Our First "Hunter Pace"
Brenda, Doc, Rio and I spent the day yesterday (my birthday!) with the folks from the Miami Valley Hunt Club. They held their annual Memorial Day Chase and Pace in Urbana. The event had different divisions. Some were only open to people that are members of a recognized Hunt group (those that have the guts to fox hunt on a regular basis). Brenda and I joined the open division as you could ride in non-traditional wear (Western in our case) and didn't have to be hunt members.

The course is approximately 6 miles through woods and mowed fields. There is an optimum time determined--you don't find out what it is until the end. The objective is to come as close to the optimum time as possible. We trotted almost the whole time with some short canter stretches. We could not believe that our horses kept up that pace. They must be exhausted today. They just kept wanting to go and go. The trails were very nice--nothing too tough and not any hills to go up or down. We decided to pass on most of the jumps. Where there were low ones, we walked over them.

Doc is learning to overcome his fear of crossing water/mud. He has a tendency to want to jump over any of the water areas or to go really quickly through very muddy spots. Brenda got off to lead him through on the first three crossings. Toward the end he was at least going through them with little hesitation, but still jumping to get over most of the time.

They gave out ribbons to the top 8 teams. We came in FIFTH!

Horse Behavior
Rio had a very good day yesterday. Normally, she does not like to lead on the trail but she took it in stride and stayed calm throughout. Now that her weight is back on, she has ALOT more energy. I am having to adjust my approach with her and lunge her pretty agressively before we ride. This seems to work somewhat as it makes her respect me more and to focus better under saddle. We had a much better ride yesterday than we did on Saturday at Alum Creek. At Alum Creek she did not listen well and was generally a pain in the rear. I am going to change her feed back to regular sweet feed (and not much of it). She is currently getting Strategy along with lots of pasture and hay. It is very high in calories and in my opinion, more than she needs right now. I am not riding her all that hard or as often as I was when we were in training.

Doc is loading into the trailer very well now. He hestitates only so slightly but gets in with no problems. He and Rio are getting used to each other but that will take some time. Rio has reverted back to her old kicking the trailer behavior. At least the fits are not quite as bad as they were last year.

Doc is being kept separated from most of the herd during turnout. He is turned out with another gelding in a separate field. Turns out Doc wasn't gelded until he was 6. We discovered this after he mounted just about every mare in the field last week. He doesn't exhibit any other real stallion like behavior except for clearly loving the ladies. They don't seem to mind as he is very gentle with them but we decided to keep them separated so that no one would potentially get hurt.

Extreme Cowboy Race Video...

New Horse and general news

Brenda is now the proud owner of "Doc". I'll post some pictures as soon as I get some. Speaking of pictures, Stephanie Moon (photographer extraordinaire in case you don't know her--www.stephaniemoonphoto.com), came and took a lot of pictures of Rio on Tuesday. I can't wait to see how they turned out. Rio was running around the paddock with her head held high, posing like a supermodel. The weather cooperated for once.

We also worked on loading Doc into Brenda's trailer that night. Although he is a very calm horse, he was not a big fan of getting into the trailer. He didn't really rear or dance around like some horses do when they don't want to get it. He really just sort of stood there stubbornly. No amount of pulling or butt-tapping seemed to work. Finally, we found a system that worked and we got him in and out of the trailer several times. PHEW!

Extreme Cowboy Race Wrap Up

We got our score sheets in the mail the other day along with the final rankings of the participants. We are proud to report that officially we were TWELFTH, yes that is TWELFTH!

We were really 14 based on the first round..two riders were disqualified in the finals. (see my note below). Even though they placed the rider that fell off in the finals, they ended up retracting that and restacking the placings. Still...four away from the top ten...not bad for such a chicken. I am VERY proud of our performance.

Check it out here if you liked to see us in all our glory...good parts and not so good parts and yes, we were really that slow...slowest of the day!

Fun Stuff
We spent last Saturday (in the rain) with our new friends from the Wayne County Saddle Club in Wooster. They have a variety of events at their location The Hollow, throughout the year. Its a nice set-up with trails, an outdoor arena and food facilities. They were holding their first ever, "Not-so Extreme Cowboy Race". They had a series of obstacles set up on the grounds and then part of the race was run through the woods-through the creek, over a log, and down a big muddy hill! They had judges stationed at each obstacle (including the big muddy hill!)
It was really fun in spite of the rain drenching us at times. We had 11 riders compete. Rio and I came in 6th. Not too bad considering the conditions and Rio being a little less cooperative than usual.
New Horses
Brenda has sold Dancer to a good friend of ours. Those of you that know Brenda, know that she has been struggling with the idea of selling him for a while now. Dancer was Brenda's first horse and was perfect for a first horse and for building Brenda's confidence as a horse owner/rider. She is really ready for a new challenge and is looking for a horse that is more versatile--great on the trails but can be shown some too.
Her first try was a Paint mare named Raven. She brought her home a couple of weeks ago on a vet check contingency. It turns out that there were some issues with her hooves and some other confirmation concerns. Brenda ended up taking her back on Saturday.
Second try is a gelding tentatively named "Doc". He is a seven year old, Quarter Horse with good cutting horse bloodlines. She went and rode him on Sunday. He is quiet and seems very willing and nice. Vet check was decent. She now has him at our barn on "trial" until Monday. His feet need some work, so our farrier is going to assess him on Monday and provide an opinion on how much work might be needed and identify any potential issues. Brenda also wants to trail ride him a bit and further assess his temperament.
Brenda has promised to write an article on her site detailing her horse buying experiences. This will be valuable for anyone looking for their first (or second, or third...) horse. She created a buyers checklist that should be very helpful to anyone in the market for a horse.