The International Trails at Sewingshields on Saturday went down well, much to the satisfaction of the committee chairman Andy Horn.
A man steeped in the history of the sport, going back many years, I caught up with Andy for a chat about his involvement in trailing – and also in football.
Andy, you had a career in football in your younger days. Can you just tell me how that started and how it developed?
I started playing football at school where I attended William Howard School and goalkeeping was the position I chose.
I still have mental scars from playing Morton School, where they had Paul and Peter Simpson in their side so i spent most of the match picking the ball out the back of the net and taking a day off school the following day with back ache! I went on to play non-league football for various teams across the county.
You also worked for Carlisle United for a while. What did that entail?
I have to say this was the most enjoyable job I’ve ever had. The managers I worked under and the players I shared the dressing room with were all special people. I still stay in contact with a lot of the players and managers. I looked after the kit, drove the team coach and arranged all the transport and accommodation for the away games.
It truly was a memorable part of my career and wouldn’t have changed anything for the world. I could write a book for you on those nine years so we’ll leave it at that!
These days you are chairman of the International Hound Trails committee and hold other positions in the sport, can you explain what they are and what is involved?
This was my first year as the International Chairman. I’m also the Chairman of the Aspatria and Wigton Area within the HTA and Vice Chairman of the HTA itself. The roles all involve organising many things including asking landowners permission for leave, arranging fixtures and allocating jobs on the day of the fixtures.
As Vice Chairman of the HTA we have an Executive committee that overlooks and governs the sport.
Apparently you were at the trails aged only six weeks old. Your family has long been established in hound trailing, can you tell us who and how?
The Roper family are my ancestors, and we are now in our seventh hound trailing generation.
My great great grandfather was William Ellwood Roper who was one of the founder members of the BHTA formed in 1933 with the first trail being run in 1934.
The first generation was John Roper who ran in the HTA in 1929 and the second generation was William Ellwood Roper mentioned above.
The third generation was Joan Roper who ran a famous hound called Melrose, and her sister Elinor Roper is the only member of the Roper family still with us and we still run over their land today as we have done for decades.
The fourth generation is my mother Jenny Roper who married my father John Horn, hence the inclusion of the surname Horn. The fifth generation is myself, which leads me to my two sons Ashley and Aaron Horn who are the sixth generation and last but by no means least we have the joint owner of Minecraft, my grandson Alan, making him generation number seven. You could say hound trailing has been in the blood a while!
Like other sports the golden years of hound trailing have passed. What sort of state is the sport in at the moment?
Declining is the word I would use! Foot and mouth and the COVID-19 pandemic both affected the sport badly with the association losing a lot of members and hounds following both outbreaks.
What initiatives have been tried or are in place to try and get more people involved in the sport?
This is a tough one as most members were born into hound trailing and back then there wasn’t much else to do. However nowadays it’s the technical era we are now in so there are many distractions for young people to keep themselves occupied! We are trying to use this technical area ourselves to spread the word about hound trailing – Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are all there to be utilised so that’s what we’re aiming at to try and attract new members into the sport.
The Border Hound Trailing Association members joined the HTA for this season. How do you think it has gone?
Obviously, this is our first season as one so to speak and we’re in a transitional period. The Borders have a wealth of good venues with great running for the hounds.
Last weekend’s International highlighted this, good running, good seeing, fewer obstacles/fences and some great finishes. I would like to see more Border fixtures included in the HTA fixture calendar moving forward.
You held the International trails on Saturday. How did it go and what’s the prospects for the Dog Produce at Latrigg this weekend?
I touched on this earlier, it went very well. We were blessed with good weather for the day and all six races were hotly contested and produced some great finishes. We also had a larger than normal contingent travel from Ireland and they all had a really good weekend.
I would like to think they enjoyed it that much we will see them and more again next year.
We now quickly move on to the Dog Produce this weekend being held at Latrigg Top. There is a fixture being held tomorrow, Wednesday June 28 for what we call in the sport ‘a look round’ before Saturday’s main event.
The weather looks set to play ball again and I’m sure it will be another great competitive day’s Hound Trailing
Tell us about the hounds you run yourself. The best ones you’ve had over the years?
I have four hounds at the minute, Showbiz, Showstar, Intensity and Minecraft, the latter was named by my grandson Alan which just highlights the tech era I mentioned earlier! He said Roblox to start with, however we agreed on Minecraft!
Showbiz has been my most successful hound. He’s now in his Veteran years however in his younger years he was a Champion points winner in the Open Restricted and Open Maiden grades.
A wealthy benefactor leaves a shedload of money to the HTA. How do you think it should be spent?
The previous nine questions haven’t been too bad but this is a toughy! I would probably use it as an incentive to attract more people into the sport and encourage people to breed trail hounds.
As they say ‘money talks’, so if there was a healthy prize fund for the season’s champions and the champion’s breeders (a bit like horse racing) it may attract more people into the sport or at least help keep those members we have now in the sport!
