto the shopping booths below.
“This year we've made significant improvements to the drainage,” Pope says, gesturing to handsome, fieldstone-lined ditches he hardened on both sides of the main service road that cuts past the permanent stables and the terraced box seating area.
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Love the photos
(From that page - Hall of Fame rider Joe Aitcheson tackles an old natural brush fence in 1970)
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Pope cares for all creatures great and small that cross the Glenwood property, including this resident vixen that raised several litters of kits under one of the machine shops behind the stone grandstand.
©Betsy Burke Parker
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Glenwood Park was developed into a world-class steeplechase course in 1932 by longtime Middleburg Hunt master Daniel Sands. It created a permanent home for the race meet first run in 1911.
Sands died in 1963, deeding the facility as a charitable trust to maintain open space and a sporting venue, designating trustees to oversee the 112-acre property.
Pope “became dedicated to Glenwood” through the late Chuck Hoovler, longtime Glenwood trustee who died in 2011. “I've learned a lot from (race director) Doug Fout, and between us we're constantly coming up with ideas to improve Glenwood as a whole.”
“Bryon is very conscientious,” Fout says, adding that the three Glenwood courses – traditional timber and hurdle, as well as the custom-designed cross-country Alfred Hunt course, have flourished under Pope's nurture. “The place looks great.”
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In his spare time …
Pope first found his way to northern Virginia's hunt country by way of visiting a friend from England, Adrian Smith, who had taken the job as huntsman for the Orange County Hounds in 2001.
He worked for a local contractor, doing farm management and contract work at Glenwood starting in 2002. Pope went out on his own in 2006, and Fout tapped him to rebuild the Middleburg-Orange County Beagles kennel at Fout's Goose Creek Farm.
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Share the love
Race sponsors include Farm Credit of the Virginias, the Goodstone Inn and Restaurant, Land Trust of Virginia and the National Sporting Library and Museum.
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He became good friends with Hoovler, and “Chuck kept finding me more and more to do, until it turned permanent.”
Glenwood's sparkle drew the eye of Montpelier course director Martha Strawther, who saw Glenwood's natural living hedges flourishing and declared to Fout and Hoovler, “we must have your guy.”
Strawther told Pope the natural hedges at the historic estate were suffering, so Pope went down to take a look. He quickly determined the lawn-care crew were treating the bushes trimmed into steeplechase fences as boxwood.
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Trouble is, they weren't boxwood.
They were privet.
“They were killing them with care,” Pope says. “They're privet, and need (totally) different management.”
Pope briefly took over tending the Montpelier hedges, earning top marks from National Steeplechase Association officials, who noted in their course analysis that “the course looks better than ever.”
Though Pope seems hard to rattle, one thing does haunt him – an irrational fear of wiggly lines criss-crossing Glenwood Park's vast infield. “It makes me a little nervous when I'm doing the final (mowing) before the races because if I make a mistake somewhere, a lot of people are going to see it,” he says.
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