The Thrill of the Hunt

The Iroquois Hunt Club, based about half an hour from downtown Lexington in southern Fayette County, is the nation’s third oldest fox hunting club. The club now meets to hunt— but only scare, not kill— coyotes on central Kentucky farmland. The coyote population has prevented the fox population from growing since the 80’s, said Lilla Mason, the huntsman and joint master of the club. The club and the farmers have a mutual agreement: the club gets to use their land to hunt during hunt season, and the hounds keep the coyotes from harming the farmers’ livestock and pets. The sport connects equestrians to their horses, the hounds and the land in a way not often found in today’s digitizing society. “They get to use their God-given skills to do what God made them to do,” Mason said of the hounds. “It’s wonderful to get to experience that and watch them work.”

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