cartwright
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Sep 2008
Location: HUNTERS HAVEN, WV
Posts: 3634 |
interesting story
This is a good read if you like the history of the hounds.
This is more about a bloodline of english called lightfoot. But also tells the story of how one of the most famous english hounds that ever lived came to be. If you are a english hunter you have more than likely heard of boyds little joe. Enjoy!
The name Light Foot was first given to this family of hounds in the 1950’s by Bill Clark of Evansville, Indiana. This family of hounds first came to America in the early 1800’s. Their point of origin, Scotland . The hunters who brought these hounds to America was Dr. Henry along with his hunting partner, Colonel Birdsong. This pair made a pact swearing.... “Nothing would stand in the way of breeding the best line of hunting hounds in America !”
These men were among the more educated and wealthy men of their time. Money, time, effort or understanding was not going to be a stumbling block. Birdsong and Henry had a clear vision of the hound they intended to breed. Every mating was carefully considered and planned. Future breeding's were planned as much as three and four generation's in advance.
This list of qualities demanded by Birdsong and Henry could have been written by any serious Big Game hunter of today.
Nose, Speed, Grit and Toughness. This goal was accomplished through the dedication and discipline of two hunters. Hunters who spent the time, effort, and yes the money needed to live up to their original commitment.
“Nothing would stand in the way of Breeding the Best line of Hunting hounds in America .”
This process was not easy or quick in coming. Birdsong/Henry line bred and inbred their bloodline of hounds for over twenty generations. Roughly, fifty years it took this pair to achieve their goal to have "The best line of hunting dogs in America ". There were many hounds culled from the program. Only the best lived to become part of the pack and only the best of the best ever became a part of the most pure gene pool of hounds ever bred in America . The bloodline became more than just hounds to Birdsong/Henry it became a life long obsession. Unfortunately life long commitments only last a life time. The blood lines created by Birdsong/Henry out lived Birdsong/Henry themselves.
Small pockets of Birdsong/Henry hounds lived on for a number of years. Mostly adopted by the fox hunters of west Tennessee and Kentucky, the hounds became fox hounds. The nose, speed and endurance demanded by Birdsong/Henry were put to good use by the hunters of the Red Fox. Red fox were trapped and brought into Tennessee and Kentucky just for the love of the chase. The fox hunters of the day had no interest in killing a Red Fox and no interest in the hound that would catch and kill one.
This is where one of the problems with the Birdsong/Henry hounds often showed itself. The Birdsong/Henry hounds often developed into what the fox hunters called a "Cutter". A cutter is a hound that not only uses his nose to trail game, but also uses its brain to catch game.
The term cutter is descriptive; it means that the hound cuts across country to catch the game it is running. Often in today's verbiage we call it drifting a track. Even this is often misunderstood. If a hound is following a trail whether right on the track or off to either side, the dog is running a track.
Cutting or Drifting is when the dog leaves the scent trail and runs to where he thinks the game are going to be. Effectually, cutting across country to catch the game. A good example of this would be if your hound were trailing and comes to an open field, Most hounds will trail the track all the way across the field making every step that the game made. A cutter will hit the field, look across and realize that the game is not in the field. He will then run across the field at full speed. When reaching the timberline on the other side of this field, the hound will again use its nose to trail the track. This hound has "Cut" across country and cut down the amount of distance/time .
Second Page
Million Dollar Mac
The foundation sire of the Light Foot bloodline
Old Mac was part mystery and part legend. Mac was owned by an old time hunter by the name of Blankenship. Also known as Pop, by the few who were fortunate enough to know him and the Great hound old Pop called Million Dollar Mac. The name came about because of Mac's Million Dollar Mouth.
Where Trixie was a trim built red tick female of about fifty pounds, Mac was a big leggy blue dog of about 80 pounds. Mac, like Trixie carried the Birdsong/Henry hounds up close. The same drifting style and speed from the Birdsong/Henry blood flowed in Macs veins. His endless endurance and nose was even better than Trixie's.
Macs sire is where the mystery comes into play. After years of research I am convinced that old Mac also carried the Galloway hounds on his sire’s side. There is a quarter of old Macs pedigree that has been impossible to track with any certain. Some have claimed Leopard cur, others have claimed Catahula hog dog. What this breeding produced in old Mac was 80 pounds of solid coon hound. All those who hunted with Mac claimed that he had the best nose of any hound they had ever hunted, and a mouth that these old hunters still talk about with awe in their voice. Mac had been blessed with one more thing. Mac was a reproducer of outstanding hounds. He sired a World Champion coon hound from the early 1950s. In those days the wild coon hunts were more of a test of a hounds endurance and ability than they are today. Mostly held in the south these hunts featured 3 to 4 hour casts and scattered coon. Cold trailing was a must. Most of old Macs pups had the nose and tracking ability to excel in these early hunts. Macs pups also had the mouth to be heard when those long tracks ended sometimes more than a mile from the hunters.
Mac was the foundation sire of 3 bloodlines of English hounds that made themselves a place in history. Unfortunately, most of these dogs were single registered. Some were false papered. Some folks never knew the true pedigree of the great hounds they bought from the western part of Tennessee. Others had old family rivalries that kept the true pedigree off the single registration form. Still others made up a pedigree so that their dog seemed to be of a new bloodline that only the owner of this dog had. This robbed the English breed of a great foundation sire at a time one was sourly needed, and it also robbed Mac of the credit he so richly deserved.
Page Three
The First Light Foot Litter
Trixie was about eight years old when she was bred to Mac, No one was sure of Mac's age but our best guess put Mac at 10 years old. Trixie soon gave birth to 3 puppies these puppies were born on the birth day of our most famous general, Bill thought naming the first pup born, A blue male "Ike" to honer of the general who had later became our president would be a good idea. The other male was named Sam the female was Neil. Bill raised these pups until they were about six months of age. On their first trip to the woods these puppies caught two Grey fox on the ground and treed with Trixie on three trees. All of these young hounds were nice but Bill had formed a bond with the first born pup known as "Ike". After just a few more trips to the woods Bill realized that training all three of these pups was just not a possibility. These pups just had a over abundance of drive, breaking them from fox was going to be a major endeavored.
Bill made a tough choice the decided was made to send Sam and Neil to his uncle, A fox hunter Bill was hoping that like the Birdsong/Henry hounds these Young dogs would run fox for a couple years and then become "cutters" and start treeing. At that point the uncle was to call Bill and give Sam and Neil back to Bill.
Ike was a full time job and between going to collage and working Bill had all that he could handle. after getting his degree Bill took a job for the government and spent almost 2 years working in Texas. Bill's uncle like many of the folks living in the hills of Kentucky in those days had no telephone. Bill was never told that his uncle had passed until he came home over the Christmas weekend. Bill immediately jumped into his car and headed from Evansville Indiana to Kentucky to see his aunt and to check on Sam and Neil.
After consoling his aunt Bill ask about Sam and Neil, The aunt told Bill that without the uncle there was no way that she could feed let along take care of three hound's. Sam and Neil had a litter, and the uncle had allowed one male pup to live. The aunt had gotten word to a local dog trader that she had lost her husband and needed to get what she could for his hounds. The trader knew of these dog's the uncle had been a well known hunter. This trader went to pick the dogs up, the price was $25.00 a head. Sam and the pup<Ace> were easy to catch but Neil was not going to be caught. Bill went to the trader to find only to find that these dogs were sold as part of a load that went to a Big trade who lived in IL. It was 5 years later when Ace were found. The shame of this was that Ace had Blue Tick papers and had earned night hunt titles., Once again old Mac was robbed of the credit he deserved. The English breed was again robbed of the chance to use a male dog who had made himself well known in the wild coon Hunt's. Bill later purchased half interest in Ace and placed him 4Th and 6Th in the AC HA world hunt. Ace never really received the attention he deserved because of the controversy over his true breeding. Everyone hunting Light Foot dogs today have Ace in their pedigree's Now you know why. Sam was found two years later and he also had blue tick papers and a Grnt Ch title. Sam was to old to breed a female so the dog was lost to the Light Foot hounds. I want to clearly state here that the owner of Ace and Sam were not the one who had false papped the dogs, That was done by one of the traders. The owners of Sam and Ace were honest men who had just bought a Great Blue Tick hound's that were not blue ticks at all but English. Old Neil never came back to the aunt's house she moved down the road to old fallen down house and lived by her whits and hunting skill. Neil had given birth to a litter of pups, hunger had taken all but one of these pups. Neil was found in bad shape by a local hunter, This man rescued Neil and her one surviving pup. The world had not been kind to Neil and she left for a better hunting ground. Neil never gained the Fame that Ike or Same had and no one knew that her pup from a earlier litter had become a world ch named Ace. Neil did make her place in history in a most unlikely way. The one small blue pup that had survived made a hound feared by the worlds best Competition hunters and like Ace this dog was a English World Champion. The dog never grew to be a large dog, So the name Little Joe stayed with him, The entire English breed owes much to Little Joe and Eugene Boyd that man who made him famous.
While Sam, Ace or Neil never carried the name that has Light Foot, Ike did becoming well know through out the coon hound world as "Ike The Light Foot". Ike placed 2ND, 4Th,5Th, 7Th, and 9Th in world hunts with a teenage handler. With a more experienced handler, Ike would have won the world hunt maybe several times. Most who were there agree on that including Bill.
All of these dogs had the Drifting tracking style that made the Bridsong/Henry hounds so well known. All of the dogs were hard stay put tree dogs. Mac and Trixie would have been pleased. The off spring from Mac and Trixie had produced a bloodline of hounds that over 70 years later are still being hunted and enjoyed by hunters like myself across North America.
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