Edna Philp
Bassets Column
Edna Philp
I can't believe it is nearly Christmas. We have been hunting now since September and the dry and desert like conditions have been replaced with the stickiest mud you have ever come across. I hate frosts, they produce the worse going imaginable. The soil just clings on like a limpet and adds to it with every step you take until you think ‘I can't make another step’, a clod falls off and you get back into traction, and then it happens all over again.
We had thick fog last week so could only manage to take hounds for a walk along "safe" routes. We took the field too - they might as well get some exercise as well as us, and then had tea from the back of the vehicles. It was better than nothing but a tad frustrating when you consider it's only one afternoon of the week and then it has to be foggy!
Our young hounds are doing really well. Both the litters have found their noses, except for Cockney who still insists on coming back to tell me where the rest have gone but makes no effort to go with them. He was from the accident litter - not planned you see - but the perpetrators were caught in the act and so it was merely an experiment to see what might turn out. As it happened most of the pups are good hunting stock but there were discrepancies in size, ranging from small basset to large almost harrier hound.
The ‘designer’ litter are all going well but the two bitches, Crocus and Cowslip, have missed several weeks because they've been on heat, but once entered, generally never looked back.
This is the important time for the young hounds to get stuck in and find out what work is like, and they duly deliver. I breed hounds to hunt, showing is just a small distraction, and watching them come out from day one and develop their senses is pure pleasure and oh so rewarding. It really is one of the main reasons I love this job.
Both the 2007 litters were quite late. Audrey whelped in July, Amber (the tart) in August: Audrey to a Westerby draft (*) we were given called Valour; Amber to our own Weaver. Between them they produced five and half couple of hounds which would be a huge entry for us in one year, but with losing one couple to private homes, and drafting the remaining half, the four couple we entered are good hunting stock.
Valour arrived un-entered, and in his first year was very easily distracted from his task. But in his second season he was a different hound and has not put a foot wrong since. We’d got to the stage where we needed to introduce fresh bloodlines and a draft seemed the best way. Sometimes you have to experiment to see what the results are, otherwise you’d never expand.
It’s probably not a combination we would use again, but it will have cemented the type I like: good solid bone structure, which gives us a very robust hound. Amber and Weaver have produced some much finer offspring - not as pleasing to the eye but are doing the job all the same, and they look as though they will give longevity with their conformation. Talking of which, I have three bitches that whelped in 1999 who are still hunting every week and show no signs of slowing up, they are just still amazing.
We had our Autumn Hunt Supper last month, with Robin Page as our guest speaker. Held in a converted chicken house on a farm in Sible Hedingham, we had over 90 attend and it was a good night. But Robin did get a bit maudling as he went on. He is incensed by the treatment of Otis Ferry when there are murderers who get out on bail. I think I plied him with too much wine: he was very good company at supper with Lulu - his very lovely wife of nearly four years. His column for me in the WE Telegraph is always a must, he just speaks common sense and ridicules the beaurocratic system in which we are supposed to live and make a living.
Only One Wheel on My Wagon!
I am in terrible trouble at home from Mr Philp because I have been driving the hound trailer around with a wheel bearing gone and now that has resulted in the hub and axle being damaged. Yes, I know it's my entire fault, but I honestly think it was general wear and tear too: it is nearly 12 years old!
Brenderup, the make of the trailer, gives varying timescales for replacement parts from three weeks to three months - so we wait in hope but at the moment there is only one wheel on my wagon! My predecessor, John Humphrey would have used his car to transport hounds to a meet, but I think I will draw the line at that one.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and some excellent sport over the festive time.
Edna XX
* draft is a gift hound from another pack