Blessing of the Hounds: How Hunt Clubs Open the Season

The Blessing of the Hounds is a long-running ritual in American hunt country. Grace Church in Keswick dates its first service to November 28, 1929, and the Tryon Daily Bulletin describes Tryon’s blessing as a local tradition dating to the 1920s. For clubs that keep horses, hounds or a riding program, it is worth understanding why it endures, and how a short public ceremony introduces a hunt to its neighbors and thanks the landowners whose country it rides on.

A Ritual With a Patron Saint

The blessing is rooted in the legend of St. Hubert of Liège, patron saint of hunters. Our State magazine traces the practice to early medieval times, when hunters asked his intercession to protect their hounds. In North Carolina the liturgy is ecumenical, and Our State’s 2010 account quotes an Episcopal priest: “Bless, O Lord, we beseech You, rider and horse and hound.” In Tryon, North Carolina, the Tryon Daily Bulletin reported that St. Hubert medals were presented at the 98th blessing in November 2023.

What changes from place to place is the host. In Tryon the hunt meets at a landowner’s farm. In Keswick and Western Run the ceremony belongs to a parish, and the hunt arrives as a guest.

Where It Happens: Four Hunts, Four Settings

Keswick, Virginia. Grace Episcopal Church hosts the Keswick Hunt Club for a service that drew hundreds, according to CBS19. It was the 97th blessing, per CBS19, which dates its start to the 1920s and says organizers credit an English rector with beginning it to bring the local hunting community into the church. The church’s event listing places the 97th service on Thanksgiving morning, November 27, 2025, and dates the first to 1929. The Keswick Hunt Club’s history page credits hunt master John Stewart with instigating that first service, so the sources differ on who started it. Offerings went to the Keswick Sensory Farm and a service-dog charity; the church listing and 29News name it Service Dogs of Virginia. At that service the rector, Miles Smith, described the day to 29News this way: “It is tradition, it is family, it is spirituality, it is charity.”

Southern Pines, North Carolina. The Moore County Hounds hold their opening meet on Thanksgiving morning, and Our State reported that the Boyd brothers founded the hunt in 1914. The 2010 account published by Our State describes a “fox-friendly mock hunt” run on a scented drag, a pack of 32 foxhounds, scarlet “pinks” on the riders and a hunt breakfast to close. The land underneath is part of the Walthour-Moss Foundation, which grew from a 1,700-acre gift in 1974 to 4,200 acres as of 2010, per Our State.

Aiken, South Carolina. Visit Aiken lists the blessing at Memorial Gate in Hitchcock Woods. The Hitchcock Woods Foundation says the Aiken Hunt began in the late 1890s as a beagle pack hunting live quarry, then became a drag hunt in 1919 under Lulie Hitchcock, and calls it the oldest continuously operating hunt in the country. The Visit Aiken listing for 2026 calls it the nation’s oldest drag hunt. It is a reminder that tradition claims, even at the source, are worded differently.

Western Run, Maryland. At St. John’s Church, The Baltimore Banner reported in 2025 that the Green Spring Valley Hunt Club’s hounds attend, that the parish began inviting hounds in the early twentieth century partly to attract members, and that nobody knows for certain why the ritual falls on Thanksgiving.

What 2026 Looks Like

Thanksgiving Day 2026 is Thursday, November 26. Two of these hunts had a 2026 listing in the pages we read. The Aiken event is on the Visit Aiken calendar for November 26, 2026, from 10:00 to 10:30 a.m., free to attend, with no parking at the South Boundary entrance and no dogs or motorized vehicles in the Woods during the event. A 2026 Visit Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen sheet lists the Moore County Hounds’ Thanksgiving Day opening meet and blessing for November 26.

For Keswick, Tryon and Green Spring Valley, we did not find a 2026 announcement. Keswick’s 2025 service was listed for 10 a.m., and Tryon’s 2024 notice gave a 10 a.m. start, but times and venues can change. Confirm with the hunt before you drive.

A Word on the Hunting

The subject deserves a plain description. The Masters of Foxhounds Association, formed in 1907, lists red and gray fox, coyote, bobcat and boar as accepted quarry for its member hunts, and says some hunts drag hunt with an artificial scent where open land is scarce. Aiken and Moore County use that approach, as the sources above describe. The Banner quoted a Green Spring Valley organizer on the hunt’s own terms: foxes are chased, not killed. Hunting with hounds draws a range of opinion, and this piece takes no side. For a club, the practical point is to describe the program accurately and let members decide how they relate to it.

The Land Is the Guest List

The most useful detail in these accounts is who gets thanked. The Tryon Hounds’ 2024 notice said the event celebrates the sport and also thanks the landowners who make the hunt possible, and the 2023 ceremony took place on the Thanksgiving Farm property of Jenny and Alan Taylor. In Moore County the course runs across Walthour-Moss Foundation land, per Our State. In Aiken it is a privately owned preserve, open to the public and managed by the Hitchcock Woods Foundation.

That is a reminder that a hunt’s access to land rests on landowner goodwill. The Keswick Hunt Club says as much on its own site, thanking the landowners who allow it to hunt on their property. The blessing is one annual moment when that relationship is made visible. If your club runs trails, a polo field or a horse show, the same logic may apply.

The calendar also carries a price tag. The subscriber page “Become a Subscriber,” published by Myopia Hunt of Hamilton, Massachusetts, lists a $250 adult capping fee for its Thanksgiving Hunt, against $100 to $150 for its regular spring and fall fixtures. The fee table does not state a year, though the page’s linked calendar and forms are labeled 2026. Capping fees are the guest day rate that lets a rider try a hunt before subscribing; Myopia says capping fees paid during roading are applied toward a subscription. The page does not say what the Thanksgiving fee covers, but it excludes Thanksgiving from its new-rider capping discount.

What This Means for Your Club

Open the first event to the public. Aiken’s blessing is free to attend, and Keswick’s drew hundreds. Our look at how hunt clubs turn fall into a recruiting calendar covers capturing the guest list.

Name the landowners. The Tryon Hounds’ 2024 notice thanked the landowners who make the hunt possible. Consider doing the same from the podium at your own event.

Give the offering a cause. In 2025, Keswick’s offering was divided between the Keswick Sensory Farm and a service-dog charity. A named beneficiary can give non-riders a reason to attend.

Write down the history, and cite it. The sources above word their age and ranking claims differently, and they differ on who started Keswick’s blessing. Pick a documented claim and date it.

For the wider case for horses at a private club, see our piece on the equestrian advantage.

Blessing of the Hounds FAQ

What is the Blessing of the Hounds?

It is a short religious service, led by an Episcopal priest in several of the accounts above, in which a priest blesses the hounds, horses and riders at the start of the formal hunt season. It is tied to St. Hubert, patron saint of hunters.

Why is it held on Thanksgiving?

Some hunts, including Moore County and Tryon, open their formal season that morning. The Baltimore Banner reported that nobody knows for certain why the Maryland blessing falls on Thanksgiving.

When is the 2026 blessing?

Thanksgiving falls on November 26, 2026. Aiken’s is listed for that date at 10:00 a.m., and Moore County’s is listed for that date in a 2026 tourism sheet. Check other hunts directly.

Can the public attend?

Several of the blessings described here welcome spectators: Aiken’s is free and open to all ages, and Keswick’s drew hundreds. Times, parking and access rules vary, so confirm with the hunt in advance.

How We Did This

We read each linked page ourselves. Several are local news reports from different years, one is a magazine feature published in 2010, and the Hitchcock Woods Foundation, Visit Aiken, Keswick Hunt Club and Myopia Hunt pages are the organizations’ own accounts of themselves. Founding claims, acreage and rankings differ between sources, and we say so rather than pick one. The Masters of Foxhounds Association page and the Myopia fee table are undated. We did not verify 2026 plans beyond the Aiken listing and the Moore County tourism listing.

If your board is planning an event that turns a tradition into new members, Private Club Marketing has worked only with private clubs since 2009. Talk with us.