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by John Fetters
© 2013 Fetters Setters, all rights reserved
George H. Ryman-bred English and Irish Setters, circa. 1937
It is never short of amazing to me to
hear all of the talk, all of the grossly mis-informed opinions, all of the petty gossip
and "cheap shots" directed towards field trial-bred English Setters and their
owners.
Although (as stated here previously) the field trial English Setters of today differ greatly from those of the past, the individuals involved in breeding these fine dogs should be showered with much praise for a job well done. For if it weren't for past selective breeding processes and the countless hours of proving their stock, the English Setter as we know it today would not have evolved in such a positive direction in the first place.
And the "type" of English Setter gun dogs that George H. Ryman bred would not have been even remotely possible.
The learning process for me has been an interesting one, especially where breeding is concerned. Knowing what to look for in an English Setter gun dog that will "nick" and be compatible when doing an "outcross" for the first time ~ and find that all the resultant pups from the whelping are uniform in appearance and doing what they are supposed to do at six months of age ~ is proof positive that experience is a good teacher.
And that is what has always counted in breeding great English Setter gun dogs.
Sportsmen are always asking me how I manage to consistently breed English Setters with such stunning conformation, an English Setter gun dog with correct size, an English Setter gun dog that develops early and is heat-tolerant and able to hunt day-in and day-out, no matter what the cover or weather dictates on any given day.
My answer is: I was fortunate enough to have had a good, devoted and patient teacher in my great-grandfather. He taught me much and instilled in me to never get caught up in the "norm" of what everyone else is doing ~ and the fact of thus having several generations of English Setter gun dogs in my blood, and the opportunity to breed and raise my first litter at the young age of five under my great-grandfather's guidance.
Through the years I have seen many English Setter gun dog kennels come and go, many of those who claimed to be breeding English Setters in the "George Ryman tradition" and many who claim they know all about George H. Ryman and the history behind his work.
To those individuals, I say: the records and in-depth documentation of my family's long history of breeding, raising and training English Setter gun dogs ~ the indisputable truth and hard facts ~ far outweigh anything that has been produced by any other breeder or self-styled "writer" or "author" to date.
In a letter to my great-grandfather, dated September 16, 1947, George H. Ryman mentions that he is no longer going to use the in-bred English Setters in his breeding program. He states that he is concerned about where his line of English Setters are headed due to the influx of line-breeding being incorporated by far too many purchasers of his English Setters.
Ryman also stated good breeding and bad
breeding has proven that the "good breeders are few, not many."
Test breeding when used in conjunction with the age-old evaluation process
has proven time and again that this is the only proven way to know just where any particular breeding program is headed when taking on the task of breeding any young male
and/or female for the first time, or outcrossing to bring vigor to a line, then
holding onto the resultant litter for a
six-month evaluation period to see if that outcross was a success or failure in
regards to hunting abilities, stamina, heat tolerance, uniformity, and
conformation, etc., before offering them to the sporting public.
My great-grandfather and George H. Ryman had much success with outcrossing to the Commander line of field trial English Setters, due to their long history of producing offspring that exhibit natural hunting abilities and have a very high degree of heat tolerance.
With that in mind in the early 1970s, I was hoping to find a good male and female of good size with good confirmation exhibiting traits of being manageable in their ground pattern in search of game. I also found it necessary to locate some new blood that would be compatible with those old bloodlines used by my great-grandfather and George H. Ryman ~ an outcross which conformed to, and would be a comparable continuation to the bloodlines my great-grandfather and George H. Ryman bred.
With this specific goal ~ and knowing from
years of experience what to look for ~ I spent countless hours searching for a
proper outcross that would blend perfectly with the English Setters in my
kennel. In talking to countless breeders and trainers, I ultimately went on the
road to many field trials where I followed the many hundreds of braces of
English Setters that carried the bloodlines of the past successes in outcrossing
that were used by my great-grandfather and George H. Ryman.
My search led me to the renown English Setter breeder, Mr. Irv Monkern, owner of the Glad Acres English Setters kennel. I was fortunate and blessed when I made my selection from one of Mr. Monkern's litters at four weeks of age, a male tri-color pup out of the breeding between Glad Acres Brock ex Kelcey's Girl Friend.
At seven weeks-old, Double Barrel Prince came home with me. Prince was a natural on wild birds from the time he was six months of age, and as a sire, his striking conformation and fifty seven pound short-coupled frame and natural wild bird instincts were passed on to every pup in the eleven litters he sired.
A certain Idaho English Setter breeder who attempted to lay out the history of the English Setters George Ryman used in his breeding program was ~ almost ~ dead-on with their information. I have every one of the English Setters they mention in the background of every single one of the English Setters I breed. More, in fact, than any other current (or relatively recent) English Setter gun dog breeder.
Feel free to use the links below to look over the breeding behind some very special English Setters, the unequivocal result of five generations of my family's English Setter breeding experience:
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