2013 Unveiled!
Here’s our Foxhunting Life 2013 Calendar, featuring all new photos and ready to ship on September 1. We’ve been publishing this appointments calendar since 1998—first for the MFHA and now for Foxhunting Life—and our annual collection of foxhunting images continues to represent the finest examples of the sporting photographer’s art. It’s a joyful task each […]
Cornwall Woodman Is Grand Champion at Canadian Hound Show
Canadian Hound Show Grand Champion Cornwall Woodman 2010 / Paul Wilson photoCornwall Woodman 2010 (Fox River Valley Keystone 2005 ex Mooreland Wedlock 2008) was judged Grand Champion at the Canadian Hound Show held this year at the kennels of the Hamilton Hunt (ON) on June 9, 2012.
Woodman is a Crossbred dog hound entered by Tony Leahy, MFH and huntsman of the Cornwall Hounds and the Fox River Valley Hunt, both in Illinois. Woodman was entered into the MFHA registry as a Cornwall hound, but the Cornwall and Fox River Valley packs are basically one in the same. Woodman is primarily the result of Fox River Valley breeding, but the tail female line—one of Leahy’s best—took a short detour through the Mooreland and the Whiskey Road kennels!
Adventures on the Road with Brazos Valley
The adventures of Sandy Dixon and Mystic, shown here at the Virginia Foxhound Show, were just beginning. / Lix Callar photoThe Brazos Valley Hunt is back home in Texas now, having returned from this year’s Virginia Foxhound Show. That may not sound like a great achievement, but traveling to hound shows has been one adventure after another over the years.
Returning from the Central States Hound Show in 1995, we drove into a tornado. The hound trailer was flipped over on Interstate 35 in Ardmore, Oklahoma, spilling sixteen hounds onto the highway. We had two kennels strapped down in the bed of the pickup, both of which were sucked out. I actually saw Melody, a pregnant bitch I had just picked up from Tommy Jackson, fall out of the sky and hit the ground running south down the median.
All in the Families at Rolling Rock
R.K. Mellon’s great-granddaughter Kendra McBroom, showing her hound in the Junior Handlers Class at the VIrginia Foxhound ShowFrom the founding family—the Mellons—to the professional huntsman’s family—the Stickleys—the Rolling Rock Hunt nourishes its family connections.
Today, two Rolling Rock Masters represent the founding family: Mrs. Armour (Sophie) Mellon and Christina Henderson, granddaughter of hunt founder Richard King Mellon. Christina’s daughter, Kendra, thirteen, helped with hounds at the Virginia Foxhound Show this year and showed in the Junior Handlers Class—a fourth generation of the Mellon family involved in the hunt.
Mark Stickley, the current Rolling Rock huntsman, whipped-in to his father Lovell Stickley, who came to Rolling Rock as kennel huntsman in 1956 and carried the horn from 1961 to 1977. Today, Mark’s daughter Virginia whips-in to Mark and worked side-by-side with her dad showing hounds at the Virginia Foxhound Show—a third generation of Stickleys working with hounds at Rolling Rock.
All Foxhound Puppies to Be Microchipped in England
Starting next year, all foxhound puppies whelped by hunts in England will be microchipped. With more than twenty-five hundred foxhound pups born each year, that will be a daunting task, but hunts want to be ahead of the curve on expected legislation. Laws aimed at puppy mills are expected to be passed in Great Britain […]
Third Grand Championship in a Row for Live Oak at Virginia
Grand Champion Live Oak Farrier 2010 chases a biscuit from kennel huntsman Richard Daley. / Lauren Giannini photo
For the third straight year a Live Oak English hound was judged Grand Champion at the Virginia Foxhound Show. This year it was Live Oak Farrier 2010; last year it was his littermate, Fable; and the year before that it was Live Oak Maximus 2009. This feat of breeding begs a question. Has any one hunt ever won the Grand Championship at Virginia for three straight years? I’d lay money on a new record here.
Nancy Milburn Kleck Art Studio
Cigar by Nancy Kleck, 24 x 30 inches, oil on canvasEquine and sporting artist Nancy Milburn Kleck has relocated her art studio from the Kentucky Bluegrass country where she lived for twenty-five years to Bluemont, Virginia, near historic Upperville and Middleburg. She relishes the opportunity to expand the scope of her work from mostly racehorses to the foxhunting field as well.
Penn-Marydels Are Getting Respect
Unentered Aiken Trailer was Grand Champion of the Carolinas Hound Show to the delight of (l-r) huntsman Katherine Gunter and Linda McLean, MFH. / Louisa Davidson photoWith stunning examples of the modern English foxhound setting the beauty standard of our time, the Penn-Marydels have long been considered the ugly ducklings of the show ring. So outclassed were they that when shown in the same ring with the modern English or well-bred Crossbred, they never even earned a second glance from the judges.
That view is changing, and we are seeing some spectacular examples of foxhound conformation in the Penn-Marydel ring. So good in fact, that in two cases at least the Penn-Marydel entry has eclipsed all others.
Saxonburg Hunt Extends Its Season in South Carolina
Author Hugh Robards is huntsman of the Saxonburg Hounds (PA). / Alex Farnham photoThe foxhounds of the Saxonburg Hunt in Pennsylvania now have a winter kennel in South Carolina of which full advantage is taken from January 1 to the end of March each year. Since Mr. Floyd Wine, MFH invested in property close to the small town of Salley (population about 450 and home of the annual Chitlin Strut!), the harsh Pennsylvanian winters are no longer an obstacle to continued hunting.
As the country hunted is shared with the Edisto River Hounds it was decided this year to have a Hunt Festival Week. Each pack hunted on alternate days with tailgate parties, dinner parties, and a Hunt Ball thrown in for good measure.
Southern Hound Show
Grand Champion Live Oak Hannibal 2009 (Live Oak Hasty ’06–Their Asset ’03) / Jim Meads photoThe sixth annual Southern Hound Show, held on April 28, 2012 at Live Oak Plantation, Monticello, Florida was once again blessed with perfect weather. Ten packs from as far away as Tennessee and Palm Beach competed under the watchful eyes of Richard Sumner, MFH of the Heythrop Hunt in England and Dennis Foster, Executive Director of the MFHA. Robert Ferrer, MFH of the Caroline Hunt was apprentice judge.
English, American, Crossbred, and Penn-Marydels all show in one ring against each other. As there are two Crossbred rings at the Virginia Foxhound Show (based on number of hounds in kennel), this is the only occasion that Fox River Valley, Live Oak, Midland, and Mooreland go head to head in every class.