Meet the Hounds
Every hound has a story. From hunt-field heroism to lovable personality quirks—the HWF retirees have it all. We’ll add more of these “hound tales” throughout the year. Enjoy!
Pancake '99
Pancake was better known, early in her hunting career, as “Pancake. Pancake. PANCAKE!” That’s because she was so willful, and she wanted more than anything to be in front of everyone else, including the rest of the pack and the huntsman, even when she wasn’t supposed to be.
But as can often be said of people, too, sometimes a hound’s most annoying characteristic is also the key to what makes it successful. In Pancake’s case, that’s stubbornness. When she was a puppy, that could make Pancake very annoying! But, as she matured, that same quality translated into heroic tenacity when she chased coyotes. She would not stop for anything. If the pack lost the line, Pancake would not give up until she had found it again.
Pancake is not the prettiest of hounds. She’s pigeon-toed and plain, traits that would have prevented many hunts from breeding her. It’s a testament to how valuable a hunter she was that Iroquois did breed her. After watching her hunt for four or five years, the hunt determined that Pancake’s style might not be flashy, but her work ethic was tremendous, as were her hunting skills. She had grown from a pesky puppy to one of the Iroquois pack’s most valuable assets.
Sire: Iroquois Farnsworth ’94 Dam: Bicester With Whaddon Chase Parody ’94
Glowworm '97
Glowworm, a crossbred, is not the most beautiful hound in the pack. To be honest, she’s plain. But she was a fine hunter and is special to Iroquois and the Hound Welfare Fund because she represents the link between two eras at Iroquois.
Glowworm is by Captain, one of the Iroquois pack’s last hounds from its old breeding lines, when fox-chasing Walker foxhounds were more prevalent under the late huntsman Pat Murphy. But when coyotes moved in and became the primary pest to farmers, harassing their calves, Iroquois found it necessary to breed a different type of hound to chase and disperse the large, fast coyotes. The hunt imported some of the heavier and more biddable hounds from England to cross with the remaining old Iroquois blood, and Glowworm was one of the resulting crossbreds.
Joint-MFH Jerry Miller asked Murphy and his brother Bud to choose which of the new English bitches should be bred to Captain. The two watched the bitches hunt all season and argued the point back and forth for an entire hunt season. Come spring, they had both finally settled on the same bitch: Gloria. Glowworm was one of the resulting litter.
“I remember her in her very first season,” recalls Iroquois huntsman Lilla Mason. “She was just a puppy, and it was early in the season. Usually, it takes almost a full season for puppies to get confident in the hunt field. But, that day, the whole pack was in full cry on a coyote line. I was a whipper-in then. The whole pack came screaming by me through a filed, then suddenly went dead quiet. They seemed to have lost the line. But without hesitation, Glowworm just hung a right, and started speaking: “Roo! Roo!” And the whole pack swirled around little Glowworm. She was right, and they took off again with her right in front. It was amazing for her to show that kind of confidence in her nose as a young, first-season hound. You often don’t know whether to trust the judgment of a hound that young, but she was right, and she knew it.”
Sire: Iroquois Captain ’91 Dam: Grafton Gloria ’92
Laughter '96
Laughter’s breeding goes back to the Midland pack bred and hunted by famed Georgia huntsman Ben Hardaway. This crossbred bitch is one of the near-legendary “LA litter,” so named because, according to hunting custom, they all had names beginning with “LA,” after their mother. They became famous at Iroquois for their tenacity and unwillingness to give up in pursuit of coyote.
When Laughter was a tiny puppy, her tail accidentally got shut in a door, leaving her with only a nub to wag. But her little stub wiggles and shakes with joy, and, as her name suggests, it makes you laugh to see how happy she looks. It may be just a little stub of a tail, but it as every bit as expressive as a much longer tail!
Laughter was puppy-walked by Jan and Steve Yon, landowners in the Iroquois country, who took her everywhere with them in their old BMW. For the rest of her hunting days, any time she spotted that car at a meet, she would leave the pack and gallop toward the Yons, wagging her stub of a tail.
Sire: Midland Import ’91 Dam: Iroquois Latitude ’94
Stalker '01
It was a windy day in 2008, making scenting conditions challenging. A cold front was blowing through. Hunt staff knew coyotes would be tucked in coverts out of the wind; on a still day, they’re more likely to be found out in the open.
The hounds moved off and explored one covert after another: the Railroad Track, Norton’s Clover, then Betsy and Knox’s Coverts, moving east to west, but found nothing. They moved on to the Swamp Covert but moved past it quickly, as if they knew it was empty and were anxious to try somewhere else. It began to seem hopeless that the hunt would find any game. But then they reached Possum Hollow and swarmed in. After a few minutes, Stalker’s unmistakable voice rose out of the underbrush. The other hounds harked to him and began speaking, too. They went around and around, speaking, then going quiet. Whatever game was in there didn’t seem to want to come out. The hounds knew they had found something, but where exactly was it?
Most of the pack finally came out of the covert but looked back into it, frustrated but listening. Stalker, one of our English hounds, stayed behind, thrashing around in the brush. Soon he spoke again, and out popped a coyote. Tally ho! The chase was on. It was a thrilling but brief run, as the coyote soon ran across a road too dangerous for hounds to cross.
The hounds stopped, and the hunt staff gathered them together, but one hound was missing. It was Stalker, who had stayed at Possum Hollow, happy to have found the coyote, but clearly out of breath and unable to keep up with the pack. We later discovered that he had developed a heart ailment and would never hunt again. But Stalker found that “invisible” coyote and mustered the energy and desire to get him up and running for the rest of the pack.
Our vets don’t know whether Stalker’s remaining time can be measured in weeks or months, but he is comfortable. When he came back from the vet hospital where they discovered his ailing heart, Stalker slept at the foot of kennelman Michael Edwards’s bed—on the mattress, of course!
Sire: Iroquois Grundy ’98 Dam: Iroquois Stamina ’97
Glamorous '99
Like Glowworm, Glamorous is a daughter of Gloria, whom Iroquois imported from the Grafton hunt in England. Her name suits her, because her markings make her look as if she is wearing an ermine cape around her neck.
She is what you might call “a good plain cook” in the pack: always useful, always well-behaved, and always good at her job, without frills (despite the ermine!). She is like a straight-A student who went on to become a successful professional and a good teacher, too.
“You never had to call her down for anything, she was always right and always did the right thing, and she always mothered the new puppies when they first came out,” explains Iroquois huntsman Lilla Mason. “She also was unmistakable in the field, because she is black and white, and we don’t have many hounds that are black and white.”
Her mothering tendencies helped give young puppies confidence in their hunting debuts. Where a doghound might have growled at a youngster, Glamorous would sometimes hang back with a wayward pup about to go off on its own, then bring it forward with her to rejoin the pack.
Sire: Bicester With Whaddon Chase Darwin ’95 Dam: Grafton Gloria ’92