Hunt at Tuckaway Farm

Likely to be the last of the season for us.....unless they extent the meets into December!  The Die Hard Hunt was supposed to be today, but given the wind driven rain I hear beating at my windows, cancelling it was a very wise decision!

Last Saturday, however, was a completely different sort of day.  Bright sunshine, cool temps and dry air. 

It was a FAST hunt, taking us from hounds cast to stirrup cup in 50 minutes!  Here are some folks warming up their horses in the polo field.



One of the Whippers-In with the hounds:

Here is Brego, of The Eventing Percheron Blog.  He also is now a Whipper-in horse.

Of course, sharing flasks and enjoying the contents. :)

The woods were lovely, just lovely.

And the runs in the fields spectacular!  The hounds were spot on.

A check at the pond

Don't ask me which hound, I still can't tell most of them apart!  Trying though...I really am trying. :)  I've almost gone so far as to make "Hound Flashcards". :)

More horses getting a drink.

Cort the fiesty little pony.

Moving off from the check at the pond.

Crossing the river = splash!

Daatje at stirrup cup and the hounds in the truck.

I took 169 photos from the saddle that day.  If you want to see more of them, as well as photos from all of the other hunts I've attended this year, you can go to the Wentworth Hunt photo gallery and check them out! :) 

 

The All New England Hunts Joint Meet

This year would be Daatje's fourth outing at the All New England, and I was nervous.  Mostly nervous excitement, but partly nervous because we had an awkward jump at the Myopia Hunter Pace which had me wondering if it would shake her confidence at all.

Turns out, she was as bold as she's been all season long.  So much so that I've added a flash to my hunt bridle.  She's been opening her mouth a bit too much as an evasion when she gets too strong so I thought it might make a difference.  It certainly did, the brakes were much more reliable than they were pre-flash.

The day was absolutely gorgeous.  50°F and windy.  Perfect for cooling the big girl down.  Here she is standing at the trailer waiting for me to put her bridle on.

Once mounted we headed over to a big field where everyone was gathering.

Daatje's braided mane from the top view.

Not long after we arrived at the gathering spot, we were off.  Hacking streets, trotting bridle paths and speeding after the hounds across the vast fields of Ipswich and Hamilton.

We stopped for checks quite frequently, which was nice for folks who wanted to toggle back and forth between first field and hilltoppers.  Daatje and I rode up in first field for the majority of the hunt.  We dropped back to hilltoppers for the Appleton Farm run because we needed a break from the galloping and I wasn't sure Daatje had enough gas in the tank to gallop all of Appleton.  In retrospect, we could have done it as it was the last run of the day, but not knowing that, I was saving my horse.  I have no regrets.  She jumped beautifully over everything I asked of her and felt strong and eager on the hack back, which is such a different feeling from the horse I had last year.  Last year she would struggle to keep up and be dull and exhausted by the end.  Not anymore, and for that I'm very thankful.

The hunt took us through the heart of Groton House Farms.  What a thrill to be able to ride these territories!

Ok, here's where we dropped back and joined the hilltoppers.  Here's Daatje wondering what the heck we're doing just standing here when all the action is going on in the distance.  She's tracking the hounds and first field....

The eye says it all.

Here's what she's looking at.  First field poised and ready for the final gallop through Appleton Farms.

This photo would summarize a wonderful day riding to the Myopia Hounds.  And would have been me, if my flask hadn't opened in my saddle bag and emptied the contents all over me, my horse and my tack.....this it decided to do while we were in a dead run.  Ah well.  I made sure I had a substantial shot of Bailey's in my evening coffee to warm myself up once Daatje was put to bed.  Maybe the flask will stay in my pocket from now on?

  Cheers and here's to next year!

Hunts, hunter paces....fall is a busy time!

To busy to blog, it would seem, it's been a month! :)  Ah well, this will be a bit long..it's like three posts in one! :)

• The Blessing of the Hounds was held on October 1st and was a wonderful hunt.  The footing has been dodgy, and that day was no exception, but we were careful and had a great ride.  Here I am giving the big girl a kiss at a check mid-hunt.  It *was* muddy, now that I think of it....muddy enough for me to tie her tail up!

The hounds, huntsman and whipper-in at the check.

• October 10 found us hauling up to Milton Mills, NH for the third and final Hunter Pace of the Wentworth series.  It was a fine day, if not a little warm.  We managed to get only a little lost, but regardless had a great time.  Here's Daatje saddled and ready to head out.

And here she is on the trail

Some of the lovely fall scenery we were able to witness.

Daatje chillin' at the trailer afterwards.



• Last Saturday brought us to Rochester, NH for a meet at Prodigue Farm.  This farm is my all time favorite fixture and last Saturday lived up to all my expectations!  We traveled 9 miles, had many, many good runs through the open fields and finished the hunt with a "balls to the walls" Gone Away up the hill to stirrup cup.  Life does not get much better than that!

Warming up the hounds

 Stopping at a check in the Blueberry Woods

 The only shots you'll see of Daatje are her ears!  I guess I'm the only one in the field with the impossible urge to take pictures while riding. :)

 A pilot was flying a small plane above us the entire hunt.  Here we're all watching him stall his engine and do loop-d-loops!  Made me queasy just watching!

 The best seat in the house. :)



Here's a couple of videos of one of the runs taken back to back to back.....

Part 1

Part 2

(Well, there was a part 2, but blogger wouldn't let me upload it.  I'll try again later...bummer too 'cause it was the coolest of the three...)

Part 3

Daatje has been so incredible this season!  Foot perfect barefoot (less is more when trimming), no back soreness whatsoever (I love you Nickers Saddlery!), strong and willing over the fences (see items 1&2), TONS of energy (Natural Vitamin E)....what more could I hope for? :)

This Saturday we're headed back to Rochester to hunt at the Myhre Equine Clinic.  I've not yet hunted from that fixture, so this will be a first for us!  After that, we're back at Prodigue following up the next day with the Myopia Fall Hunter Pace.  That is definitely not to be missed.  The highlight of our season is yet to come though.....

The All New England Hunts Joint Meet, save the date....November 12th.  I will most definitely be blogging about *that* hunt in a timely fashion. :)

Hunt at Yorkfield Farm

Well, yesterday I took a vacation day to foxhunting during the week.  It was well worth it!  The weather was nearly perfect, if not a little warm for the season.  There was a great turnout!  The hounds were wonderful to watch and listen to and we had many good gallops through the fields.  Total mileage was 10.63 and the top speed was 23.4mph. :)  Daatje was going strong right up to the end.

Here's a video clip of one of the great gallops: 

This was amazing because last year, I thought she was all done hunting.  She had absolutely no second wind, and after the hunts would have this dull, exhausted look on her face.  I thought she was beginning to lose interest and that the hard work and exertion was becoming too much for her.  Not wanting to give up, I did some research and decided to try supplementing with Vitamin E.  It couldn't hurt, and might only help, so I figured it was worth a try.  She's been on 4,000 IU of naturally occuring Vitamin E a day for about a year now and I have more horse under me than I ever thought possible!

She's strong in the gallops, so much so that I'm often testing my brakes only to find I don't have much!  Not a problem I'm going to complain about, that's for sure.

The other element that I changed was her saddle.  For the past two seasons, she's been very back sore after the meets.  Her saddles fit according to the saddle fitters, but she was so muscle sore in her back that when I would run my fingers down on either side of her spine she'd tense up and give me dagger eyes.

I have hunted her in many different saddles to no avail so as a final effort to increase her working comfort level, I decided to order a Sensation G4 Jump treeless saddle.  I made a special weight distributing pad to go under it and off we went, testing out at the spring hunter paces and what not.  I LOVE it.  It is the most comfortable saddle I have ever sat in!  Sensation makes endurance saddles, so this should come as little surprise.  A bit funky looking, but let me tell you, Daatje's back has not been ONE BIT SORE since switching to this saddle.  So, I think between the Vitamin E and a saddle that works for her, she's feeling great!  Makes for a very happy Mum. :)

Wentworth Hunt Hunter Trials

I mentioned earlier that I took Daatje to the Wentworth Hunt Hunter Trials despite the fact that history has shown whenever I try to participate in solo activities, Daatje sees to it that we are eliminated in the most humiliating fashion.

Well, I thought it was high time to get over myself and just do it.  We've been working on some of her issues and attitude so I thought the WWH Trials was a good a place as any to test out our progress.  As you can see by the smile on my face in the above photo, Daatje gave (mostly) all the right answers to my questions. :)  She was extremely angry with me in the beginning for taking her down away from the other horses to the start area.  I rode her through it, despite her throwing her body around in a total tantrum.  When presented to the first jump, she stopped and put a front hoof on it. 

Unphased, I re-presented her and she jumped, yay!  The second fence was a small stack of telephone poles at the crest of a big hill.  She got up to the top of the hill and was focusing on the new scenery beyond the jump, so she stopped once at that as well.  Second try, she jumped just fine. 

After that, she was great!  The third fence was a big log that she sucked back for just a split second, but then jumped it.  The rest were smooth and easy.  There were 16 obstacles in total, including a gone away, hold hard, gate and lead over.

The last jump was this nicely sized log in the jump ring.  She was tired (lots of big hills!) but did a great job getting over it.  Go Daatje!

Cubbing season is underway!

Hooray!  Although circumstances have kept me from going out as often as I'd like to this early in the season.  In fact, they're the same set of circumstances that have kept me from blogging for the past two months!  In short, we bought our first house.  Lots to do, fix, repair, throw away, trees to remove, barn to renovate.....not leaving much time for anything else!  I think I rode a grand total of three times in August.  Ptooy. 

Well, now that we're situated and things have normalized a little bit, I'm back to post hunt updates and happenings with Daatje and I.

Last Saturday, 9/3, we had a lovely hunt at Prodigue Farm in Rochester, one of my all time favorite fixtures!  The gracious host prepared hot mulled cider to warm the riders up prior to setting off.


Here's a nice shot of the hounds warming up with the huntsman and whipper-in.



And a shot of the photographer on her trusty steed. :)

I must say, it was one of the nicest hunts so far this year!  (not taking into consideration I've only attended two!)  This coming Saturday, 9/17, we'll be at Garrison House in Durham and I'm hoping to get some nice photos of the hounds working.  Daatje's been very excitable and I've had to keep two hands on the reins more often than usual. :)

On a very cool note, today, 9/11, was the very first (hopefully annual) Wentworth Hunt Hunter Trials!  Daatje and I decided to compete last minute and I am so glad we did.  Those of you who know Daatje and I and the issues we've had over the past 5 years (her flat out refusing to go off away from whatever she considers "home base") know this was a HUGE DEAL.

I've been working on not giving up or giving in to her tantrums when she doesn't want to be in a place that I've put her and it seems to be paying off.  Today, Daatje completed the entire course of 16 obstacles and we only had two refusals, one at fence 1 and one at fence 2.  After that, she was really getting into it and seemed to have a good time!  Hooray!  I know there were several people taking photos, so I'll be back with some pics (evidence that we did it!) later on.

I'll leave you today with a shot of Daatje after the "gone away" up the hill to the stirrup cup.  She is starting this season out better than ever! :)