midwestfisherman
07-13-2007, 02:12 PM
A Century of Setters
The Ryman line celebrates its 100th anniversary
The root of it all came during the winter of 1907-the same year Oklahoma became a state, Rudyard Kipling won a Nobel Prize for literature, and Lord Baden-Powell formed the Boy Scouts-when a squirming, yappy, white puppy was born. This happy event took place near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; the puppy's name: Sir Roger DeCoverly. People quickly recognized this was a singular canine. His blue belton blood represented a bridge across the sharply divided camps of form versus function in the English setter world. Entwined among the fibrous strands of Sir Roger's DNA were bench blood with exemplary field ability and field blood with refined looks. He was a dual setter, the best of both worlds, a gentleman's shooting dog.
His owner, M.I. Mangan, a Pittston, Pennsylvania industrialist, recognized this. So did 18-year-old George Harvey Ryman, the young man who for the next 54 years would use Sir Roger's blood to craft a line of dogs that would bear Ryman's name.
This year, 2007, the Ry-man line marks its first century-its 100th anniversary. Celebrating this passage of time, the line's endurance, is certainly worth-while. The Ryman-type English setter is the oldest continually bred line of gundogs in North America, exceeding by 30 years even Bob Wehle's famous Elhew pointers-arguably America's most recognized gundog product. Most gun-dog kennels, including the commercial variety, rarely last more than three years.
Yet there's more to this story than time passing.
http://www.shootingsportsman.com/images/bWVkYWxzLmpwZzExNzc5NjM5NjE=-275x350
Read the entire story here: http://www.shootingsportsman.com/index.php/page/issue/sku/SSM2007_0506/id/7557
The Ryman line celebrates its 100th anniversary
The root of it all came during the winter of 1907-the same year Oklahoma became a state, Rudyard Kipling won a Nobel Prize for literature, and Lord Baden-Powell formed the Boy Scouts-when a squirming, yappy, white puppy was born. This happy event took place near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; the puppy's name: Sir Roger DeCoverly. People quickly recognized this was a singular canine. His blue belton blood represented a bridge across the sharply divided camps of form versus function in the English setter world. Entwined among the fibrous strands of Sir Roger's DNA were bench blood with exemplary field ability and field blood with refined looks. He was a dual setter, the best of both worlds, a gentleman's shooting dog.
His owner, M.I. Mangan, a Pittston, Pennsylvania industrialist, recognized this. So did 18-year-old George Harvey Ryman, the young man who for the next 54 years would use Sir Roger's blood to craft a line of dogs that would bear Ryman's name.
This year, 2007, the Ry-man line marks its first century-its 100th anniversary. Celebrating this passage of time, the line's endurance, is certainly worth-while. The Ryman-type English setter is the oldest continually bred line of gundogs in North America, exceeding by 30 years even Bob Wehle's famous Elhew pointers-arguably America's most recognized gundog product. Most gun-dog kennels, including the commercial variety, rarely last more than three years.
Yet there's more to this story than time passing.
http://www.shootingsportsman.com/images/bWVkYWxzLmpwZzExNzc5NjM5NjE=-275x350
Read the entire story here: http://www.shootingsportsman.com/index.php/page/issue/sku/SSM2007_0506/id/7557