Horse & Hound
Driver and Trevor: Puppies of a Different Species
One-year-old Driver meets four-year-old Trevor on hound walk. / Glenye Oakford photoWHAT a beautiful day Saturday was! It started with a crashing thunderstorm that prevented me from riding over to catch our trailer ride to the day's hound walk, so I went out with the hounds on foot for what turned out to be a Very Special Morning. Young entry of two different species, each new to the field, met and got acquainted.
Allen Nixon Rodday: My Teacher, My Friend
Allen Nixon “Nick” Rodday died on July 26, 2011 at his home in Brewster, Massachusetts on Cape Cod at the age of ninety. He’d retired there after giving up his horse farm, Elm Brook Farm, in Concord, Massachusetts about thirty years ago. He bought himself a lobster boat and for the next fifteen years fulfilled a longtime ambition. But he still couldn’t resist stabling horses, and before long he was once again leading rides and driving his carriage.
Nick Rodday ran a riding stable, Victory Lee and later Elm Brook Farm, through most of the latter half of the twentieth century. He gave lessons, rented hirelings, and took his clients hunting. He was a charismatic guy with a beautiful tenor singing voice to boot. He taught me to ride and took me hunting. I met my wife-to-be Joan and many others who became good friends in his riding ring. He stood up for me at our wedding. Without question, he changed my life profoundly.
Meath Foxhounds Sweep Championships at Irish National Hound Show
Champion Bitch Meath Patsy shown by whipper-in Barry Finnegan (l) and huntsman Kenny Henry (r). Meath MFH Norman Williamson receives the trophy from George Chapman, MFH of the Island Foxhounds and chairman of the Irish Masters of Foxhounds Association.Stradbally Hall the home of the Cosby family in County Laois, Ireland was steeped in Mediterranean type sunshine for the National Hound Show. Refreshments were available for the spectators and hunt staff, but of equal importance were the strategically placed buckets of water available for the hounds. Organised by show chairman David Lalor, Master of the County Laois Foxhounds, and the committees of the foxhounds, harriers and beagles associations, it had to be one of the largest number of entries in many years.
The judges in the foxhound classes were Charlie Shirley-Bevan, MFH and huntsman of the Mid Devon, and Anthony Sandeman, MFH of the Crawley and Horsham, who has judged also at Peterborough and at the Virginia Hound Show at Morven Park in the USA.
Raymond Carter: Complete Horseman
Ray Carter hunting the New Market-Middletown Valley hounds in 1981 / Janet Hitchen photoRaymond Allaeys Carter died peacefully at home in Middletown, Maryland on June 20, 2011 from complications related to prostate cancer. Ray was born in Yorkshire, England in 1930. Times were tough in those years and money was scarce. Ray, however, with a natural love of horses always found a way to beg rides on farmer’s draft horses returning from work in the fields.
He cleaned stalls at a local stable to be able to ride. He was a natural athlete and was soon riding some of the fancier ponies in local gymkhanas. When he finished school at age fourteen, his parents, loath to let him work in the local mines, arranged an apprenticeship for him with a racing stable in Newmarket. He was basically an indentured servant, receiving only a pound a month for learning a trade. At the end of five years he was earning twenty pounds a year.
Dr. Scott Dove Is New Joint-Master at Old Dominion
Dr. Scott Dove, MFH / Karen L. Myers photoThe Old Dominion Hounds (VA) have a new Joint-Master—Dr. Scott Dove. If his name doesn’t ring a bell with you, his dog’s name probably will. Dove owns the most famous dog in America—Foxcliffe Hickory Wind, the Scottish Deerhound that won Best in Show at Westminster this year. But if you know Dove, you know he earned the Mastership through his own hard work at foxhunting.
Dove has served Old Dominion as honorary whipper-in for twenty-three seasons. One of his roles as Master will be mentoring new honorary whippers-in.
Los Altos Nicassio Is Grand Champion at Western States
Los Altos huntsman Matthew Cook and Nicassio / Kimberly Kavish photoNicassio, an un-entered Crossbred dog hound from the Los Altos Hounds (CA), was judged Grand Champion at the Western States Hound Show. The show was held on May 21–22, 2011 at the Santa Ynez Valley Hounds kennels in Santa Barbara.
“It’s not often an un-entered hound can beat an entered hound—fully developed and muscled—but Nicassio moved really well,” recalled huntsman Matthew Cook, who is in his sixth season at Los Altos. “That’s what sold it!”
Nicassio is by Ninja 2006, an un-registered dog hound that Cook obtained from his friend Martyn Blackmore, huntsman at the Loudoun West Hunt (VA). Blackmore? Again? This is the second grand champion hound this season in whose story Martyn Blackmore played a prominent role!
Eglinton and Caledon Noel Is Grand Champion at Canadian Foxhound Show
Canadian Grand Champion Eglinton and Caledon Noel 2006 / Paul Wilson photoA lovely English bitch—a veteran of five hunting seasons—was judged Grand Champion at the Canadian Foxhound Show at the London Hunt and Country Club on June 11, 2011. To emerge as Best in Show with that accumulated mileage is quite an achievement. There had to be a story here, so I looked up her pedigree.
Eglinton and Caledon Noel 2006 is descended from all modern English on the sire’s side and fell hound bloodlines on the dam’s side. The answer to her achievement was there, but I didn’t put two-and-two together until I talked to huntsman Steve Clifton.
Rockview Harriers Show Includes Both Scent and Sight Hounds
Lurchers in flapper race chasing the lureThe annual Rockview Harriers Working Terrier, Hound and Lurcher Show in County Kilkenny, Ireland enjoyed a large turnout with working dog enthusiasts traveling from all over the country. The show drew representatives from England and Wales as well.
Amwell Valley Heythrop Is Grand Champion at Bryn Mawr
Amwell Valley Heythrop is shown by huntsman Steve Farrin and whipper-in Lauren Podraza. / Karen Myers photo
Amwell Valley Heythrop 2008, an outstanding example of the modern English foxhound, was judged Grand Champion at the Bryn Mawr Hound Show on Saturday, June 2. Heythrop arrived at the Amwell Valley Hounds kennels as a puppy, along with his entire litte, from huntsman Martyn Blackmore at the Loudoun West Hunt.
Judging Beagles from the Correct Perspective!
Judges J.W.Y. “Duck” Martin and Otis Ferry (the latter standing at well over six-feet) give the Nantucket-Treweryn beagles a fair look at the Blue Ridge Hunt Puppy Show on Memorial Day, May 30, 2011. Martin is MFH of the Green Spring Valley Hounds (MD) and a former president of the MFHA. Ferry is MFH of the South Shropshire Hunt (UK) and judged the English ring the previous day at the Virginia Foxhound Show. Candi Kobetz is showing the beagles. / Denya Massey Clarke photo... This content is for subscribers only.Join NowAlready a member? Log in here
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