Woodbrook Hunt Club Has History of Horsing Around in Lakewood

It seems odd that in the otherwise urban City of Lakewood there are still people with enough land to ride horses for miles without no streets, but there they are.

Welcome to hunt day for the Woodbrook Hunt Club. It's just as much a part of Lakewood when it used to be prairies and farmland when it formed almost a century ago.

The history of the club is the subject of an Arcadia Publishing book by Joy Keniston Longrie. It provides a glimpse of Lakewood in the early days of settlement, known as the good life.

Maj. J. H. Mathews and Thornwood Estate Superintendent Thomas Bryan formed the club in 1926, making it the oldest fox-hunting club west of the Mississippi River. Using foxes faded into history in most areas, replaced with bags filled with fox scent that is dragged along the ground for the hounds to follow.

The Woodbrook hunt area is on the largest patch of native prairies found in the South Puget Sound, on what is part of the Western edge of Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Military officials allow the club to roam the undeveloped area of the base through permitting, conditions against going into restricted areas  and not suing the military for injuries associated with running a horse in military training area.

“There are definitely hazards, including the dreaded concertina wire, which make it wise to ride in the track of another rider,” the club’s Web site states. “We welcome newcomers, and do our best to initiate them into the traditions of the sport, which include horsemanship, courtesy, safety, courage, awareness of the environment and of one's surroundings, and also the traditions of dress and turnout.”