Starting around 8 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning, the riders and the hounds of the Norfolk Hunt Club gather at the race course on North Street. 

There are usually three dozen riders and just as many dogs. I am told that there is a blessing of the hounds, but I have never seen it. 

There is, however, plenty on which to feast the eyes and lots of activity of interest, as the dogs expectantly and jitteringly bunch together, all the while eager to start running, surrounded by four riders assigned to keep them in place. Riders milling near and at times amongst the grounded people.

Then around 9 a.m., the hounds are released by the Master of the Hounds and the hounds are off down the hill towards Dover, followed by all the riders and both disappear, only to make a big loop and reappear back in front of the assembled crowd, before disappearing again, this time down a trail into the town’s Sawmill Brook Conservation land.

The Hunt can then be meet across from the Medfield State Hospital, where they often stop.

A wonderful and special Medfield Thanksgiving tradition.