#windsprite

A brief history of the breeds themselves: Windsprites were developed in the 1950's by a man called Walter Wheeler. To his dying day, he maintained that he found a rare long coated gene in whippets. Early whippets could be wire coated as the breed developed through terriers to bring down greyhound size, but that gene is dominant and no longer exists in the whippet gene pool. Through modern science, we know that at least one shetland sheepdog was part of the intial mix (later possibly a touch of borzoi and possibly italian greyhound, per breed enthusiasts). Windsprites can have the genes MDR1 (a drug sensitivity which mostly affects ivermectin) and Collie Eye Anomaly (CEA), neither of which are present in purebred whippets. Wheeler initially registered these coated dogs as purebred whippets but the whippet community was not happy, and AKC later revoked their registrations. He continued breeding them under the name "Longhaired Whippet".

The initial accidental breeding in the early 80's that started silken windhounds was between a windsprite named Zee, and a borzoi named Peacock. Francie Stull was pleased with the outcome that her borzoi added to her windsprites, and continued breeding and showing these dogs as windsprites at rarity shows through the early 90's. Eventually she revealed to Wheeler that she had added borzoi. He wasn't pleased, but Stull continued with her borzoi x windsprites as a fun project. Stull's borzoi x windsprite mixes (or proto-silken windhounds) are listed in both breed pedigree databases, however, they did not continue to contribute to the windsprite gene pool. It is unknown where the drop of borzoi in windsprites came from, though Wheeler did have at least one borzoi on his property.

Back to naming.

"Lonhaired Whippet" was never going to fly with the whippet folks, and Stull knew this. She ran a sighthound magazine that Wheeler advertised his dogs in, and she had suggested calling Wheeler's breed "Silken Windsprites" to differentiate them from his smooth coated dogs. Silken for their coat, and Windsprite as a nod to Wheeler's kennel name.

Stull continued referring to her dogs as silken windsprites after the big borzoi mix reveal in the early 90's. Once it became clear that she was developing her own breed project, Wheeler had his secretary write Stull a letter demanding she cease utilizing his trademarked kennel name. He offered a list of possible alternatives, and one such alternative was "Silken Windhound". That is the one that stuck.

So Walter Wheeler provided Silken Windhound, and Francie Stull provided Silken Windsprite.

For years I had wondered why the European countries that were individually recognizing windsprites as a breed, chose the name "Silken Windsprite". To my knowledge at the time, that was only ever Francie Stull's name choice that she used for her own project dogs, the first name used for silken windhounds. I found it to be confusing, and certainly both communities field a lot of questions from interested parties about whether or not they are separate breeds. That question of why "silken" was used for registrations in Europe still remains unanswered to me, but the new context I have was that Francie was encouraging the use of that breed name, "Silken Windsprite" for windsprites back in the 80's and early 90's. Maybe some folks just liked it and it stuck for them too, who knows.