Taken from a speech given by Francie Stull at the 2015 SilkenFest
As researched by Arial Haynes in 2001:
Through most of the 1990's, the Kristull Silken breeding program was based around producing beautiful, sound and well-structured, healthy, and sweet dogs for personal enjoyment and tosell as lovely, healthy pets.
Only a very few of the finest individuals were used for breeding, and there was really no need for an "extensive genepool."
However, the growing popularity of the line culminated in the formation of the ISWS, resulting in the decision to become a recognised breed. Therefore, further founding members must be brought into the breed, with the same strict attention to excellent structure, health and temperament.
It is time for us to talk more in depth about the history of our breed, with an eye for what needs to take place for the future.
Because we started back in 1984, with the darling little Lurchers, called Longhaired Whippets, I am going to start here.
The Windsprite Longhaired Whippet Lurchers
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Zee and Me (1984) |
Take a look at the eight dogs down the right side of the page. These are the Windsprite "Longhaired Whippets" that were behind our breed.
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Windsprite Autumnal Xenon ~~ Zee |
But what is behind them? That is where we really need to start, because the pedigrees on these dogs are repeats of each other. I.e. they all have the same dogs in their pedigrees, although sometimes those dogs are in different positions. ALL of the families based on Longhaired Whippet breeding stock collapse within a very
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Eng. & Amer. Ch. Hillgarth Shot Silk of Pennyworth |
All of the Windsprite Longhaired Whippets in the Silken Windhound pedigrees may, and probably do, trace in direct female descent to the Longhaired Whippet Windsprite Brocade, a daughter of the Whippet, Eng. & Am. Ch. Hillgarth Shot Silk.
If we accept the validity of this premise, it would be accurate to assert that the Silken Windhound breeding prior to 2000 is actually based on only *4 founding broodmatrons: 2 whippets (both of whom carried a recessive gene for long hair) ~~ Brocade and Bengala, and 2 Borzoi ~~ Peacock and Silver Legend.
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Kristull Boston Legacy Frost Express X Quiz Boston lived to be over 20 years old |
The reason that Praline (Cookie) does not have descendent is because she, and apparently the male that she was bred to, were double carriers of the MDR1 gene, and I killed her entire litter, while putting her in a coma, with Ivormectin. This was the first indication that I had, that these dogs were sensitive to Ivormectin. I had used it for years on my Borzois, and swore that you could feed them a bucket of it with safety. It does seem to be true, that those dogs with no sensitivity, have a huge margin of safety, while those dogs with the double gene for the defect, can die with a very small dose.
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Kristull Budwick An unused smooth brother of Boston Legacy (female LHW on left) |
Joseph from Iowa has offspring still registered in the Longhaired Whippet database. None of his offspring were of good enough quality to continue on in the Silken breed.
Life often has its ups and downs, so fairly early in the project, I found myself unable to pursue the project, so I made arrangements to ship my females to Mary Childs of WindnSatin Borzoi fame. The deal was that she would buy Woodwine (Hap) from Walter,
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Kristull Amalie (Mali) ~~ Zee X Diane ~~ the mother of Ruby below |
This is where we got Windhaur Kristull Windsong (Ruby), the mother of the famous Kristull Incognito (Nameless), Nobunny, Z-Mystery and Omni, who went to Sweden.
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Ruby ~~Windhaur Kristull Windsong ~~ Hap X Amalie at 14 mother of Nameless, Nobunny, Firesong, Omni |
From the very beginning, I tried to work with these lines. Unfortunately, while they were wonderful little nymph dogs, their structure was not solid and sound. They needed an infusion of solid, angulated structure, to turn them into the gorgeous dogs that we have today.