Tewksbury Trail Association every fall hosts a hunter pace at Christy Hoffmen's park. The same park that I always ride at. The hunter pace also includes private properties around the park, which is always exciting.
What else is new though, the morning of the hunter pace I was running late. Well according to me I was on time until I realized I was running late and, like always, I was on a very tight time schedule for the day. My friend and I planned to be one of the first groups out. Liam gets very nervous at the starts and I believe it has to do with all the horses and commotion that is going on. I have found he just doesn't like waiting and things can escalate quickly with him. The hunter pace started at 8:00am. The park is approximately a 5 minute trailer drive over. We figured we would tack the horses up at home, like we normally do when trailer over to this park, except for their bridles, and head over at about 7:45am to be there by 7:50am. Quickly sign up and away we go. Well I don't know what really happened. The only thing I can think of is that I had it in my head that the hunter pace started at 9am and not 8am. I got up early (5:30am), walked the dog, caught up on a few blogs, and the next thing I knew I was pulling out of the driveway at 7:45am thinking how on time I am going to be, proud of my bad ass self. I'll be to the barn by 8:15am, leaving me enough time to hook up the trailer, get Liam from the field, groom, tack up, and be on the road by 8:45am (tight, I know, but I am efficient). As I was driving down my road, still 30 minutes away from the barn, I realized we were supposed to be pulling out of the barn at 7:45am, not 8:45am, how did I screw this up so badly? Sent a quick text to my friend that I am on my way, and I will be there shortly. I felt horrible the entire drive to the barn, but as it turned out she was running late as well.
I grabbed Liam out of the field and he had fun rolling in the mud over night. New Jersey's ground has been very dry and hard because we haven't had much rain and it just happened to rain the night before the hunter pace to make the footing perfect, which was awesome, but Liam found the wettest spot in the field and had a good roll. Thanks buddy... I finished grooming him up and making him shine for the hunter pace. Loaded Liam and the pony up and away we went without any difficulty. We arrived at the park and it wasn't packed yet. Thank goodness. There was maybe 10 trailers there so far. We were able to snag a great parking spot right in the front with an easy exit. My friend and I signed up got the horses off the trailer and finished tacking up (putting their bridles on) and before we knew it we were walking down to the starting tent. Liam was really relaxed, which suprised me, but as we got closer and closer to the start, I could feel him tense up. The starting guy was giving 2 women in front of us the typical trail speech as we approched. I politly said excuse me and I just wanted to let the starting guy know that my horse can misbehave at the starts. My goal was to be able to listen along to the speech with the other 2 people that were there first. Liam was litterly jigging around them. You can clearly see he was ready to go. I didn't mean to be rude or anything, but I also needed to get going before Liam became a handful. The starting guy looked at us and said that we could go first. Thank goodness, I thought Liam was going to jump out of his skin.
We started out slow, by walking out a little ways and then picked up the trot. We trotted up a huge hill and made a sharp turn into the woods and came out to another field where a photographer stood taking pictures. Liam thought the photographer was a horse eating monster. We kept trotting along and Liam was actually being quite spooky. Spooking at logs on the ground, blowing trees, just really silly stuff. Then, we got to our first road crossing. The road we were crossing is a pretty busy road and there were people there waiting to stop traffic. Again, I politly said that my horse doesn't wait well. I felt Liam instantly get tense at the road crossing. We really need to work on this waiting...
Finally, I said the the gentleman, I don't mean to be rude, but my horse doesn't wait well, would you mind stopping the traffic. I hate to be like this. It actually really bothers me to say anything like that, but I just don't understand people. I tell them my horse can be naughty waiting and they can clearly see him starting to act up. Stop the darn traffice and let me continue on my way. Yes, it isn't their fault my horse is bad, and I do need to work on it, but milage and experience is what Liam needs not being forced into the situation.
After crossing the road, Liam started to relax a little bit, but he was still really up. He was showing off his most elastic trot. It is actually very uncomforable. My friend even commented on it. We let the pony lead for a little before she started misbehaving. The pony, who is a hunter pace master, was fresh too! We trotted where we could and walked where we had too. This side of the road was mostly big fields connecting properties. There was one cool spot where we walked on top of a ridgeline and the hills were steep on both sides, we walked in this section... We actually passed a few groups and before we knew it we were crossing the busy road again. This road crossing went much smoother. Liam was getting a little tired.
We crossed the road and were walking through beautiful old estates. It was incredible to see. I never knew these homes existed back there. I wish I remembered my phone to be able to take pictures, but in the mad rush in the morning I forgot it at the barn. We finally ended up back in christy hoffmen's park, through the back. It was funny. The horses knew imidiately that we were back in the park and completely relaxed. We went down a huge field and through a stream and ended up at the half way point hold.
Second half of the hunter pace to follow...
I really want to go on one someday! It sounds like fun even if Liam was a little energetic :)
ReplyDeleteHunter paces are so much fun! Liam is getting better, he just needs time...
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