The chilly, overcast and wet morning did not dampen the spirit of the spectators, riders — and especially the dogs — for the Limestone Creek Hunt Club’s 75th annual Parade of Hounds through the village on Sunday, Sept. 8.
The parade, which started on Emory Avenue and continued right onto Sullivan Street, right onto Albany Street, left onto Rippleton Road and onto the grounds of the Lorenzo State Historic Site, is the official beginning to the hunt club’s season.
“Cheers to a successful hunt!” said LCHC member and Master rider Barbara Anderson as she raised her stirrup cup to the field of 18 riders and about 20 hounds on the Lorenzo fields.
The stirrup cup starts the hunt as a token of friendship, said longtime LCHC member Sandy Patrizio. It is an old fox hunting tradition that the hunters begin the first hunt with a glass of sherry or port (or apple cider for those under 21). The 100 or so spectators who followed the parade through the village to Lorenzo also were invited to take a stirrup cup as well.
Master rider John Anderson welcomed the spectators to the morning’s event. “75 years — isn’t that amazing?” he said, wondering if the hunt founder, Edward Hunt, would have guessed his club would have endured for so many years. After thanking the numerous landowners who allow the hunt club to use their properties, the Rev. Betty Burlew, interfaith chaplain at Cazenovia College, gave the blessing and the hunters and their hounds trotted off towards the Rippleton Schoolhouse to hunt through the cornfields and to the bottom of Fairchild Hill.
The Limestone Creek Hunt Club, founded in 1939, is devoted to educating people about the traditions of foxhunting, the working of hounds, the appreciation and stewardship of nature and the conservancy of land. American hunts such as Limestone Creek could be more accurately termed fox chasing or “fox viewing” rather than hunting; the thrill of the sport is to watch and listen to the hounds try to find the scent left by the animals in question and to follow the scent for as long as they can, according to club member Barbara Lindberg.
For more information about LCH activities, contact the Honorable Hunt Secretary Mrs. James (Toloa) Perry at 655-9714 or the LCH President Mrs. Brian (Jenny) Coughlin at 655-5997.
For more pictures of the Sept. 8 parade of hounds, visit the Cazenovia Republican Facebook page at Facebook.com/cazrepublican.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia republican. He can be reached at [email protected].
