Hounds

Whey: the watery part of milk that is separated from the coagulable part (curd) in the process of making cheese. Whey is rich in lactose, minerals, and vitamins and contains lactalbumin (proteins) and traces of fat. –Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Foxhounds dig in to the palatable and nutritious mixture of kibble and whey. Note the healthy coats. / Graham Buston photo 

The whey comes free. All huntsman Graham Buston has to do is drive a few miles from the Blue Ridge Hunt kennels to the cheesemaker’s farm in the village of White Post, Virginia and open the spigot on the fifty-gallon tank he placed there. He goes to collect the whey about once a week and has cut his feed bill in half.

 Leo Powell presents The Irish Field Perpetual Trophy for Best Unentered Bi*ch, ‘Old English,’ Co. Limerick Truckle (Racket ’18 ex Tassel ’18). Receiving the trophy is Belinda Johnson with huntsman Fergus Stokes and David Beecher, whipper-in for the Co. Limerick Foxhounds. Stradbally Hall stands in the background. / Catherine Power photo

For twenty-one years, the Irish National Hound Show has been hosted at Stradbally Hall in County Laois, the Cosby Family seat since the 1500s. Stradbally's long history is as tragically brutal as the history of Ireland herself. Today, however, it is home to a young Cosby family and internationally known as the site of the annual Electric Picnic, a prized arts and music festival; the National Steam Rally; and the Irish Scout Jamboree, attracting scouts from Ireland, Canada, the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Mission Valley 2018 Performance Trials: Fort Leavenworth Tracker 2010 (#71) was overall High Point foxhound after two days of hunting.  /  Allison Howell photo

The schedule of Foxhound Performance Trials for the 2021/2022 foxhunting season has been released by Trial Chairman Fred Berry, MFH, Sedgefield Hounds (NC). Nine qualifying trials will be run across the country, and the tenth and final trial will crown a Grand Champion and the top ten performance hounds in North America.

"'Pretty is as pretty does' really applies to foxhounds," says Fred. The Brits invented mounted foxhunting and hound show, but they shouldn’t have stopped there.

Halo: two years getting home  /  Illustration by Rosemary Coates

From The Hound Intelligence Series, published by Hounds Magazine (UK), edited by Deirdre Hanna, illustrated by Rosemary Coates. Click to purchase the 333-page collection.

Red Rock Halo by Lynn Lloyd, MFH
Years ago, in the mid-1980s, the Red Rock Hounds (NV) hunted an area in Northern California called Spencerville. The drive from Reno takes about four hours and crosses a mountain pass exceeding fourteen thousand feet at the summit. Here in Reno, we are about 5,500 feet above sea level, so the climb is substantial, and the range is vast. It is the same Sierra-Nevada range and the same pass (now Interstate 80) where the doomed Donner Party met their fate over the winter of 1846/1847 when they became snowbound migrating westward.

Belle Meade huntsman Epp Wilson, MFH, and 8-year-old Midland Maiden 2013

Midland Fox Hounds (GA) has drafted a lot of fine hounds to us at the Belle Meade Hunt (GA) over the years. Most have worked out well for our country and our way of hunting. Most drafts are un-entered pups, but often they will draft an entered hound to us when they’ve had a large litter and find themselves with more of that bloodline than they need. That’s how we got Midland Maiden 2013, and she turned out to be one of the best hounds they ever sent us. She is so good, I think Mason may have some regret about having drafting her to us.

Melody '95: a survivor  /  Illustration by Rosemary Coates

From The Hound Intelligence Series, published by Hounds Magazine (UK), edited by Deirdre Hanna, illustrated by Rosemary Coates. Click to purchase the 333-page collection.

Brazos Valley Melody (Deep Run Butler ’91 ex Mission Valley Gamely ’92) was an English bi*ch―half fell hound and half Modern English―whelped by huntsman Tommy Jackson at the Mission Valley Hunt (KS). Butler, Melody’s sire, was all fell blood, top and bottom of his pedigree, from the Eskdale and Ennerdale kennels in Cumbria. This is a storied foot pack with rugged hunting territory in England’s Lake District on the English-Scottish border. Gamely, Melody’s dam, was Modern English with bloodlines back to the Hamilton and Ottawa Valley Hunts in Canada.

Tommy drafted Melody, heavy in whelp, to Sandy Dixon, MFH and huntsman of the Brazos Valley Hounds (TX). Melody had been bred to Mission Valley Nero ’95, an American dog hound with mostly Penn-Marydel blood. The handover occurred at the end of the 1995 Central States Hound Show, which both hunts were attending. For the journey home to Brazos Valley, Melody was put into a travel kennel with the rest of Sandy’s hounds that had been at the show. 

Sandy Dixon continues the story of an extraordinary journey.

−From The Hound Intelligence Series published by Hounds magazine―an oversized 335-page collection of stories about remarkable and memorable hounds from around the hunting world.

Julie Whitlock McKee told me about her favorite foxhound at the Midland Fox Hounds (GA)―a hound that she walked as a puppy.

“He is a beautiful tri-colored dog hound who is as honest as the day is long. When the correct quarry is being chased, he is right there up front. He may not be the beauty king that goes to the shows, but if there is any doubting in the minds of the hunt staff as to the correctness of the pack, they look for Brecon to tell them if the pack is right. Which is quite handy in a pack that has a lot of young entry.

Randy Waterman, MFH, (foreground) hunts the Piedmont pack in the 1991 Piedmont-Midlang Hound Match. Farnham Collins, MFH, Millbrook Hunt (NY), (behind) is a judge. Watchman would surely have been with the pack this day but is unidentified.  /  Douglas Lees photo

Watchman is a popular name for dog hounds around the foxhunting world. 'Watchman' appears in at least fifty different hunts in the North American Studbook, not to mention the studbooks of England and Ireland. Nevertheless, whenever you hear the name Watchman in a foxhunting conversation, you can bet they're talking about Piedmont Watchman 1989.

Joanne Maisano photo

We’ve had hot weather hunting reports from many quarters across the Mid-Atlantic and southward. The West Coast as well. Hot weather hunting can be devastating to hounds because... bless them... they will try to keep up with the pack even when overheated and failing. Some hounds will be more susceptible to heat exhaustion than others, and the result can be fatal if neglected.

What follows is an excerpt from the author’s excellent book, Letters to a Young Huntsman.

Foxhounds of the Orange County Hounds (VA)  /  Douglas Lees photo

We would start roading (mounted hound exercise) around the middle of July. I really wanted the youngsters off couples by this time as a couple wrapped around a horse’s leg can be an ugly thing. Once puppies are used to going out with the horses, then it’s time to start introducing them to things like sheep, deer, cattle, etc.

This should be done as low key as possible; the worst thing you can do is make a big deal of it. If you have staff swinging whips and speaking loudly to the hounds, it’s only going to jazz them up. If you stay relaxed and cool, the hounds will pick up on that and remain cool themselves. Theses are things that they will see every day out hunting and everyone has to act accordingly.