Best in Show Wentworth Archer 2015 is shown by huntsman Rachel Duffy. Standing (l-r) is Judge Don Philhower, huntsman, Millbrook Hunt; Daun DeFrance, MFH, Wentworth Hounds; and Dominic Cammarata, MFH, Norfolk Hunt.
The ninetieth annual New England Hound Show was hosted by the Norfolk Hunt (MA) at their Steeplechase Course in Medfield on Sunday, May 5, 2019. Seven district hunts exhibited foxhounds: Green Mountain Hounds (VT), Myopia Hunt (MA), Norfolk Hunt (MA), North Country Hounds VT), Old North Bridge Hounds (MA), Tanheath Hunt (CT), and Wentworth Hunt (NH).
Entries competed in three divisions—American, Penn-Marydel, and Crossbred—but North American foxhunting is currently going through a confusing period in which foxhounds registered as American may defy the thinking of some traditionalists.
Take Wentworth Archer 2015 (De La Brooke Sinbad 2010 ex Wentworth Audrey 2013), for example, chosen Best In Show by judge Don Philhower, huntsman, Millbrook Hunt (NY). Archer is registered as an American dog hound, but he is close to seventy percent Penn-Marydel and possibly even more.
Yes, a Penn-Marydel is an American hound, but we’ve been accustomed to distinguishing the Penn-Marydel from the traditional old American foxhound bloodlines from Virginia and Kentucky. The situation arises because all Penn-Marydels in the MFHA studbook before 2008 were registered as American hounds. There was no separate Penn-Marydel classification as there is now.
MFHA officers and directors have addressed the problem and recently agreed upon how to handle it, but it will take time. MFHA Director for the Maryland-Delaware District, John McFadden, MFH, De La Brooke Foxhounds (MD) describes us as being in a temporarily “unresolved transition.”
Archer’s sire, De La Brooke Sinbad 2010, is “listed” with the MFHA as a Penn-Marydel. However, Sinbad’s sire and dam are both “registered” with the MFHA as American hounds.
Archer’s dam, Wentworth Audrey 2013, is registered as an American hound. Audrey’s sire, however, is one hundred percent Penn-Marydel, but neither Audrey nor her son, Archer, are credited with any Penn-Marydel genes in their Breeding Coefficients as published in their pedigrees. Yet, to be recognized and registered as a Penn-Marydel foxhound in the Stud Book will require a Breeding Coefficient of ninety-three percent. That will come, I am assured by MFHA Executive Director David Twiggs, who is clearly very much on top of the situation.
None of this is meant to distract from Wentworth Archer’s grand championship accomplishment, but his prominence and good looks offer us an opportunity to mull over a current problem in which the hound pedigrees, as published, do not yet give potential breeders a complete picture of some hounds as registered. And with the growing population of Penn-Marydel foxhounds across the country, the situation is thrust more and more to the fore.
I talked to Wentworth huntsman Rachel Duffy, who agrees that Archer, though mostly of Penn-Marydel bloodlines, looks more like a traditional American foxhound than a Penn-Marydel, this no doubt through his strong Keswick tail female line. “Even his voice is more like that of an American hound than a Penn-Marydel,” she said.
Duffy is a recent graduate of the MFHA’s Professional Development program. She moved from the hunting field to whip-in to Kami Wolk, the previous Wentworth huntsman, for a couple of seasons. When Wolk moved to De La Brooke as kennel huntsman three seasons ago, the horn was passed to Duffy. I asked about Archer’s work in the field as a four-season hound.
“Archer has come a long way since he entered the pack,” said Duffy. “For the first couple of years, he didn’t have the most confidence in himself,” she noted. “But over the last year or two, he has gained self confidence and moved from the middle of the pack to the front. In the kennels, he’s a cuddle-dog; he’d rather be in your lap.”
Junior Showmanship Classes in three age divisions were held at New England, as well as a class for retired hounds shown on lead by their current owners. A nice touch. Retired hounds especially must enjoy having a day in the sun every once in a while.
Click for complete results in all classes.
Posted June 20, 2019