what a weekend!
First cub hunt had the true wackiness of a hunt with 11 of the 15 hounds on their first outing. The weather was beautiful, a clear morning in the 70’s.
Horses were rather fresh, I was riding the mare and loaned out my TB to a dressage friend who wanted to try her hand at hunting. He was good but bummed that he wasn’t in the first flight. Nisha was feeling her oats, and showed her impatience of waiting too long for the hounds to catch the scent. Our conversation was as follows “I’m tired of standing, I want to go there…no please…Yes, lets go THERE…no…Yes…” and then she performed a perfect levade…in which everyone scattered in fear, but then she just stood still like “ok, that’s out of my system” LOL. My dressage friend was impressed.
The first run went well, but took some time to round up a couple of the new pups at the first check. Nisha was wonderful and has improved greatly from last year, she is keeping her distance from the horse in front of her on her own and is still strong to the fences.
The second run was short and third was good and fast. at the end of the hunt, our hunstman pointed out that all the spayed females where the ones staying on scent, leading the pack and were acting like old campaigners. the boys, on the other hand, were in la-la land and Lou pointed out that the two worst offenders were brothers. It took some time to locate 5 hounds and whipper-ins were spread out over the territory getting the pups. By the end of the hunt and field field in, one hound still had not been found.
We did crown a king and queen and court member. My friends mother was queen early on. she was hilltopping, her horse slipped and she popped off. she’s fine and remounted to finish the hunt. we were close to the end when I saw 2 horses pass us, one is a stablemate at the hunt club. That horse belonged to my friend who was the fieldmaster for the hill-toppers. her horse spooked at the very end of the last run and she fell off. The second horse was a green OTTB with a less experienced rider. that horse spooked and ran and dumped his rider. both riders were ok. With my fieldmaster’s permission, I followed the loose horses.
we lucked out that they ran back to the barn. I found the field master’s horse politely standing in his usual spot in the cross ties, with his reins around his legs. i removed his bridle and put him in his stall. ( thinking back, i should have brought him back, but the hunt was ended and the hounds were kennelled by then) the OTTB injured his leg (possible deep muscle), took some coaxing out of the arena, but I was able to get him back the the barn and put him in my horse’s stall. both riders were ok, albeit my barnmate was so bummed because she was honored to be asked to be fieldmaster.
We had a lovely tailgate sponsored by a couple members including their home-made venison summer sausage, bloody mary’s and other great food and drink. I supplied copious amounts of lemoncello and tonics and all had a good time. My two friends who had hunted for the first time both enjoyed themselves and want to come back for more!
My Birthday party was a blast. my mother supplied the caterer, my friends angela and jamie supplied the 80’s music and decorations, DH supplied the drinks. I’ll get pictures up later, but the cake was a hit. a 2 tier with a scene of me and going over various jumps with both horses and hounds. it was so cute. My friends were actually very nice and thoughtful…I thought i was going to get abused! now I did get lots of wine and other drinkables, one of my friends had a local italian restaurant make me some lemoncello and limecello, and all kinds of other various gifts. we all had a good time and it was great seeing so many people.
I did get a big picture of my famous dismount. it was a blow up of me sitting on the fence with my “gymnastic” hands. it said “10 on the landing” and friends and some “olympic judges” signed it. LOL.
the only downer was the limo never showed at 11pm to drive bob and me home, so we finally were able to get a taxi…
today (sunday) was a hot and sunny day (and my true birthdate). Even though I had to get up to play flute at church, we had great music the was truly enjoyable to play. Throughout the day, Many friends and family sent greetings, had brunch with mom and bought some very girly shoes (4 inch heels stilletto/platform, I hit over 6ft tall, but I was in the mood, all my shoes are ‘sensible’). visted the horses and had dinner with hubby, where he surprised me with a black and white diamond pendant necklace. It was a true surprised! he hasn’t bought me nice jewelry, let alone diamonds, since we got married!
Over all, it was a great weekend!
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: