Breed for Perfection
By Benson Rule Stout
Knoxville, Tennessee
The Hunter’s Horn, November, 1969
Page Twenty-five
About the time of World War I a group of men at a field trial were talking, and Frank Armstrong’s Uncle Jim made this remark: “The way to build up a good pack of running foxhounds is to get you an old gyp that has stood the test, and has the qualities in her that you are looking for. Then mate her to a stud that you know—one that you have heard run night after night, and that has the qualities you are looking for. Keep the pups and you will soon have the kind of pack that will drive a fox night after night, with few faults and mouths that stand out in a race.” I never forgot Uncle Jim Armstrong’s remark.
In 1939 I got a letter from a stranger who signed his name Cal Cawtnon, asking if I would accept a pup out of old Bell C., a gyp that had produced many many champions both on the bench and in the field, the pup sired by Liberty Bond, by Ona Boy by Sampson out of Ch Ona Stride. Bell C was a grandpup of Ona Stride and by Ray Raider. That was breeding, and by return mail I gladly accepted the gift. Cawthon said he had kidney trouble, was likely to meet St. Peter any day, and wanted to tell him that he had done one really unselfish thing, and that really he was selfish in giving me the puppy. He got well and lived for years, but he certainly did me a kindness telling St. Peter.
I bred Snowbird (she was almost white) to five different studs—all of them I knew and well, and she never dropped a poor foxhound by any of them—all were good hounds without faults, and in every litter there were about two that were super hounds. The three hounds that I gave Ernest Braden when I had to stop hunting all run back to Snowbird, and the reason I have always had hounds that stood up in the woods or at field trails was Snowbird.
When she was about 10 years old she whelped a litter by Mac-Arthur. I let John Rose have her to raise the pups, and he sold all but two for $35.00 each he said, but two he would not price—one a perfect marked male, and the other a BW&T female named Nylon Nel, and she died mine at 13. An earlier litter had Gale, perhaps the most perfect female foxhound I ever heard run a fox. John Rose always claimed that his Pearl, a litter mate was just as good. They were sired by Rock K. (Ch Hill Top Hustler was also sired by Rock K.) Orphan Annie (she belong to Wayne Farmer, but she too was always at the front, and a perfect bench type) like Gale, she had a squall that could be heard for miles, and it was always the first you heard when the pack topped up.
One morning I was out at Wayne’s when a man drove up, pulled $200.00 out of his pocket and said, “I just have to have Orphan Annie,” but he did not get her. She died an old hound still belonging to Farmer. The first time I bred Snowbird to Little Ken, and there were five outstanding foxhounds raised to maturity, one, Four Spot, could run at the front with any hound he ever met for about three hours after which only one hound could stay with him, Callie, his mate. Foxhunters would not run with Four Spot if they knew it, as he took the fox and left, then caught it right on the ground. Farmer lived in Dutch Valley between Walden’s Ridge Mt. and Pine Ridge. One winter, Sam Spessard stretched nine red fox hides on boards, caught by Four Spot and Callie coming toward the creek just above his mill he would release Bluetick, and he would stand by the dead fox and bark till Sam came to him and picked it up.
Snowbird was bred in the purple. She was almost a perfect field trial hound. When the scores went on the board she was always either first or second. Cal Cawthon is responsible for the super hounds that I have owned down through the years. I was talking to Ernest Braden a few weeks ago and I asked him about Harp, now 9, and he said Harp had not slowed down one bit but was still getting his share in any race, and could still run from dark to sunup. I never heard of a Snowbird bred hound quitting, no matter how long the race, and I have known many that were 12 and 18 hours long, and only one great grandpup that ever barked out of line, just one. He would open when he crossed a covered trail. One in a hundred.
“Uncle” Jim Armstrong was 100 per cent right.
(Back 60 years ago Dr. T.A.R. Jones told me that foxhunting was the most relaxing of all sports and to keep it up and it would add 10 years to my life. I always stayed with the hounds through the night, or day, but at night I tried to get at least three hours sleep rolled up in my hunting bag, and was there when fagged out hounds came in. I like daylight hunting, then you can really check and find out which hounds do the work.)
