Horse & Hound
Judges Engage Spectators at 2017 Canadian Hound Show
Admiring Canadian Grand Champion Wentworth are (l-r) TNY Huntsman Roslynn Balding; Judge C. Martin Wood III, MFH, Live Oak Hounds; Apprentice Judge Mary Ewing, MFH, Arapahoe Hunt; Carl Feairs, MFH, TNY; Laurel Byrne, MFH, TNY; Judge Ian Farquhar, MFH, Duke of Beaufort's; Mike Byrne, President, TNY; and Teresa Robinson. / Denya Massey photo
Two world-class judges of foxhounds turned a good day, June 17, 2017 at the Canadian Foxhound Show, into an exceptional and informative day for spectators. MFHs Captain Ian Farquhar and C. Martin Wood III shared their insights as to the choices they made after the results of classes were announced. The experience was an invaluable master class for both those showing hounds and those watching. Each man has judged every major hound show in the foxhunting world, including Peterborough, and each is esteemed among the very best in the breeding of foxhounds.
Grand Champion Foxhound of Show was Toronto and North York’s Blue Ridge Wentworth 2015, an English dog hound. Judge Farquhar especially demonstrated consistency in his choice, since he chose Wentworth as Grand Champion of the Bryn Mawr Hound Show last year!
Persistence Pays Off for Midland Striker at Bryn Mawr
Bryn Mawr Grand Champion Midland Striker 2015 (Midland Rocket 2011 ex Staffordshire-Mooreland Stunning 2011) / Karen Kandra Wenzel photo
Midland Striker 2015 was judged Grand Champion Foxhound at the 2017 Bryn Mawr Hound Show on Saturday, June 3, 2017.
Bryn Mawr is the one that got away from Striker last year. In 2016, this graceful moving, handsome Crossbred dog hound had a big year in the ring. He was judged Grand Champion at the Virginia Foxhound Show and at the Southern Hound Show. But the hat trick at Bryn Mawr wasn’t to be his. Now, Striker can add the Bryn Mawr notch to his collar.
Woodbrook Kent Is Grand Champion at Western States
Huntsman Jennifer Hansen and Western States Grand Champion of Show Woodbrook Kent 2014. Judges are huntsman Larry Pitts and Mary Ewing, MFH. / Nancy Stevens-Brown photo
Honorary huntsman Jennifer Hansen credits the Woodbrook Masters who encouraged her to take hounds on a one-thousand-mile trip (each way!) from Washington State to Southern California to participate in the Western States Hound Show. It was the first time that Woodbrook had shown hounds in many years, and it was the first time Hansen ever showed hounds. And she took home the Grand Champion Foxhound of Show, Woodbrook Kent 2014.
“I was as nervous as I could be,” said Hansen, but “I was so proud of Kent who held his stern high all day. [Judge] Mr. Pitts said, ‘That hound just can’t stand bad!’”
Rhoda Hopkins Root Lived Life at the Top of Her Games
Rhoda Hopkins, one of the first female professional huntsmen* in North America, died peacefully on June 18, 2017. She was eighty-eight.
Rhoda hunted the Fairfield County Hounds (CT) for fifteen years, from 1979 to 1994. Her pack of Penn-Marydel foxhounds provided excellent sport in the field, and excelled at the hound shows, winning the Pack Class at Bryn Mawr for seven consecutive seasons. Hers were the first Penn-Marydels I ever hunted behind, and I remember galloping as fast to keep up as I have behind any other pack of foxhounds since.
Huntsmen’s Room Honors Three New Inductees
Arapahoe Joint-Master Mary Ewing introduces Marvin Beeman. / Douglas Lees photo
A countryman from Virginia, a veterinarian from Colorado, and a businessman from north Florida were honored by an appreciative crowd of well-wishers on the occasion of their induction into the Huntsmen’s Room of the Museum of Hounds and Hunting. Ceremonies were conducted at Morven Park, Leesburg, Virginia on Saturday, May 27, 2017. This was the evening before the Virginia Foxhound Show over the Memorial Day Weekend.
James Lee Atkins, Dr. G. Marvin Beeman, MFH, and C. Martin Wood III, MFH were selected by a committee of their peers for having carried the hunting horn with honor, courage, and distinction in hunting fields across North America in their lifetimes. The three men join a select club of just forty-one pre-eminent huntsmen so honored. The last inductions were made two years ago.
Didn’t Know Old Ariat Could Run That Fast!
Photographer Gretchen Pelham was simply photographing a beautiful scene of huntsman Ryan Johnsey standing by the cornfield with the Smoky Mountains in the background. She had no idea she had caught a hunting drama!
Limestone, Tennessee, on the banks of the Nolichucky River (translation: “the River of Death”) under the shadow of the Smoky Mountains. It was the first staff hunt of the season. I had picked up a few puppies and our ancient hound Ariat hanging out at the trailers and put them in a section of corn that I knew was close to the pack, still searching for game. Both puppies came right back out of the corn but Ariat started boo-hooing on a line. The pack soon joined her and off they went.
About an hour later I was sitting on a hill on my horse, listening to the pack circle and roar by me again, and all I did was take a burst of photos of Ryan Johnsey, MFH, our huntsman, with the Smoky Mountains in the background. That’s it. I saw Ryan and the mountains through the lens. Nothing else.
Grand Championship at Virginia Ends 15-Year Drought for Orange County
Orange County Kermit 2015, shown by huntsman Reg Spreadborough, is Grand Champion at Virginia Foxhound Show. / Liz Callar photo
The Grand Championship class for the coveted William W. Brainard, Jr. Perpetual Cup at the Virginia Foxhound Show finally got underway at around six p.m. It’s always an exciting class, despite the late hour on a day, May 28, 2017, that started at 9:00 a.m. for five hundred hounds and participants representing seventy hunts. Thunderstorms had struck towns all over Virginia from noontime on, but hardly a raindrop fell in Leesburg.
Four magnificent foxhounds walked out with their handlers: English, American, Crossbred, and Penn-Marydel Champions. Now they would vie for the Grand Championship of Show. Each of the four, after vanquishing all other hounds through the long day of winnowing, were obviously superb representatives of their respective breeds. In this observers view, absent any serious and previously undetected flaws in conformation, it would be a test of movement—that free-flowing, ground-covering, shock-absorbing, athletic, and energetic stride that tells the judge, “I can keep doing this day after day, year after year.”
Central States Gives Brazos Valley 2nd Grand Championship of Season
Brazos Valley Mudbug 2014 is Grand Champion Foxhound at the Central States Hound Show. Sandy Dixon, MFH shows hound. Judge John Gray is standing. / Angela Fain photo
Sandy Dixon, MFH and huntsman of the Brazos Valley Hounds scored her second Grand Championship this season, this time at the Central States Hound Show on May 13, 2017 in Stilwell, Kansas. Brazos Valley Mudbug 2014, an American foxhound, was judged Best in Show.
Mudbug is by Brazos Valley Jett 2012 ex Brazos Valley Minnow 2010. Mudbug’s dam Winnow is by Brazos Valley Catfish 2006, a three-time Grand Champion at the Southwest Hound Show.
Innocence and Expectation
Innocence and expectation, tenderly captured by Lucy Clarke, is what your editor sees in the expressions of these Monmouthshire foxhound puppies in southeastern Wales. Baily’s tells us, “In 1695, Mr. Powell kept a pack of hounds that hunted anything. Mr. John “Squire” Lewis, Master from 1738–88, married Miss Powell, kept hounds at Llantilio, and hunted fox, hare, and otter. From 1788–1832, hounds hunted fox and hare. In 1832, Mr/ Lewis wished to give up keeping hounds, and Captain Stretton, then quartered at Brecon, volunteered to take them. Mr. Lewis presented him with the pack, which was installed in kennels near Abergavenny. Captain Stretton hunted hounds from 1832 to 1835. The Monmouthshire Hunt Club was established about 1835. The Hunt Club ceased to run the Hunt in 1945, since which time control has been vested in a Committee of farmers and representatives of the Hunt Club.” The pack composed of English and English-Welsh crosses is the property of the Committee.
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Myopia Lupy Surprises: Wins Grand Championship at New England
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!”
