For this Hunter Pace, we were at a new venue much further south than usual.

 

It was a beautiful day.

Sunny, blue skies, nice temperatures.

 

Lots and Lots and lots of people and horses.

I didn’t ride.  I helped sell merchandise.

Well no, I didn’t help much at all…………….I mostly socialized…

But it was super fun.

 

In the early morning hours, my younger daughter and I met up with my good friend Simone (Jt. Master of the Foxhounds) at our usual drug store parking lot.

Stuff was shuffled from my truck to her vehicle……….plus, I found that she’d been carting around two unclaimed folding chairs from one of the past Teas…

………they turned out to be ours…

Simone said she never has to buy picnic chairs again.  They are always left behind at Hunts and she always has a surplus…

Actually I think all but one of the chairs in our horse trailer right now were left behinds………..I wish people would buy better quality chairs…

 

This new site was at the Mabry Carlton Preserve.

Beautiful.

 

And nice bathrooms…………………..(always a plus)—(a big plus)—(and it composted)—(?).

 

 

 

Hunter Pace’s are not actual Fox Hunts.

They are pre-laid, flagged courses.

There’s a course with jumps (twenty-five I think this time).

There’s a course for the non-jumpers.

And there’s a flagged course for the harness horses.

There is a pre-determined, pre-set optimum time to cover the course…

You can blow through it at a gallop…………….but that won’t win…

It is a time that estimates what a traditional Fox Hunt’s time would be, complete with checks and runs and walking (and time out for flasks)…

When I’ve ridden (or driven) in Hunter Paces in the past……………we mosey.

……………and we NEVER win…

There’s a belt buckle at stake for an End-of-the-Season trophy…

 

I want the buckle…

 

 

I’ve even scoured the internet to see where they’ve been procured……….to no avail……….

…………..I’m not proud…

So one of these Hunter Pace Seasons, I guess I’ll just have to get serious…

(or continue to Yahoo-away on cyber-searches.)

 

I took a bunch of pictures of how orchestrated horse-fanatics can be when there’s a need to park a great many horse trailers and big rigs in a confined area.

 

 

 

No one got stuck.  No one got scraped or dented (as far as I know).

 

 

Every one got in and out…………..and a good day was had by all.