OK, I'll bite, as I haven't read any of the other responses yet. I know its late, but, I've been working..uggggggghhhh.
Anyway, by way of a short history lesson: When the Royal Pack of the Middle Kingdom was formed, it was with 3 rescued greyhounds. Master Gordon's purpose was to teach the populace about these most wonderful hounds and their uses in "period". Now, it didn't take long for this thing to explode, so to speak and others want to know why they couldn't come play too. Soooo, to keep the Royal Pack in tact, the Coursing College was opened to allow all other "period" hounds. Now, this "period" restriction, if you want to call it that, was to encourage people to do the research about their hounds, find out what they could and try to do some kind of documentation on it, its uses, etc. The coursing college also gave us the opportunity to allow anyone who wanted to, or could, come out and course with us, if their hound was so inclined. Our biggest problems began to arrise when site owners got tired of people bringing along their "dogs", tieing them out to trees, or anything else they could find and leaving them out all day. Could be a Pit, or some others such dog that wasn't particularly friendly or nice to be around. We here in the Middle are very lucky in the respect that we still have several sites and events which are open to all hounds and allow us the chance to see the other breeds come and play. These are the events I really love to be at and enjoy most. Dealing with site owners/managers and over anxious event stewarts at restricted sites is just no fun at all. Yeah, you can bring your greys, but you have to stay in this area, keep them on leash and muzzled and not go anywhere unless its to course, then you have to come right back....grrrrrrrrrrr..whats the fun of that??? I guess its up to us to educate the populace to become more responsible for their pets if they want to be allowed to come to more events. More than once I've been asked to remove or have a dog owner removed from a site because their dog was running loose or just being a complete nusance. This ruins my weekend, and just makes me not want to play with these people anymore.. So, best adivce for those just starting out, do what you can to start out, make sure all your greys and their handlers are in order. Do an extra good cleanup before you leave site to leave the best impression and keep working on it. It takes time and patience, but once these site owners know we are responsible pet owners and will take care of our pets, they will welcome us back and allow us to do more. It just takes time and a lot of edumacation....:) Corin, putting in his 2 cents worth. Nite all... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Deborah Wodraska" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2005 9:00 PM Subject: [SCA_Coursing] The Dream > > I present this Zen koan to you, just as a rhetorical exercise, just to play devil's advocate. Keep in mind that as with any koan there are as many answers as there are sentient beings upon the planet, and that it is meant as a meditative, perspective expanding experience, and NOT to come up with a definitive, unilateral answer. Here goes: > > If a shiksa from Long Island can be a North African princess, and an African-American man from Los Angeles can be a 12th century Welsh nobleman living in Normandy, and a farmer's son from Ohio can be a Kamakura period samurai related to the Shogun, and any woman who can fight her worth can win the crown for her male consort, then why can't a jaunty dog, game for a plastic bag, be a "coursing hound" within the Society and accepted at events? > > Or, my Doug, who actually looks like a Talbot, and behaves like a Talbot, and doG only knows by happy accident be genetically identical to a period Talbot, not be a Talbot within this world that we've created, are continuing to create, yes for historical accuracy, but obviously within the instances I've sited in the former paragraph, for our own pleasure? > > We do not saw off injured limbs of downed fighters. We do not have the archers scan the list field for the injured beyond help, and have them humanely put an arrow through their heart. If they "die" , they yet rise to fight again. I haven't been in the Society for as long as many here, but so far, I haven't lost any of my friends to the Plague. We use sewing machines to produce our garb. I've actually gotten a couple of my pieces from a catalog, and I haven't been thrown out of any events for it. We use cotton "blends". We drive our motor vehicles to events, rather than taking a horse-drawn caravan, or go by camel. When our fine doggies are allowed at events, it is required that they've had their shots. I could go on and on, but the point is that, obviously, we make concessions. > > I mean, c'mon: There's historical accuracy to a point for education, and then there's where we use that accuracy and education as a spring-board to what we all have come here for: Fun. > > I've often said that I wish the whole world were as the SCA, that it only played at War. There's alot to be said for the way we do things. I love the historical accuracy mavens; they keep us on the right course. That's why we're not a Fantasy Society, or merely a RenFaire that never closes ( fun though as these things are!). > > But, why do we call it "The Dream"? > > Greyt Regard, > Mevanwy and the Men in Black: Douglas and Ambrose > XOXO > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.298 / Virus Database: 265.6.7 - Release Date: 12/30/04 Yahoo! 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