Luckily, we were able to go to FENCE and stay there for the weekend. FENCE apparently has trails! So we spent Saturday trail riding there, and then Sunday morning we hauled down the road for a hunter pace. SO MUCH FUN! I was lucky and was able to convince Peri and Tess and Liz and Party to join us in the fun. We had a great time.
Saturday we left and had a nice easy haul to Fence. The ponies got to stay at the Kidd barn so we let them graze and let Fleck pee before we tacked up. We decided to head up to do one little loop and then we crossed the street and went on the trails near the XC course. They have nice trails! All three ponies were good and we had a nice hack. We crossed the street and meandered around the paths behind the XC course. It was fun hearing Liz and Peri talk about the courses from "back in the day". And, because we're wild eventers!, we snuck in a few fences for fun. :) Just a few I promise! I know, we're bad. But it was our 10 year anniversary celebration! :) I was so proud of Peri because she even did some canters and even let Tess open up a bit. We all had a great time. The ponies were quite happy in their stalls and we were able to enjoy a nice dinner at a decent hour. We stayed at the apartment on the XC course which was fun. Until the 3 am drunken brother incident! Good grief.. but all was well. The neighbors drunken brother just banged on our door first and then went next door and argued for awhile. All ended well and we were able to actually go back to sleep after that. Hee hee... Liz is going to have to bring Ranger next time!
Fleck got to meet Morris! Hee hee
Sunday we headed out to the hunter pace. It was at Amy Barringtons barn, Long Shadow Farm. What a gorgeous place!!! It was so much fun too! The horses were cracking us up. They sent us out in groups, so from the "Start box" we were counted down and sent off. We were planning to mostly walk. Fleck and Tess, who both have much experience in the start box were a bit excited wondering what was going on. Fleck didn't do his usual XC countdown dancing, but he was very much on high alert. Party, who hasn't had as much start box experience wasn't quite as concerned. Hee hee. But we got the count down and we headed out and kept mostly to a walk. Fleck and Tess finally realized it was a glorified trail ride and not a true event. :) The footing was quite deep and mucky in places from all the rain, but our plan was to keep it simple anyways. It was really pretty and we got to see a lot of sights. We even crossed a fairly high bridge over the creek and passed lots of rivers. We did some trotting also and the ponies all behaved. They had some jumps that Fleck and I attempted. But most were small coops in fence lines with minimal approaches or landings and then roads/concrete. And Fleck was upset about leaving the ladies, so it wasn't really worth the effort. We did a few but mostly skipped them. Towards the end of the ride Fleck started to get frustrated with the pace. His walk was too fast and then too slow, so he was tense and jiggy. And I started picking, so we both got frustrated. We crossed back over the bridge and Peri was a little bit ahead. She was crossing the road to go into the other field and on our side of the field was a big huge lot of crop, with a nice wide galloping lane on the edges. I looked at Liz and said "oh man... can we?!". She replied with "Go! She won't even notice!". So we snuck off and I let Fleck gallop. Oh how we both needed that! He shot off like a rocket and was flying down the lane. We galloped all the way to the end and then when I turned him around, he wanted to go again. So we did!! We clocked ourselves at 25 mph. Which isn't that fast, but it is for us. Wheeeee!!! After that we were able to politely trot back to Liz and Peri. Yay!! We both needed that and then we were able to walk politely from then on out. Peri wanted to try a canter, so she went up ahead. Once she got up a ways, Liz and I did a little bit of trotting and cantering side by side. And Fleck was good. He didn't try to win. He was a gentleman and we enjoyed a lovely side by side hack. Then we caught up with Peri and they all walked flat footed back to the barn. Oh, we did trot in together to the finish line. :) Then after the horses were settled and cooled out we got lunch. Yep, they feed you at hunter paces.
It was sad to head home as it was so pretty there. I really may have to move to that area one of these days. It was a great way to celebrate our 10 year anniversary!!
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