Un-entered Mopia Lupy matured overnight to win the Grand Championship at the New England Hound Show. / Shawn Tinkham photo
Un-entered Myopia Lupy may have surprised some when she was judged Grand Champion at the New England Hound Show on Sunday, May 7, 2017, but none could have been more surprised than her huntsman and the Myopia Masters. The un-entered Lupy, not yet a year old, hadn’t exhibited the slightest inclination to show herself off during the prior week-and-a-half of show training back home.
“She had no interest in concentrating,” said Kim Cutler, MFH of the Massachusetts pack. “She was all over the place—just a puppy.”
“Her litter mate, Luna, paid attention,” recalled Phillip Headdon, Myopia huntsman, “but Lupy was just…loopy!”
What surprises this writer, when looking at Lupy’s photo standing confidently with all her silver, is that she really doesn’t look as under-developed as one might expect from an un-entered foxhound. Her chest is deep, she’s muscled over her loin and hind end, and she displays more substance than many young pups at that stage. Maybe she suddenly grew up both intellectually and physically on the long drive from Hamilton, Massachusetts to the show grounds in Jericho Center, Vermont!
Grand Champion Lupy with huntsman Phillip Headdon / Shawn Tinkham photo
“I didn’t expect much from her in the early classes,” said Headdon, “but when she got into the ring it was a new story. As the day progressed, every time I went to get hounds for the next class, there was Lupy standing right in front, ready to go. She went after the biscuits, and really showed herself off. Back home when I was throwing biscuits she’d look at me and say, ‘Well…maybe.’ She’d be lying down, and I’d be picking her up.”
Lupy is by Myopia Lithium ’11, an English hound that Myopia has since given to the Norfolk Hunt (MA). (Lithium was Champion English Hound at the show for Norfolk.) Through Lithium, Lupy gets her modern English bloodlines from the Holderness and the Cotswold plus some Old English blood from the Brocklesby.
Lupy’s dam is Myopia Tulip ’13 an American hound by Millbrook Kougar ’06, a Penn-Marydel. Through Tulip’s female lines, Lupy goes back to pure American bloodlines from Potomac and Essex, two reservoirs of the best pure American foxhound blood in the country.
Lupy returned home having earned new respect from Myopia staff and members. Headdon likes the injection of Old English blood which he believes contributes to methodical, no-nonsense work habits. The Modern English lines give her beauty, speed, and flowing movement. The American ancestors tune her nose to North American scenting conditions, and the Penn-Marydel blood adds voice and low-scenting abilities. With all this hybrid vigor from disparate lines, the litter should make a strong addition to the Myopia pack.
“I think they’ll enter well,” said Headdon.
Andrew Barclay, was the show judge. Retired huntsman of the Green Spring Valley Hounds (MD), Barclay is a key figure in the MFHA’s Professional Development Program and a 2015 inductee to the Huntsman’s Room at the Museum of Hounds and Hunting at Morven Park.
The Green Mountain Hounds (VT) hosted this year’s New England Hound Show. Click for complete results.
Posted May 19, 2017