Harry Stephenson
View a slideshow of the York and Ainsty (South) Puppy Show: York and Ainsty (South) Puppy Show 2009
Foxhound Column
Harry Stephenson
Mid summer already, and all that goes with it. I have always maintained that summer is the most vital time for huntsman and hounds. Some people may assume that there is nothing to do. How wrong can they be? As well as the many hound shows that are attended, especially Great Yorkshire and Peterborough, but not forgetting the local hound shows often put on by individual hunts, there is the puppy show. This is a big day in any hunts calendar of events, and it is a day dedicated to the puppy walkers, without whom the hunt simply wouldn’t function. Puppies that are well walked, and by that I mean have had a good start to their education, playing on a farm seeing different livestock, cats, dogs chickens etc, do so much better than those that haven’t seen so much. If they have been used to being on a lead then they will couple up to the old hounds without too much problem once back in kennels.
But the main reason I say summer is important is because it is the time the huntsman gets to spend with his hounds without having to perform! Some amateur huntsmen leave all the summer work to their kennel huntsman. I suppose that can work ok, but for a definite certainty the amateur huntsman is missing something when he starts hunting them in September. If an amateur huntsman needs his Kh to push hounds on to him constantly, then his hounds are not fully trusting him.
One reason (out of many) for this is he hasn’t built up that special relationship over the summer months. I like to go out on bikes every time. You can’t go far on foot, and the further you go the more the young hounds see and learn. We do about five miles each day, at a slow pace so hounds can bounce on in front and have a good play around. I don’t have any spectators early on, and certainly no chit chat if someone does come out with us. It is important that staff are relaxed, because if they are the hounds will be, but not so relaxed not to spot potential trouble.. No good trying to correct things after they have happened, far better to stop it before it does. That said, hounds have to have room to see everything. Cur dogs being walked by their owners are great.(any dog that comes into contact with hounds that is not a hound, even a crufts champion, is a cur dog) If my hounds come across one they either ignore it with a distasteful look, or they come back to me. They certainly don’t stand and boo at it. Puppies learn quickly from the old hounds, and the whipper in needs to be ready in case a puppy needs a gentle shove in the right direction!! I ride past the said cur dog, smiling sweetly at the owners who are usually desperately trying to hold onto a dog that is both barking and doing somersaults, but I don’t say anything harsh to hounds. If I make a fuss, and start waving my arms and whip about, it only makes hounds curious and they make a mental note that next time they will slip off and have a proper look. That’s the reason when out hunting, should a member of the field spot a deer or a hare, he should by all means quietly inform the huntsman, but to start shrieking with excitement and pointing at it will only attract hounds attention to it, especially the puppies. A good way to start hounds rioting!
Every problem seen up ahead of hounds, be it a cur dog, a cat, a loose sheep, a family picnic (that can be an interesting one, only come across that once in my first summer with The Bilsdale hounds, which were pretty wild at the time. It would be fair to say we helped the family start a new diet, hounds scoffed the lot), as I say every potential problem should be turned to the huntsman’s advantage, by making it a lesson for hounds. (I’m not sure what hounds learned from the picnic saga, but it certainly sharpened up the whipper in!) This needs strong team work by the staff, and if hounds and staff are tuned in, an awful lot of good can come out of any potential disaster. Get it wrong, and a summers work can be wasted.
I don’t like hound parades, but recognise they are good for PR, and so we do our share. It isn’t the actual parade I mind so much, it is the dragging hounds about on a hot day, having them stuck in a trailer in the heat, galloping them about and seeing their faces at the end when they are virtually saying what the hell was all that about!
The hunt horses are all turned away so someone always offers to lend a horse. “Its fine with hounds, whip and horn, honest, I’ve hunted it myself” they say, which does nothing for me. So the two parades we do mid summer I delegate to my Kennel huntsman, on the grounds that he is younger than me and so should bounce better when the strange horse turns itself inside out in the ring (which incidentally one did last summer and My KH did a few somersaults of his own!) He is really looking forward to this year, not, but told me today he was going to sit on this years loan horse the day before to try to avoid a repeat performance. Pity really, because I was going to sell tickets!
Harry Stephenson