I haven’t hunted in years and have jokingly told people that I would hunt when I get too old to event. My 5 year old will likely benefit from hunting and I am actually excited about getting out with hounds again. I am hoping to cap with a nearby hunt this coming Saturday (Old Dominion Hounds),
Curious as to how many others hunt their event horses, especially while in the midst of the eventing season (my guy has a couple of events on his docket for this fall).
My eventers all fox hunt and my fox hunters all event. I find the terrain is a lot more demanding in hunting. So after fox hunting, the what is considered hilly for eventing looks pretty flat to us. Also, the horse learn to deal with uneven ground, tricky approaches to jumps and a lot more spooky stuff. It also great for conditioning as they have to go for a lot longer. After hunting a five minute XC course just feels like a short warm-up.
Eventing helps in fox hunting by creating a much more adjustable horse and I think a more comfortable horse to ride.
Both my daughter and and I hunted our shared prelim horse. The horse was great at both, but think she much preferred hunting to the start box! Made a huge difference in her fitness
[QUOTE=Humblepie;7728332]
Both my daughter and and I hunted our shared prelim horse. … Made a huge difference in her fitness[/QUOTE]
Here is what I am looking for (in addition to the obvious fox hunting experience). My guy has a baseline fitness of the Pillsbury Dough Boy, and I swear when I poke his belly, he blinks and giggles.
WD-he’s young and a WB, right? I’d start with the hilltopper/2nd flight group. (Can’t remember what Old Dominion has) Think group/social long, slow, distance. Both of you will have a blast. He won’t be giggling after going out a few times! The Old Dominion territory is gorgeous! Have a great time!
I am curious about the “negative” responses as well, that is people who do not hunt their eventers and their reasons why. I used my OTTB as a whipper in horse my first year with him and trained for eventing on the side. As he got better at eventing, I perceived that his value to me (not really financially, but emotionally) got too high to hunt him in dicey conditions. It didn’t help that he got a small injury at the end of last year on a particularly bad hunt that put him in stall rest for a month.
I am not convinced he enjoys hunting, but I do, so I am toying with getting a dedicated hunt horse. But they’re expensive! And another mouth to feed! When I have a perfectly fine horse with a season under his belt!
So how do people reconcile the risk of injury to competition mounts? Do they tell themselves “they get hurt in their stalls… they get hurt in turnout… etc?”
I foxhunted my recently retired horse–he was much better at eventing! Hunting was a bit too much sensory stimulation for him. I will be hunting my new horse this year and I think he will be much better.
wookie, I always held my breath-particularly when my daughter was hunting. If the horse got hurt hunting, she wouldn’t have an event horse. Our philosophy was just that-can’t afford to have dedicated hunt horse and they can hurt themselves standing in a stall.
Thanks, Humblepie. I appreciate your response. I do think staff horses may have it a bit worse, running perimeters and going speeds outside the field on occasion. Perhaps being in the field is safer for the horse? I know of several staff horse injuries but I can’t think of a horse in our field which has been injured actively hunting.
My injury came from running a perimeter and not seeing an electric poultry fence until we were in it. Not fun. The field was perfectly safe.
I haven’t hunted really good event horses that much in the past, for a couple of reasons. My last UL horse was horrendous in the hunt field, as in overstimulated, fractious, bucking, kicking, spinning. Some may have argued that he was excited and happy but I know my horse, and I was convinced it scared him to pieces. And later on, I would not have hunted him because he was an UL horse, in a “program” and I was working to maintain fitness, down time, and soundness. During hunt season, he needed to relax and have his shoes pulled for a bit, so the timing wasn’t right.
I am convinced that in many situations, hunting is excellent for young horses who need to gain confidence and get confident on their feet. That is one reason I am hunting this year. The other reason is that I am looking forward to getting back in the hunt field after many years off.
When I started hunting decades ago we always saw event horses in the field. That was back when eventing season started in march and ended in October with the summer off. One of the main injuries I see hunting is from lack of proper conditioning.
I’ve hound exercised and cubbed a few of my young event horses. My horse that is currently a 3* horse with a pro went out a few times first being ponied as a 3 year old and a few times undersaddle as a 4 year old. He was a PITA…very strong. So no, didn’t continue it with him as we was in a program and was not one that needed any help in being a xc machine 
I personally really don’t have time to hunt…the job gets in the way and the fields on Saturday are just too big for me to want to bother. I just make sure that I get my horses out a a lot…and don’t risk the injury in hunting. I know many that do…at least initially…but once a horse is going at a certain level, there typically isn’t time.
Winding Down, sorry I missed connecting with you on an Old Dominion ride. Have fun!
I hunt my event horse. I truly believe that IF she had a say in it, she would choose hunting over eventing. She is great in first flight… Fearless, fast, sure footed and will jump everything in front of her. She’ll gallop and drop to a walk it it’s called for and not a spook in her.
She does get excited at the first cast and needs a starting run to settle but she goes to work as soon as that run is over.
As an event horse, all the talent in the world but quirky and spooky. We do ok together and she may have been a fabulous event horse with a pro or a young rider but she got me! And given the life she leads, I think she’s ok with that!
I did not and do not, even though many people tried to talk me into it. I have hunted before and frankly, I didn’t like it at all – I can gallop through the woods for free and I don’t have to wear the silly butler outfit. I got annoyed with all the rules and the standing around and turning around (maybe it was the ADHD, LOL).
But hey, not all sports are for everyone. Even if I had been tempted, I would NEVER have taken Solo. He is strong as a freaking freight train and never did accept “no, you can’t always be lead horse.” I had no interest in self-torture.
Encore would be fine, but I prefer to just cross train with my endurance BFF and we go all kinds of awesome places and usually the only cost is diesel. She’s a 50-miler, so there is plenty of challenge, LOL! I jump jumps and she goes around them, it works out perfectly.
I started out with hunting my event horse many years ago. And then he became my hunt horse and I stopped eventing :D.
Not all horses are suitable for the hunt field but the ones that love to hunt are fun to hunt.
My old eventing coach told me that she had a friend in England who hunted her Grand Prix Dressage Horse. She didn’t jump, but she said nothing installed forward like a good gallop in the hunt field, plus she thought the cross training was very good for her horse.
As for injuries? So much depends on the footing, the territory and what field you ride with. There are days when I don’t go out or days when I drop back to a slower field.
My event horse LOVES hunting, and, oddly enough, when we took my daughter’s 16 yo OTTB event horse out he loved it too.
Lincoln was a hunt horse before he came to me, so I try to get him out once or twice a year. He thinks it’s great fun. My local hunt is fairly slow. We don’t really have the land for long fast gallops. Usually we have short canters and then trade flasks and gossip while we watch the hounds work.
Then I went on a hunt in Middleburg. Wow. Young children on medium ponies jumping 3’6 coops, long gallops down dirt roads and through cow fields, barely a couple minutes to catch your breath and then off again. I think the huntsman was also a steeplechaser. I lasted an hour before I excused myself to second field. Linc was REALLY pissed that I ruined his good time, but I only had one horse! I would have never forgiven myself if he got injured because of my recklessness.
I think my ottb has a decent brain for hunting, but I’m not sure I’m brave enough to find out! Maybe in another year or two…
I think hunting makes an event horse brave, fit and helps him develop a sense of “self preservation”. (As well as the rider - no course walking out there) Draw back is you don’t encounter many decorative cottages or colored plastic mushrooms!!
I always wanted to hunt Vernon as a youngster, but the local hunt I would have gone out with wasn’t known for its good riders, which is actually what I was most worried about. And the days I was brave enough to give it a go on him, the footing was crap and I wasn’t going to risk a nice, young, brave SALE hors’a confidence for a lark in the hunt field. Then, the next season he was MY horse, and I was doubly concerned for his safety, since any injury to him likely would mean no eventing for me. By the time I found a hunt that I loved going out (far better horsemanship and riding, in my book, although he did get kicked on a trail ride by a clueless kid’s horse!), he was on the market and sold before I could truly take him out. He did some hound exercising and he and I were half jokingly being recruited to whip in because he was such a rock in the field and with the hounds! To this day, I say had I been able to afford to keep he and Toby shod, I would have kept him as my hunt horse. Not quite the same as hunting him AND eventing him, but his eventing education was part of the reason he was on his way to being a great hunt horse. He was so broke and very, very rateable. Man. With hunt season knocking on the door, I miss him!
I HAVE hunted event horses, though, and think for some it is a big benefit. It can fry some horses, and others probably just aren’t suitable (cough cough Toby). But it never hurts to give it a go! If I still had young, quality event horses, I would choose the hunts I went out with carefully, only go on days that the footing wasn’t complete crap, and probably go during the week (to avoid the people who only ever ride on the weekends during hunt season!). But, I’m also notoriously over protective of my babies!!!
For many years, my old boss specialized in finding nice Irish imports that could do double duty as good hunters and eventers. I got to enjoy quite a few of them in both jobs. I still owe one my early education in riding cross country, and also blame him for spoiling me for life for every other hunt horse…he was sooooo good in the field!
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