May 31, 2010
It wasn’t enough that Linda Armbrust, MFH had secured two of the world’s foremost judges—Nigel Peel, MFH of the North Cotswold (UK) and C. Martin Wood III, MFH of the Live Oak Hounds (FL)—to judge the Blue Ridge Hunt Puppy Show. She and her judges got together and stunned spectators at ringside when she invited a special panel of venerable Masters to judge the final Championship Class of the day.
Renowned MFHs Sherman Haight, Ben Hardaway, and Henry Hooker—representing nearly three hundred years of foxhound experience—entered the ring to evaluate the winning dog hound and bitch selected earlier by Peel and Wood.
It was as emotional as it was dramatic to see these three famous figures collaborate on a Puppy Champion. But it could as well have been Stallion Hound and Three of His Get at Virginia or Peterborough as far as these dedicated hound men were concerned. For it is here, at kennels, where it all starts. Many times we hear the oft-quoted saw: “More foxes are killed in kennels than anywhere else.” Meaning that the makings of a good pack of hounds begins here.
The Blue Ridge Hunt Puppy Show—held each year on Memorial Day, the day after the Virginia Foxhound Show—is a long-standing and traditional stop for many out-of-town Masters and judges on their way home or to Bryn Mawr the following weekend. Started by the late Judy Greenhalgh, MFH, the Blue Ridge Puppy Show is very much an English–American cross, offering a Pimm’s cup to the thirsty and southern-fried chicken to the hungry.
Puppy Shows are an excellent way for any hunt to thank their puppy walkers and at the same time make amends for decimated gardens and chewed up lawn furniture. At Blue Ridge, the walkers of the winning hounds are invited into the ring and presented with trophies, and the Masters make a point of thanking each and every puppy walker for starting the civilization process, introducing puppies to the lead, and teaching the puppies their names.
Click a photo to start slideshow. Photos by Karen L. Myers
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