Christiaen, An Tir's Royals were historically not interested, either. In fact, whren I spoke to HRM An Tir last August, her response was, "I'm not really a dog person. Take it up with Angelika". Obviously, since then, Angelika has been doing a great job of convincing her!
I find that first of all, you have to make your Royals aware that they do, indeed, have hounds. It comes as quite a shock to many of them. <G> Even as long as coursing has been going on here in Midrealm, the usual reaction of a new princess is, "I got hounds?? How cool is THAT??!!" The first thing I do after a Crown Tournament is to introduce myself to the new princess. I introduce the Houdmaster of The Princess Pack (IG's, here in Midrealm). I explain that the IG's are Hers to command until Her coronation, when She takes over the Huntly Pack (the Queen's pack). Afterthe event, I send Her an e-mail, reminding Her of this, and explaining some of the rights and privileges that the Royals have re the hounds. I make every effort to be at Her coronation. If the site permits, Huntly escorts in the outgoing Queen, and La Florentia the princess. After She is crowned, Huntly escorts Her back out. We present gift baskets to "our" outgoing Royals. We also make sure that the Royals have a good reason to hang out with the hounds. Midrealm has a "Hunting Lodge" that we set up at events where the Royals are in attendance. There are murals of hunting scenes on the walls (courtesy of Master Gordan), carpets on the floor, and I make sure that there are coolers with Their Majesties' favourite snacks and drinks on hand. The tradition is that "the hounds have ears, but do not speak".....that anything said in Kennel Lands is NEVER repeated.. If TRM's need a privy place to talk with someone, the Hunt Lodge is at Their disposal. I always make a point to remind TRM's that the Lodge is set up for Them. Thirdly, we make things easy for Them. We have an "Award of Paws" for the hounds here. WE keep track of which hounds are eligible, WE make up the scrolls, we make sure that HM has a plainly written copy of the presentation speech and the hounds' names, and we ascertain whether She wishes to present these in court or upon the field. When we have new hound owners, the appropriate Houndmaster takes a moment to present them to their Royal, and *ask* that this person be taken into the Royal Pack. We make it clear that HRM has the honour of releasing the first hound at any event at which She is in attendance, and we WAIT for Her pleasure....until 3:30 PM at one event last fall (the weather *did* permit--had it not, I would have sent a message to Her, begging that we be allowed to begin without Her)!! Is this a lot of work?? Darned right!! However, it really helps to make the Queen feel that they are HER hounds,and that She has a responsibility to watch them course. Samira > I have two possible excuses, but no good answer. First, coming from a > Kingdom where coursing is not really cared about by the Royals, I was > thinking they probably wouldn't be interested (at least ours). ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/rkgkPB/UOnJAA/Zx0JAA/PJ_qlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SCA_Coursing/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
