Grand Champion Live Oak Farrier 2010 chases a biscuit from kennel huntsman Richard Daley. / Lauren Giannini photo
For the third straight year a Live Oak English hound was judged Grand Champion at the Virginia Foxhound Show. This year it was Live Oak Farrier 2010; last year it was his littermate, Fable; and the year before that it was Live Oak Maximus 2009. This feat of breeding begs a question. Has any one hunt ever won the Grand Championship at Virginia for three straight years? I’d lay money on a new record here.
The day proved to be an adventure for Live Oak’s new kennel huntsman, Richard Daley, who just this month moved to Monticello, Florida from the Piedmont Fox Hounds in Virginia where he has been first whipper-in.
“What a way to start my first season!” writes Richard via Facebook.
Although Joint-Master Marty Wood is the genius behind Live Oak’s consistently successful breeding program, the achievements of the Farrier/Fable litter are somewhat of a potluck story. Their sire Live Oak Architect 2004 goes back in tail male to Live Oak Drummer 1989, Marty’s all-time favorite dog hound and the single most important dog hound line in his kennel. However, Farrier’s dam, Live Oak Famous 2006, came to Live Oak while still a puppy via a dispersal draft!
Famous was out of Duke of Beaufort Footloose 2003, who had been given in whelp to Moore County MFH Dick Webb around the time that huntsman Jody Murtagh was introducing his Penn-Marydel hounds to the Moore County country in North Carolina. Shortly after Footloose whelped her litter, the (English) puppies were drafted.
“Farrier hunts on the top of the pack,” said Marty with pride. “He is a hell of a hound on a coyote!”
Judges this year at Virginia were Tommy Jackson, MFH, Mr. Jackson’s Oxford Hounds (KS) and Linda Knox McLean, MFH, Aiken Hounds (SC) in the American ring; Andrew Barclay, ex-huntsman, Green Spring Valley Hounds (MD) in the Crossbred ring (under 35 couple); Cindy Martin, ex-MFH, Los Altos Hounds (CA) and Dr. Mark Smith, MFH, Shawnee Hounds (IL) in the Crossbred ring (over 35 couple); Peter Green, AKC judge and Harry Wilmerding, MFH, Essex Fox Hounds in the Penn-Marydel Ring; and Henry Berkeley, MFH, Berkeley Foxhounds (UK) in the English ring.
Click for complete results for all MFHA-sanctioned hound shows.
Posted May 30, 2012
Grand Championship Award presentation. (l-r) Richard Daley; Live Oak MFHs Mercer Fearington and Daphne Wood; Virginia Foxhound Club President Joan Jones; Marty Wood, MFH; and whipper-in Michelle Moore / Lauren Giannini photo