Brazos Valley Marley 2010 (Brazos Valley Catfish 2006 – Their Meadow 2007) / Greg Germann photoImagine a middle-aged mother with teen-aged children winning a beauty pageant. Nice! But rare. That’s what happened at the Southwest Hound Show on Saturday, April 16. Brazos Valley Marley 2010, a seven-year-old brood bi*ch* that has hunted for six seasons, was judged Grand Champion of Show.
Marley was also judged Grand Champion at the Central States Hound Show, but that was back in 2012. She’s been mostly in the shadow of her littermate, Mystic, who was Grand Champion of the Southwest Hound Show for three years running from 2011 to 2013.
“She’s had a litter, and since then she’s been holding more weight,” explained huntsman Sandy Dixon, MFH. “She’s lovely.”
Marley’s and Mystic’s success is no stroke of luck. They’re the product of a royal breeding engineered by Dixon. She put a dog hound of her own breeding—Brazos Valley Catfish 2006—to a Potomac-bred bi*ch that she entered in 2006—Brazos Valley Meadow.
Marley’s littermate, Brazos Valley Mystic, was Grand Champion of the Southwest Hound Show for three consecutive years. / Greg Germann photoThe sire Catfish won three consecutive Grand Championships at the Southwest Hound Show in 2007, 2008, and 2009. The dam Meadow was Grand Champion at the Central States Hound Show in 2011.
Meadow brought her own credentials from Maryland. She was bred by Potomac huntsman Larry Pitts and is by Potomac Jefferson, Grand Champion of both the Virginia Foxhound Show and the Bryn Mawr Hound Show in 2007. Jefferson was knockout handsome, hands down the Clarke Gable of the American foxhound world.
Brazos Valley Meadow 2006 / Greg Germann photo
Even before Marley began her march to the Grand Championship, her sons, Thumper and Two Step, were judged first and second respectively in the first class of the day, Single American Dog Unentered. Marley went on to win Best American Brood Bi*ch, Best American Bi*ch, Best Brood Bi*ch with 2-3 of Get, and Best American Hound (beating her littermate Mystic, Champion American Dog).
“Marley and Mystic both hunt up front,” Sandy Dixon told me once. “Mystic constantly has his nose to the ground searching. When he speaks, Marley honors him, and we are off to the chase.
“Their personalities are somewhat different. Marley is a bit quiet and reserved, while Mystic is a clown. I am more than thrilled with the entire litter.”
Participating hunts at the Southwest Hound Show this year were Bijou Springs Hunt (CO), Brazos Valley Hounds (TX), Independence Foxhounds (TX), and Fort Leavenworth Hunt (KS).
The show was judged by James Raine, professional huntsman at the Princes Anne Hunt (VA). Click for complete results.
Posted April 27, 2016
* To employ the commonly accepted term for a female foxhound is to run the risk of our e-magazines being labeled as spam and blocked from delivery by some internet providers.