 Jerry Miller, MFH |
 C. Martin Wood, III, MFH |
Diane Farrington, a non-foxhunter, has asked an interesting question that we think would stump most foxhunters. She writes, “I have been seeing lots of photos online from recent hound shows. What is the reason or significance of showing the hounds in white lab coats?”
We asked Messrs. Jerry Miller, MFH of the Iroquois Hounds (KY), and C. Martin Wood, III, MFH of the Live Oak Hounds (FL)—members of Foxhunting Life‘s Panel of Experts—for an explanation. Both men agree that the underlying purpose is simply to protect and keep the show staff’s clothing clean, but going back to the origins of the style leads us to an appreciation of practical solutions!
Jerry Miller sees it as a sensible evolution of the English practice of wearing drab, brown kennel coats cut from a heavy, durable fabric while working with hounds in kennel. Similar in cut to what we recognize as lab coats, the brown kennel coats protect the staffs’ clothing and keep them warm while working in the unheated kennels. Skinning livestock and feeding flesh can be a messy job, and the brown fabric hides a multitude of stains! Big, heavy pockets for holding fistfuls of kibble or liver bits used to reward hounds during training are also features of these kennel coats.
Miller continues the evolutionary story: “At the puppy shows in England during the off-season, hunt staff wear white kennel coats to show hounds,” Miller says. “Similar to the brown kennel coats but lighter in weight, they are cooler, more attractive in a formal setting, and can be changed if they become soiled.”
Here’s where the English and the Americans part company, though. In England, staff wear full hunt livery—scarlet coats, britches, boots, and hunt caps—when showing hounds at the major hound shows. That would be impractical here because of the climate, so we carry over to our hound shows the practice of wearing the English puppy show garb. Since there aren’t many shops that carry white kennel coats in the U.S., some hunts have simply migrated to the easily obtainable and similar white lab coats.
“I do not know when the use of white kennel coats got started here,” says Wood, “because I have seen them used for all of the thirty-two years that I have seriously been attending hound shows. Most hunts today monogram the breast pocket of their kennel coats with a discrete hunt logo which identifies the pack and along with a white shirt and colorful tie adds a bit of panache to an otherwise drab piece of outerwear.”
Posted June 12, 2013