Rest and Be Thankful Farm Hunt!

I woke up at 4am to a drizzly fog.  Not the morning that was forecasted the day before, (partly cloudy) but hey, at least it wasn't pouring!  Fed the horses and cleaned my tack in preparation for what was promised to be a fabulous hunt.  Horse was loaded and on the trailer by 7am and we were on our way to Lyman, ME! 

Cheap indiviual that I am, I refused to pay the highway tolls, so we meandered our way through Dover and Berwick, arriving in Lyman by 9am.  I had a friend from college riding as a guest (yay Liz!  You finally got out to hunt with us! :) ) and my Dad's cousin, who lives nearby, came to follow the hunt on foot/by car.  Quite a bit going on for me, as I'm not used to balancing such socialization with preparing to ride!

Here's a shot of Liz and her 21 year old Standardbred, Dreamy, ready to head over to warm up.

The mist persisted as the hunt begand with a trot across the road, through the barnyard.

And it wasn't long before the hounds were bounding in joy on the scent line.....

The 8 farms and over 800 acres of adjoining land were spectacular.  We did run into some bees in the newly cleared trails (Daatje had a sting right on the edge of her saddle pad) and the cow pastures we traversed were occupied.  This hunt had such natural terrain, we tackled muddy water crossings, natural ditches, over hill and dale with views to send tingles up your spine.  The last run of the day was not followed by the fields, but rather viewed by all from the top of a grassy knoll.  They were the best I've ever seen!

At stirrup cup, cousin Joanne was kind enough to take a picture of the photographer. :)  Daatje's looking smashingly fit!



One thing happened during the hunt that made me more proud of her than I've been in a long time.  We were all aproaching a skinny roll top in the middle of a field on one of the runs.  The horse in front of us ran out.  I sat up, with leg on and with all my body, channeled her to the base of the fence. 

She jumped it.  No question, no hesitation, no problem.  That, my friends, is a horse that is listening to the rider!  Not long ago, she would have taken point from the lead horse and skirted to the side.  My good girl. :)

This was a sweet moment during stirrup cup.....

The mother stroking the face of her daughter's pony.  Such a good pony too!  Keeps right up with 2nd field even though his legs are 1/2 as long as the horses he runs with. :)

So, a sincere thanks to all who made yesterday's hunt possible and I cannot wait until we hunt at Rest and Be Thankful Farm again!  I'll leave this post with a 15 minute video from the hunt, taken by the foot followers and posted to R&BTF's facebook page.