Horse & Hound
Turning the Tables: Aiken Foxhunters Travel North
Loudoun West huntsman Martyn Blackmore blows his fox to ground.Aiken Hounds huntsman Katherine Gunter and I had been planning this trip for months. South Carolina summers are tough, and no sooner had we returned to Aiken after the 2011 Virginia Foxhound Show and found ourselves enveloped in ninety-plus temperatures that we began to think about September and a possible hunting vacation.
Everything came together well. We don’t begin our own cubhunting until October, which left September free and clear for adventure. Where shall we go? We had a wonderful invitation from friends in Millbrook, NY, so we decided to make the big push north, out of the heat first, and work our way back south.
Cornwall Woodman Is Grand Champion at Canadian Hound Show
Canadian Hound Show Grand Champion Cornwall Woodman 2010 / Paul Wilson photoCornwall Woodman 2010 (Fox River Valley Keystone 2005 ex Mooreland Wedlock 2008) was judged Grand Champion at the Canadian Hound Show held this year at the kennels of the Hamilton Hunt (ON) on June 9, 2012.
Woodman is a Crossbred dog hound entered by Tony Leahy, MFH and huntsman of the Cornwall Hounds and the Fox River Valley Hunt, both in Illinois. Woodman was entered into the MFHA registry as a Cornwall hound, but the Cornwall and Fox River Valley packs are basically one in the same. Woodman is primarily the result of Fox River Valley breeding, but the tail female line—one of Leahy’s best—took a short detour through the Mooreland and the Whiskey Road kennels!
Now…Turn Round and Round Really Fast, Mum
We had some good captions submitted on our Facebook Caption Contest, but Candy Love’s caption produced such an immediate and stunning graphic image to our mind’s eye, that we declared her the winner. Candy, please email your postal address to me. Foxhunting Life would like to send you a gift for playing the game! Posted July 3, 2012
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The Griffon Vendeen: Another Basset Altogether
James Scharnberg, Master and huntsman of the Skycastle French Hounds (PA), walks out his Griffon Vendeen bassets. / Noel Mullins photo
The day following the 112th running of the Maryland Hunt Cup, which I traveled from my native Ireland to witness, I accompanied advertising executive/sportsman Eli Silberman to visit the Skycastle French Hounds—a pack of Griffon Vendeen Bassets—at their kennels on White Acres Farm in Downingown, Pennsylvania.
A Visitor’s View
It was an unrivalled invitation: to spend two months hunting in the United States with Anne McIntosh, MFH of the Blue Ridge Hunt (VA). As a hunting-mad Brit who’d grown up with the West Country packs of my native Somerset, I was intrigued to learn about the tradition of the sport on the other side of the pond.
Coming over to help with Anne’s horses, I took particular interest in the type and manners of what I would usually call hunters, soon learning they were called field hunters stateside. What struck me was their condition. A sunny American summer was as evident in the bloom on these horses’ coats as in the suntans on their riders! The fact that the majority of these horses also live out throughout the hunting season (which would be impossible with our muddy British winters) I think contributed to their impeccable manners and relaxed temperaments.
Adventures on the Road with Brazos Valley
The adventures of Sandy Dixon and Mystic, shown here at the Virginia Foxhound Show, were just beginning. / Lix Callar photoThe Brazos Valley Hunt is back home in Texas now, having returned from this year’s Virginia Foxhound Show. That may not sound like a great achievement, but traveling to hound shows has been one adventure after another over the years.
Returning from the Central States Hound Show in 1995, we drove into a tornado. The hound trailer was flipped over on Interstate 35 in Ardmore, Oklahoma, spilling sixteen hounds onto the highway. We had two kennels strapped down in the bed of the pickup, both of which were sucked out. I actually saw Melody, a pregnant bitch I had just picked up from Tommy Jackson, fall out of the sky and hit the ground running south down the median.
All in the Families at Rolling Rock
R.K. Mellon's great-granddaughter Kendra McBroom, showing her hound in the Junior Handlers Class at the VIrginia Foxhound ShowFrom the founding family—the Mellons—to the professional huntsman’s family—the Stickleys—the Rolling Rock Hunt nourishes its family connections.
Today, two Rolling Rock Masters represent the founding family: Mrs. Armour (Sophie) Mellon and Christina Henderson, granddaughter of hunt founder Richard King Mellon. Christina’s daughter, Kendra, thirteen, helped with hounds at the Virginia Foxhound Show this year and showed in the Junior Handlers Class—a fourth generation of the Mellon family involved in the hunt.
Mark Stickley, the current Rolling Rock huntsman, whipped-in to his father Lovell Stickley, who came to Rolling Rock as kennel huntsman in 1956 and carried the horn from 1961 to 1977. Today, Mark’s daughter Virginia whips-in to Mark and worked side-by-side with her dad showing hounds at the Virginia Foxhound Show—a third generation of Stickleys working with hounds at Rolling Rock.
A View from the Driver’s Seat
Huntsman Andy Bozdan at his first TVH Opening MeetArriving to take up your post as huntsman three days before your first meet is probably not the traditional way to begin the season. However, after months of tussling with the U.S. Immigration Department I finally arrived at the Tennessee Valley Hunt on 13 September 2011.
Through September and October the hounds and I were finding our way. The meets were still very new to me, and the hounds were quite wayward in terms of running riot and biddability. We were walking out every day, and hounds slowly but surely began to respond to my voice and my horn.
Potomac Templeton Is Grand Champion at Bryn Mawr
Karen L. Meyers photoUnentered Potomac Templeton was judged Grand Champion Foxhound at the Bryn Mawr Hound Show, a testament to the breeding acumen of huntsman Larry Pitts. He has a hound to appeal to every judge. If you don’t like ‘em too big, here’s a smaller one! If you don’t like ‘em too robust, here’s a finer one!
Ignored in Virginia and over-shadowed by his littermate, Teapot—judged best Unentered Hound at Virginia—Templeton went to Bryn Mawr determined to redeem himself.
Third Grand Championship in a Row for Live Oak at Virginia
Grand Champion Live Oak Farrier 2010 chases a biscuit from kennel huntsman Richard Daley. / Lauren Giannini photo
For the third straight year a Live Oak English hound was judged Grand Champion at the Virginia Foxhound Show. This year it was Live Oak Farrier 2010; last year it was his littermate, Fable; and the year before that it was Live Oak Maximus 2009. This feat of breeding begs a question. Has any one hunt ever won the Grand Championship at Virginia for three straight years? I’d lay money on a new record here.
