Page 23 - The Hunt - Spring/Summer 2023

Bruce Miller comes from excellent Chip, who still lives in Unionville. “Still, to horse. “He never gloated or even talked
stock. His father, Fulmor, was the longtime huntsman at Huntingdon Valley Hunt in Bucks County. Miller began
whipping in at age 12. He was an adult when he started hunting and riding point-to-points, moving to Unionville specifically for Cheshire and Mrs. Hannum. His Fox Ferret Farm was 18 acres, but the neighboring Strawbridges shared their mass acreage for riding, hunting and training. Without that, the family wouldn’t have led the life it did. “When it’s not yours, you gravitate to gratitude,” says
as field master, dad put in the years and the miles foxhunting. It’s the most challenging discipline in horse riding—if you do it the way dad and Mrs. Hannum did it.”
Miller first raced as a jockey in 1966. He took his first winner, Wyoming-bred Jimmy Whit, over timber at the Andrews Bridge point-to- point event in 1970. Miller’s favorite horse over fences was John Irving’s Eastmac. The pair fell in their debut at the Maryland Hunt Cup in 1972, but they returned to finish second a year later.
Throughout his training career, Miller was always best at meticulously matching rider
about it,” Blythe says. “Proud of his horses, he never took credit.”
Indeed, Miller is known as a profoundly quiet, modest man and leader. “He never proclaimed to be an expert on much,” says his son-in-law. “But in racing and foxhunting, you never questioned him.”
Retired Cheshire field member Patti Miller was always in Bruce’s pocket—meaning she was among the immediate 10 riders in the first flight behind him. “Whoever would follow the field master better be a bold, nervy rider—especially behind Bruce, for God’s sake,” she says. “Bruce
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