JUNIOR HANDLER CLASSES Cross the Pond
New classes for junior handlers gain popularity in England. BY DEIRDRE HANNA
T’S NOT OFTEN that something that started in America is adopted across the pond. Classes for junior handlers at hound shows broke the mold and set sail to England. By summer 2019, young people participated all over England. The classes were, geographically, held in the far north, the southwest, and the east of England, giving children opportunities to take part wherever they lived.
HISTORY HEADING EAST
While visiting the Virginia Hound Show in 2014, I met Major Tim Easby, director of the Masters of Foxhounds
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Association in England. He saw the value — and the popularity — of the Junior Handler classes. Later, back in England, I met Richard Walton, director of the West of England Hound Show. “Having seen photographs in Hounds magazine and write-ups of Junior Handler classes in America,” Walton says, “I was inspired to consider if we could introduce a class in the English-style of showing hounds, off the lead.” Walton, Great Yorkshire Hound Show Director David Wallace, and Peterborough Hound Show Secretary Jeremy Staples became the architects of the junior classes in England. Wallace incorporated the first Young Handler classes at the West of England Show in 2016. He presented the
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Adapted reprint from Hounds magazine
