English foxhound
AKC English Foxhound Standard Needs Updating
It’s a shame that there exists a disconnect between AKC foxhound standards and those of the foxhunting community. Not that foxhunters need be concerned with AKC foxhound standards. The Masters of Foxhounds Associations in this country and in England maintain their own breed registries, and both registries are orders of magnitude larger than the AKC foxhound registry.
One would think, though, that the AKC should be more than a little interested in what foxhunters are breeding. After all, foxhunters are the ones using foxhounds for the purpose for which they were originally bred.
To look at the AKC standard for the English foxhound is to be stuck in a time warp of more than fifty years. According to a recent article by Ann Roth in DogChannel.com, the AKC breed standard for the English Foxhound was composed more than fifty years ago by foxhunters.
I’m not certain just which foxhunters the AKC was talking to fifty years ago, but I don’t believe the English foxhound photo accompanying Roth's article or the English foxhound painting found on the AKC website would have been models for any pack of that time, here or in England. They are more reminiscent of the so-called Shorthorn era in England, a period between the mid-nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries, when fashionable foxhounds of the time were criticized for resembling Shorthorn cattle.
The Cheshire Crossbred: A Bold Gamble
The new Cheshire Crossbreds combine the best traits of two disparate foxhound types / Jim Graham photo
When an established hunt with a reputation for showing the best of sport to the best of horsemen in the best of countries comes up with a novel idea for breeding a better foxhound, and sees it through to fruition and success, one has to pay attention.
The venerable—one hundred years this season—Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds in Unionville, Pennsylvania traditionally hunted the Old English foxhound under the hunt’s founder W. Plunket Stewart and the active Mastership of his step-daughter, the late Mrs. John (Nancy Penn Smith) Hannum. Masters and members know the breed very well.
Ireland’s County Galway Foxhounds (The Blazers), another venerable hunt renowned for showing world-class sport, also hunts the Old English foxhound. Cheshire huntsman Ivan Dowling grew up following the Blazers, and he too knows the Old English foxhound very well.
History and familiarity notwithstanding, seven years ago the Cheshire Masters and their Galway-born huntsman Dowling decided to continue a breeding experiment begun two years earlier by former huntsman John Tullock. They committed to the notion of crossing the English foxhound with the Penn-Marydel foxhound—two disparate types—in the hope of making a better foxhound for their country. This was a chancy endeavor, understandably fraught with controversy within the hunt.
Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds: An Oasis in Suburbia
If you want to see stunning hunting country, I commend you to FHL’s latest Photo Gallery slide show. We feature Elisabeth Harpham’s lovely photos of Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds in Unionville, Pennsylvania.
The Cheshire hunting country is an oasis between the developed suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Wilmington, Delaware. This is hunting country for any foxhunter to drool over. But you have to know that country like that just doesn’t happen by a stroke of luck. It’s the product of years of commitment by strong-willed individuals determined to protect what they have.
Myopia Gallant 2008 Is Grand Champion at New England
June 25, 2010Myopia Gallant 2008, a handsome example of the modern English foxhound, dominated the flags at the New England Hound Show on June 13, 2010 to emerge Grand Champion. With Exmoor bloodlines on both sides of his pedigree and Heythrop blood in abundance on the male side, Gallant surely benefitted from the renowned breeding mastery of the late Captain Ronnie Wallace, who had brilliant tenures as Master and huntsman at both hunting establishments in the UK.
Old North Bridge Dandy 2002, a venerable brood bitch for that Concord, Massachusetts based hunt, was judged Champion American Foxhound. North Country Nacho 2004 traveled south from New Hampshire's and Vermont's Connecticut River Valley to capture the Crossbred Championship. And the Penn-Marydel Champion was Shakerag Valor 2007, a traditional black and tan hound full of Andrews Bridge bloodlines on the top side.
Blue Ridge Mortimer Is Grand Champion at Bryn Mawr
June 6, 2010
Blue Ridge Mortimer 2009 (Crawley and Horsham Morpeth 2005 ex Blue Ridge Crocus 2006) was judged Champion English Foxhound and ultimately Grand Champion of the Show at Bryn Mawr on Saturday, June 5. Mortimer goes back in tail-male to Marty and Daphne Wood’s renowned Live Oak Drummer 1989, but the bloodlines had to cross the Atlantic twice before winding up in the Blue Ridge kennels.
Live Oak Hounds Dominate at Virginia
Two hounds from the Live Oak kennels in Monticello, Florida, took top honors at the Virginia Foxhound Show on May 30, 2010 at Morven Park near Leesburg. English Foxhound Champion Live Oak Maximus 2009 (Live Oak Daniel 2007–Their Mistress 2006) was judged Grand Champion, and Crossbred Champion Live Oak Apache 2008 (Live Oak Mascot 2005–Their Apricot 2004) was named Reserve Grand Champion.
Why Worry Hounds Big Winners at Carolinas
The Why Worry Hounds and MFHs George and Jeannie Thomas made bold statements at the Carolinas Hound Show on May 15, winning Championships in the Crossbred and English rings and going home with the Grand Champion Foxhound of the Show.
