Scroll down for the pictures. Here's some information from the newsletter for July 2006.

Rockbridge Clever has 10 puppies, born on May 31. I probably don’t need to mention that they’re adorable. Clever is by Rockbridge Cowboy 1993, out of Rockbridge Waffle 1997. Like most of our pack, Clever is a crossbred hound, with bloodlines from Ben Hardaway’s Midland Foxhounds predominating. (The term “crossbred hounds” means that they’re a cross of American hounds and English hounds.)

The sire of this litter is Rappahannock Kagney, another crossbred hound. His sire was Midland Able 1997, who is half English. Kagney’s dam was Piedmont Kelsey 1996, who is also half English. In most of our hounds, the American proportion far outweighs the English so it will be interesting to see how these pups progress.

The pups all doing fine and are eating real food very well. They’ve just been weaned and will soon move into their own run in the kennels. Did I mention that they’re adorable?

We have one litter of unentered hounds and they’ll start hunting this fall. Several in this litter are quite attractive. They’re by Rockbridge Tot 2001, out of Rockbridge Turkish 2002. Turkish is a pretty hound with a slightly more American look. She was the only Rockbridge hound to place in the show portion of the Hound Performance Trials that we attended in March 2005. More important, she’s a good hunting hound – honest and hard-working. We hope for the same from her pups.

David Conner and his staff (primarily Katharine Conner) have put in a lot of extra time this summer getting these hounds trained and walking out with the pack. In reality, they’ll be in training throughout the hunting season.

Please don’t speak to hounds in the hunt field. Try to give hounds the right of way – if your horse will stand still that’s usually all it takes -- but if hounds hang back, just ignore them and move on. It’s most likely that they’ll follow along.
(Submitted by Cindy Morton.)