Hungarian Empire, not only the plains but also the mountainous area of what was Czechoslovakia. The ideal male is 22 to 24 inches and 21 to 23 inches for the bitches. The allowance outside the ideal range is anything but moderate with a one and on half inch allowance on either end for both dogs and bitches. The Vizsla should appear square. However, when measured from point of breastbone to point of buttocks and from the highest point over the shoul- der blades to the ground, the Vizsla is slightly longer than tall. It should never be leggy and shallow chested, nor long and low. The withers are high, the rib- cage carried well back and the tuck-up slight. There should be perfect balance between the moderately angulated front and the moderately angulated rear. This is important, because with a short-backed breed there is no room underneath the dog to compensate for mismatched angles. The angles must be moderate and perfectly balanced to obtain a far-reaching gait. While this is an area where Vizslas are having difficulty—exaggerated rears paired with short, straight upper arms—the answer is not to match the straight front with a straight rear but rather to strive for a dog that is moderate on both ends. This breed should be moderate, not mediocre. Finally, the Vizsla is set apart from other breeds by its golden-rust color which is thought to have been chosen by the original Hungarian breeders to blend with the grassy plains in the Car- pathian basin. The Vizsla is self-colored with the color of the eyes, the pigment of the eye rims, lips and nose, and the toenails all blending with the color of the coat ranging from russet gold to dark sandy gold. And for a last bit of history: those lighter shadings over the sides of the neck and the shoulders that give the appearance of a saddle are named for Count Esterhazy, one of the people responsible for preserving the breed in Hungary. There is nothing moderate about the amount of joy and boundless energy a Vizsla brings to life. Thank you to all the preservation breeders who care about the health of the Vizsla and who have maintained the characteristics of the breed, so that the Vizsla today is rec- ognizable as a descendant of the dogs pictured in the 650-year-old Illustrated Vienna Chronicle .
(Photo by Jessica Mackey)
(Photo by Christina Freitag)
Color of the Vizsla in the field. (Photo by Jessica Mackey)
270 • S HOW S IGHT M AGAZINE , M ARCH 2017
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