My daughter and I got to ride the 25 near Camden,
SC this weekend. Camden is horse country and the ride site sat in the middle of
fox hunting area. The weather was perfect.
During the vet in my daughters Thoroughbred was
acting crazy. Normally calm and quiet she was antsy while in line and during the
trot out was bucking and kicking and pulling my little 115lb daughter all over
the place. It was plain scary and definitely out of character for this horse! We
took them back to the trailer and tacked up and took a warm up ride and she was
fine and dandy. No problems what so ever. My daughter was having fun doing all
the jumps on the trails for the fox hunters. I had to drag her out of the woods
or she'd still be out there jumping!
The morning came and it was clear and cool but not
cold. There were about 76 starters. The trail was opened and that big ol'
thoroughbred took off and Sawyer(my guy) had to try and keep up with his pasture
buddy. It was actually good we were out in front of everybody as with 76 horses
if you are in the pack it can be a mess. We started down a little road but
turned onto the trail system. The trails have jumps scattered along them and to
avoid the jump the trail does a little half circle around them. My daughter
didn't think twice about it and took at least the first 3 jumps. I was behind
her watching(or going around) and it looked absolutely effortless on the part of
the horse or Ali. She eventually rode away from me as Sawyer just couldn't carry
my fat butt that fast.
The course was absolutely flat. Footing was packed
sand most of the way and occasionally deep sand but generally there was nothing
to slow you down. Sawyer and I have never done a 25 so fast! It amazed me how
fast he went for the distance. We rarely trotted. At the check Ali had a
"logistical" problem and didn't get pulsed in as fast as the rest of the leaders
and ended up having to wait on me. So we went out together on the second loop
and again she was going over jumps! There were a couple of other riders who went
out with us. We all ended up 6th through 9th with Ali being 7th and Sawyer and I
being 9th. This was our personal best as far as time was considered. The trail
may have actually been measured slightly short but I know I have never gone that
fast that long!
I know there is always a debate about
racing/riding. I always consider it a race! I am racing to see if my horse and I
can do better than we have done before. Not so much about where we come in
related to others but how we match up against ourselves from previous rides and
amount of training we have been able to do. Due to many factors I don't get to
train and go to as many rides as I would like. I would prefer to do 50's but my
riding time has been so limited lately it just didn't seem feasible. It's also
fun to ride with Ali who doesn't WANT to do 50's.
The horses were fine and dandy despite the speed
and certainly seemed as if they could do another 25. My guy did was slightly off
but I believe it was related to the fact I have a knee that was really hurting
the first loop which caused me to be somewhat off balanced trying to protect my
knee. My knee actually got better as the ride wore on.
Lucie Hancock is a class act putting on a good
ride! Thanks Lucie and all her ride volunteers!
