I was surprised to see so many riders out on a windy and somewhat chilly Sunday in the middle of January, but Masters Joanne and Stephen, 20 riders and five whips plus Mr. Farin and his team of 13 1/2 couple of hounds left promptly at 11am from Hillsborough Country Club.
The sun shone and as we made our way down the driveway at a brisk trot I started to regret the thermals I had chosen to wear. We crossed the road with our stalwarts, Laurie and Bruce on road patrol, and headed gingerly around the edge of the trails towards the Airpark.
Because my dear horse (whom I described as a Toyota without brakes last week) needed to behave and I needed to control him, I decided to stay at the very back of the field. I had no idea what fun it could be. We were far enough away from the action to be able to exchange pleasantries without disturbing anyone.
Now when I look around I’m always proud of how much effort everyone puts into arriving with groomed horses, clean tack and shinny boots. However, it was pretty muddy out there in one or two spots, and gradually those with gray horses started to turn brown, thank goodness there wasn’t too much cantering!
After about an hour of riding we stopped to check the hounds and came across some AVTA riders. Even better we learned that they loved coming to our Hunter Paces and one couple said they had won The Triple Crown. Photos were taken and introductions made to Steve Pripstein who has helped run the events last year.
This coincided with four of our hounds chasing a fox up a ravine into its den. The only problem was the Den was in a landfill, and doing their job diligently meant they stayed the course and didn’t wish to come back down.
So Whipper in Ralph tied his horse up, and hiked up the ravine to get their attention. We were very impressed and clearly his fitness regime has paid off as he positively skipped up!
We continued on and found one small very deep stream, great way to wash our horse’s legs off. But for Roz on a small pony it was a little tricky and when we arrived back at the meet, we all congratulated her for not having to swim, but then we noticed she was wet from hip to toe!
So not a great fox spotting day, but a fun day with friends and an excellent pot luck breakfast. So was the scrubbing of horses and tack worth it? You bet!!
Cheryl B.
The sun shone and as we made our way down the driveway at a brisk trot I started to regret the thermals I had chosen to wear. We crossed the road with our stalwarts, Laurie and Bruce on road patrol, and headed gingerly around the edge of the trails towards the Airpark.
Because my dear horse (whom I described as a Toyota without brakes last week) needed to behave and I needed to control him, I decided to stay at the very back of the field. I had no idea what fun it could be. We were far enough away from the action to be able to exchange pleasantries without disturbing anyone.
Now when I look around I’m always proud of how much effort everyone puts into arriving with groomed horses, clean tack and shinny boots. However, it was pretty muddy out there in one or two spots, and gradually those with gray horses started to turn brown, thank goodness there wasn’t too much cantering!
After about an hour of riding we stopped to check the hounds and came across some AVTA riders. Even better we learned that they loved coming to our Hunter Paces and one couple said they had won The Triple Crown. Photos were taken and introductions made to Steve Pripstein who has helped run the events last year.
This coincided with four of our hounds chasing a fox up a ravine into its den. The only problem was the Den was in a landfill, and doing their job diligently meant they stayed the course and didn’t wish to come back down.
So Whipper in Ralph tied his horse up, and hiked up the ravine to get their attention. We were very impressed and clearly his fitness regime has paid off as he positively skipped up!
We continued on and found one small very deep stream, great way to wash our horse’s legs off. But for Roz on a small pony it was a little tricky and when we arrived back at the meet, we all congratulated her for not having to swim, but then we noticed she was wet from hip to toe!
So not a great fox spotting day, but a fun day with friends and an excellent pot luck breakfast. So was the scrubbing of horses and tack worth it? You bet!!
Cheryl B.
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