Hillsboro Godfrey 2016 was last year’s Grand Champion at the Southern Hound Show, hosted by the Live Oak Hounds (FL) / Leslie Shepherd photo
With the foxhunting season closing, and a new season of hound and puppy shows approaching, I always determine to improve my eye for a hound by judging from ringside just for fun. I would encourage any foxhunter to try it. The exercise not only makes the day more interesting, but educational as well. Especially when you can collar a friendly judge after the class and ask him why he didn’t like the hound you adored, or why he picked a hound you thought was ordinary.
It can be intimidating when you watch a procession of foxhounds enter and leave the ring and wonder how in the world the judge can sort them all out. For example, how does he compare a hound he is looking at to one he saw ten minutes ago? I have asked, and it seems there are almost as many methods as there are judges.
The late Bill Bermingham, MFH of the Hamilton Hunt (ON) told me that some judges, Simon Clarke (UK) for one, are able to snap a mental picture of each hound as it enters the ring. Once Clarke snaps his mental picture, he never forgets it. Jake Carle, ex-MFH of the Keswick Hunt (VA) told me that the late Bill Brainard, MFH of the Old Dominion Hounds, could do the same. He never used a scrap of paper. He ranked hounds mentally as they entered the ring, remembered each, and usually pinned them that way. Most of the rest of us mortals need another system, for we cannot hope to judge at that level.
Bill Bermingham would first check the hound for all necessary body parts, then look at feet, toes, elbows, knees, shoulders, stern, head, mouth, underline, and topline. If the hound exhibited no obvious faults and it appealed to him, he would score it on a scale of one to ten, perhaps a seven. If the hound had faults or didn’t show to advantage, he would give it a four or five. He would then use the same procedure on the next hound to enter the ring, decide whether he liked it better or worse than the previous hound, and score it accordingly. Thus, at the end, he was not comparing a hound to one he saw ten minutes earlier, but to the one he had last seen. He would then call back the highest scoring hounds and compare the top four or five for the final placings. That system has worked well for me.
Jake Carle’s system is to watch each hound as it enters the ring and jot down the names of those he likes. He then lets them sort themselves out when he asks them to move. If, when on the flags, he sees a dropped toe or a hound he particularly likes, he makes an adjustment in his placings.
Marty Wood, MFH and huntsman of the Live Oak Hounds (FL) has judged all the major hound shows in the U.S., Canada, and England, including the prestigious Peterborough Royal Foxhound Show. Here’s his method.
When hounds first enter the ring, Wood looks at each to draw an impression and jots down the name or number of the ones that catch his eye. Then, on the flags, he examines each hound in the class for overall structure, comparing each individual to an ideal standard stored in his mind. Hounds he doesn’t like are noted in his own shorthand, identifying the faults. Then he watches them move, looking primarily for balance and activity, and secondarily for a happy, springy, fluid, ground-covering stride. Before making his first cut, he looks carefully at those to be excused to be certain he has not made a mistake. If he has ten or so hounds remaining after the first cut, he trims that down to five or six, then puts them on the flags again, making a final cut to the last three or four. He carefully examines the finer points at this stage—splitting hairs. If he has been true to his standard, he expects to have all the same type when he pins the class. Structure, balance, and activity is Wood’s mantra, but, he warns, not all classes will have the depth of quality you hope for. “You’ve got to make concessions and judge what’s in front of you.”
As a final note, I have on occasion picked what I considered a top contender based on its appearance, structure, and conformation points, but when it came for that hound to be turned loose to display movement, it simply wouldn’t. At best, the hound might trot to the biscuit. No matter how much you like the hound, if it doesn’t show itself against the others, it can’t be judged.
Posted March 12, 2018