Just part of the Blessing Day field!
The hounds at this year’s blessing ceremony included Hound Welfare Fund Retiree of the Year Sassoon, the giant woolly in the middle of the picture, who retired at the end of the 2011-2012 hunt season.
Grimes Mill, the Iroquois Hunt Club headquarters, all dressed up for the big day.
Whipper-in Cice Bowers accepts a piece of cake from hunt member Leslie Penn as part of the stirrup cup Iroquois huntsman Lilla Mason hosted after the blessing ceremony. Looks like Cice’s horse, Turnip, would like some, too!
Happy Blessing Day, everyone!
Full Cry: A Hound Blog 
It looks like a great day was had by all – apart from Turnip who was denied cake, For him the old adage ‘feed according to work done’ obviously translates as ‘Blessing Day equals cake’!
All the very best for the new season
Poor Turnip! He’s pretty sure Blessing Day really does equal cake, especially after all the work he put in over the summer and during cubbing. Great horse. Wish you could have been here with us, Peter!
Love the great pics, Glenye! I hope you do a Pinterest board with some of these! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for reading, Carrie! We’ll look into Pinterest.
Fabulous and that was only *part* of the field?! Great turn out isn’t it or is that about par for the first day?
Love that you included a picture of a rider, a whipper-in no less, being served at stirrup level! 😉 Hope you all had a great ride.
~d.
We had a great turnout, and I’d say it was about usual for a Blessing Day. It’s a fun day and gets everyone in the mood for the rest of the season!