The Hunter’s Horn
September, 1952
Page Twenty-two
Hounds of Long Ago
Stuart, Va
Reading The Horn, I see lots of letters in regard to hounds today and hounds, say, 50 years ago. That was
when I started fox hunting.
I have just got in from a race, fed and put them in the kennel. Fifty years ago, we didn’t have to do this,
we just threw out a piece of cornbread and let them go where they pleased. When we got ready to go
hunting, we would hang our bull horn around our neck, get in the saddle and off we would go. Eight to
ten hours was the average race. There were all grays and no reds in this section then.
Fifty years ago the hounds had all advantages over the hounds today. We had no cars or wire fences.
They would go over a six-foot rail fence like a bird flying over. The dogs went foxhunting when we went
and came back the same way. We seldom ever lost a dog. We could blow off most everytime.
The hound of 50 years ago was a bit slower than today, yet we caught 10 to one then on the ground to
where we do today. Hounds had good mouths and packed well.
Ninety per cent of hounds today are kept in kennels or tied up. When we go for a race we take them out
of a lot, put them in a car or truck and haul to the casting ground, there let them out and away they go—
most every one yelping and babbling.
The dogs are not to blame; it is just the way they are kept and handled.
The pack of ten or 15 strikes a trail, and when you come to a road some of them start cutting, and you are
lucky if you have as much as a four or five hour race, with most of them two or three hours. We have
very few hounds that will jump a four-foot fence, and very few that will tree more than one of 20.
There is as much difference in the hunters today as in the hounds, compared to years ago, and that may
help explain what is wrong with our hounds.
Glen Tatum is one of the best trainers I ever met in my 50 years hunting, and we have a good pack,
mostly Walkers.
J. E. YATES