A good whipper-in can be the decisive ingredient in turning a mediocre hunting day into a brilliant one. If you need a better authority before agreeing with my premise, how about Peter Beckford? Here’s what he had to say in 1781.

“In a country full of riot, where the covers are large, and where there is a chase full of deer and full of game....I should prefer an excellent whipper-in to an excellent huntsman.... The whipper-in, if he have genius, may show it in various ways: he may clap forward to any great earth that may, by chance, be open; he may sink the wind to halloo, or mob a fox, when the scent fails; he may stop the tail hounds, and get them forward; and has it frequently in his power to assist the hounds, without doing them any hurt, provided he should have sense to distinguish where he may be chiefly wanted.”

I recently witnessed a great example of Beckford’s “without doing them any hurt” admonition. It was just a simple thing, yet after forty-five years of hunting it still made me shake my head in admiration.

Galway Blazers shown by (l-r) whipper-in Jason O'Donnell and huntsman Tom Dempsey  /  Noel Mullins photos

The magnificent grounds of the Cosby Estate in Stradbally, County Laois again hosted the annual Irish National Hound Show. Three rings featured foxhounds, harriers and beagles.

Hound shows are important events to meet and catch up on hunting in different parts of the country. For masters and hunt staff it is an opportunity to see what packs have on show, and maybe to pick out a suitable stallion hound for future breeding plans. However, at hound shows, hounds can be judged only on conformation and movement. Only in the hunting field can the other essential qualities for any working hound be assessed, like stamina, scenting ability, fox sense, and drive, as hounds are only as fast or as steady as their noses.

Foxhunting Life is pleased to bring you these wonderfully entertaining extracts from a new hound blog I know you will enjoy. Martha Wolfe and her family have walked puppies for the Blue Ridge Hunt (VA) every summer for the past ten years. Martha updates her blog regularly with Motive’s and Monarch’s latest adventures so that we, too, may enjoy watching them grow and learn.

Monarch with rope"Incredibly destructive,” I muttered yesterday evening as my husband, Bill, and I were eating dinner on our screen porch, watching these two terrorists drag the cover to our outdoor grill across the patio. Because they are hound dogs, nothing is off limits. Their little noses find the smallest scent and their first reaction is to either chew it or dig for it. A crumb or a caterpillar, a two-day old footprint from a passing varmint, or a newly plopped horse turd sends them into olfactory ecstasy.  I’ve tried to imagine being able to smell everything a hound dog can smell…what a new world that would be.

I look forward to the puppies every summer. They make me smile, and what better way to spend a day?

Grand Champion North Country Luna and (l-r) Jim Faber, judge; North Country huntsman Sandy Studer; Kendall Woodward; Owen Hughes, MFH, Norfolk Hunt; Vernon Studer, MFH, North Country Hounds  /  Sue Greenall photo

A Crossbred bitch rolled down to Massachusetts from the hills of Vermont and snatched the Grand Championship trophy from its habitual resting place at the venerable Myopia Hunt kennels. North Country Luna 2008 was judged Grand Champion of the New England Hound Show, hosted this year at the Berlin, Massachusetts home of Virginia Zukatynski, MFH, Old North Bridge Hounds on June 10, 2012.