Canadian Grand Champion Eglinton and Caledon Noel 2006 / Paul Wilson photoA lovely English bitch—a veteran of five hunting seasons—was judged Grand Champion at the Canadian Foxhound Show at the London Hunt and Country Club on June 11, 2011. To emerge as Best in Show with that accumulated mileage is quite an achievement. There had to be a story here, so I looked up her pedigree.
Eglinton and Caledon Noel 2006 is descended from all modern English on the sire’s side and fell hound bloodlines on the dam’s side. The answer to her achievement was there, but I didn’t put two-and-two together until I talked to huntsman Steve Clifton.
“We have a lot of the hill hound bloodlines in our kennels,” said Clifton, referring to the College Valley, Border, West Percy, and David Davies ancestors gracing Noel’s pedigree. “They’re tough hounds, they have good minds, and they last longer.”
I have hunted on the English/Scottish border, and I know the country is immense, hilly, and especially rough, steep, and rocky in the Lake District. The fell hounds bred for that country are quite different than the modern English beauty standard we so admire in the more gentle countries. What was it about the Eglinton and Caledon country that required this type of hound? I wondered.
“The Niagara Escarpment is only 150 yards from our kennels,” explained Clifton. “The country is rocky and hard on hounds. We need that toughness.”
“I love the modern English for their size and beauty,” Clifton continued, “but after three seasons of running coyotes in this country they begin to show the wear and tear. It’s hard on them. You put a lot of years and effort into entering a hound, and you want them to last. The hill hounds are busy and happy. They don’t show well because they’re small, but they’re still going after five or six seasons. I guess the judges understood what we’re doing.”
Noel’s brother, Nomad, won the Stallion with Two of his Get class. Noel’s and Nomad’s sire was a modern English type drafted to Eglinton and Caledon from the Toronto and North York kennels. The mating certainly nicked. The litter inherited their Fell toughness from the dam and their modern English beauty from the sire.
Judges were Richard Tyacke, MFH of the Wynnstay (UK) and Skip Crawford, MFH of the Potomac Hunt (MD).
Reserve Grand Champion was Woodford Ravish 2008, a Crossbred bitch (London Spinner 2001 ex Elkridge-Harford Racy 2002). Full results of the Canadian Foxhound Show are available on the MFHA website.
Posted June 16, 2011
Canadian Reserve Champion Woodford Ravish 2008 / Paul Wilson photo