William Proudfoot
Minkhounds to be shown for the first time at Peterborough Hunting Festival
William Proudfoot
William was a joint Master of the Kent & Sussex Minkhounds for three seasons, and was huntsman of the Pevensey Marsh Beagles for four seasons. He has hunted with all except four of the UK's minkhound packs.
It is perhaps surprising that even though I write my first piece on this subject for TMV in the middle of summer and therefore in the middle of the hunting season, my first subject will be Peterborough Show, now rebranded of course as the Festival of Hunting.
This year marks the first appearance of minkhounds at Peterborough, at least for a hound show as opposed to a parade or display. While it is probably desirable to incorporate a minkhound show into the overall event, there is a purely practical reason for it taking place this year.
For over 20 years, there has been an annual minkhound show in August as part of Ragley Hall’s game fair in the park of this Warwickshire stately home. However, as the CLA Game Fair is to be there this year, this event will not take place and the minkhound show was left homeless, providing a good opportunity to move to Peterborough and join all other hunting disciplines there.
Showing minkhounds is something of a strange activity, largely because there is no such breed to show and any day out with most minkhound packs will reveal quite an eclectic mix of hounds. These can be everything from draft foxhounds (and occasionally harriers) to welsh foxhounds, part welsh, pure otterhounds, part breds and a range of interesting crosses of all possible combinations.
This is further complicated by the fact that there is no studbook for hounds that minkhound packs have bred themselves. The result of all this is an immensely complicated show in which there are seemingly dozens of classes, some taking place simultaneously, hopefully providing a category for everyone.
Most minkhound packs have a good number of draft foxhounds, and this is especially true of those that live in foxhound kennels. There are a few where the presence of a dedicated Master over many years have enabled the breeding of a ‘type’ so that all or most of the hounds in kennels are similar, perhaps the best example of this being the Dove Valley in Derbyshire.
At the minkhound show there are classes for English Foxhounds, and therefore it is normal for packs to show hounds given to them from foxhound packs. These can come at any age, though unentered and 2nd – 4th season hounds that have proved unsuitable with foxhounds are probably the most common.
At the other extreme, a few packs have some pure or nearly pure bred otterhounds. These large woolly animals are almost all descended from one or other of two packs of otterhounds, the Dumfriesshire, or the Kendal and District.
Contrary to common belief, the majority of the old otterhound packs used almost entirely foxhounds of some kind or another, with only a handful of otterhounds and in some cases none at all. The Pembroke and Carmarthenshire Minkhounds set out to preserve the otterhound breed as a working hound, and as such their pack is almost entirely composed of otterhounds, mostly also registered with the Kennel Club.
In the middle are those with welsh hounds, crossbreds and other broken coated foxhounds of mixed genetic origin. Perhaps with the myth of “otterhunting was done with otterhounds” lodged in their minds, many people like to see broken coated hounds with minkhound packs, and the majority of those woollies seen on the water are part breds of some type or another.
For hunting purposes, from what I have seen, it appears that any hound can make a good minkhound, and some of the best I have seen have in fact been foxhounds, but other superb hounds have been broken coated.
The minkhound section at Honiton Show is solely for pure and part-bred otterhounds, which means that most packs have no hounds eligible to show there. In order to cater for all tastes, the minkhound show at Peterborough therefore continues the MMHA convention of providing classes for all.
I would encourage people to come and see the Minkhound Show. While it may not have the glamour of the foxhound ring, it is (sometimes!) taken less seriously with a more relaxed atmosphere, and the wide variety of uniforms brought out for the day make for a colourful display, with competition often strong for the best turned out.
Remember though that the following Saturday those hounds will be out exercising on the river banks, and what better way to spend a summer’s day than to follow them!
William Proudfoot