Grand Champion North Country Luna and (l-r) Jim Faber, judge; North Country huntsman Sandy Studer; Kendall Woodward; Owen Hughes, MFH, Norfolk Hunt; Vernon Studer, MFH, North Country Hounds / Sue Greenall photo
A Crossbred bitch rolled down to Massachusetts from the hills of Vermont and snatched the Grand Championship trophy from its habitual resting place at the venerable Myopia Hunt kennels. North Country Luna 2008 was judged Grand Champion of the New England Hound Show, hosted this year at the Berlin, Massachusetts home of Virginia Zukatynski, MFH, Old North Bridge Hounds on June 10, 2012.
Luna’s accomplishment was all the more impressive in that she prevailed over not one, but two previous Grand Champions at New England: Myopia Godfrey and Myopia Gallant. Both showed well, Gallant being judged Champion English Foxhound.
When Master Vernon Studer and his wife, huntsman/breeder Sandy Studer, took over the North Country hounds and kennels in 2001, they drafted heavily from the Crossbred pack that huntsman Patty Hopkins had assembled at the Old Chatham Hunt (NY). Sandy mated one of their Old Chatham drafts to a dog hound at Old Chatham to produce Luna’s dam, North Country Lilac 2003.
She mated a draft from Green Spring Valley’s R-line—Green Spring Rally 1996—to another dog hound at Old Chatham to produce Luna’s sire, North Country Nacho 2004.
Luna, with Old Chatham blood on both sides of the pedigree in the third generation, is strongly descended from Taconic Crossbred bloodlines. Taconic was a farmer’s pack that merged with Old Chatham in 1997. Luna’s Old Chatham grandsire was Taconic breeding, top and bottom, and her Old Chatham grand-dam was by a Taconic dog hound.
“Luna’s uncle and sire are top hounds—well bred and exceptional both in the field and in the show ring,” said Vernon Studer, MFH. “In the field, she and her littermates have it all—voice, cry, and drive.”
Posted July 10, 2012