Afghan Hound Database and Breed Information Exchange (Mary Voss - Afghans Van Brabant in action) |
AFGHANS VAN BRABANT
Kennels of Mary Voss, Aromas, near Monterey, USA
Having had the great pleasure to visit and meet Mary Voss at her beautiful home in Aromas, near Monterey in California and observe the hounds at first hand, I was very pleased to recently receive some photographs of Afghans Van Brabant in action, these are published below.
This picture, supplied by Mary, epitomizes that Afghan gaze...
Earlier this year I also met Mieke Englebos and Clemente who live in Belgium when they came over on a "day trip" to England and joined me at Windsor Championship Show. Both Mary and Mieke are enthusiasts of the Ghazni/Van Der Oranje Manege type of Afghan, and Mary breeds this type. Mieke visited Mary in Aromas recently and was as charmed as I was by Mary and her family, and of course thrilled to see the hounds running in the paddock.
Anyway, this page is supposed to be about Mary's Afghans, so I will stop rambling and get on with things... Following my visit to Mary in 1996 I included a brief comment on this in my USA visit report. Having now seen these recent photographs it is quite pertinent to repeat my brief notes here...
The dog side of the visit also included a visit to a friend outside Monterey (California) who has several hounds, some US bred, some Dutch bred imports (of German lineage). It was interesting to see these run as a pack and when the Dutch/German hounds stopped running and stood still gazing - you would have recognised their type a mile away. One of this pack is shown in conformation, but the owner's interest is largely in lure coursing."
Albert in action
The picture above is also one of Mary's Afghans, this is Albert, he finished his ASFA Field Championship with a BEST IN FIELD WIN! Mary has had great success with the dogs this past year...finishing 5 Field Champs and one going Best In Field. This is really rare in No. CA where they have to compete with some of the best coursing greyhounds, whippets and salukis in the country. The last Afghan to do that was another one of Mary's dogs (the sire) 5 years ago. Prior to that it was close to 15 years before another Afghan came close.
Mary also sent a beautiful picture of one of her young puppies running and exploring the paddock, with an older Afghan behind in hot pursuit. Here's the original photo. The young puppy is circled..
Puppy in action
I think that photograph above is a terrific action shot, mind you - you have to look closely! Did you spot the older Afghan behind in pursuit, sort of merges in with the terrain. Let's enlarge the part where the puppy is..
Puppy in action
Now we can see more clearly the puppy in action and the pursuing adult. Again look closely - that puppy is "flying", she has decided she can jump the trench, what a brave girl - that is quite a big ditch for a 10 month puppy to carry, looks like she is going to make it too, brave little Afghan she is.. It is a real joy to receive these photographs from Mary, it is always great to see Afghans living and enjoying open space. Thank you Mary for sharing your wonderful affies with us.
To conclude, it also occurs to me what a shrinking world this is. All three of us (Mary, Mieke, Steve) had "met" individually via the Internet, and despite us living in three different countries and thousands of miles apart - in the course of the last 12 months we have all met each other. Yes it's a shrinking world.... If you wish to contact Mary, her email address is (mcvoss@ix.netcom.com).
Click here for more photo's of Mary's racing, chasing and dancing Afghans...
Steve Tillotson, September 1997