PrintWhen the members and staff of Iroquois Hunt Club gathered for their blessing of the hounds on Nov. 6 at the historic Iroquois Grimes Mill Clubhouse I Lexington, Ky., they were celebrating the hunt's 125th year.
That remarkable span started when Gen. Roger D. Williams decided to name his pack after the winner of the 1880 English Derby: Iroquois, the first American horse to take the classic race. (The Iroquois Hunt is the only one to feature a horse on its buttons, in honor of its namesake.)
The Iroquois blessing is also a great Kentucky tradition. Tourists often find postcards depicting the picturesque ceremony, which took place this year, as always, on the small, oval-shaped lawn in front of the stone mill that is the hunt's clubhouse.
After joining almost 150 at brunch--featuring such local delights as three-cheese grits, country sausage, and apples and cranberries baked in bourbon and brown sugar--76 riders gathered outside for the blessing and presentation of St. Hubert's medals. As they stood alongside their horses, a group of French horn players seated on a limestone outcropping near the lawn added a romantic note.
The event drew local television and print media, plainly intrigued by the colorful ceremony combining horses, hounds, riders, and clergy.
What they couldn't know, of course, was how many of those riders had, just a couple of hours earlier, been desperately scrubbing stubborn manure stains off the horses they'd left clean the night before. And how many were wondering whether that new Myler bit really would be capable of stopping a half-draft at full throttle from hurtling directly into the rump of the fieldmaster's horse. Or whether that third cup of coffee might have been one too many.
Fortunately, the Right Rev. Robert W. Estill understood these thoughts perfectly well. Now the bishop of North Carolina, Estill is a former member of Iroquois who spent a significant portion of his early career wearing spurs as well as vestments--sometimes, it was said, at the same time.
Estill spoke humorously and a bit wistfully of his familiarity with the hunt before making his blessing. A selection of the Iroquois hounds wandered curiously around his feet, patiently withstood the embraces of nearby children, and snuffled for bits of biscuit that might have dropped in the grass.
Looking Out For The Hounds
Standing on a millstone laid on its side, Estill called to mind the Masters and huntsmen who have contributed to the hunt's long and successful history in central Kentucky.
The current masters, Jerry L. Miller and Dr. Jack van Nagell, and amateur huntsman Lilla S. Mason, gently corralled the hounds as Estill spoke. And it's a fair assumption that their minds, like those of the hounds, were probably bent more toward that day's hunting than toward the past.
Iroquois has always tipped its top hat to its long tradition, but it has cut new paths too. Mason is the first female huntsman in the club's history, and she may be the most apparent symbol of change. But there are others, almost all related directly to the hounds.
