Hunting is a lifelong dream of mine, and I think my Spanky (OTTB) would enjoy it. Over the spring/summer I’d like to get both of us hunting fit… well, hilltopping fit anyway. :lol: We have access to a nice hilly pasture, and I can erect jumps as needed. So the question is… what kind of questions? How high does your W.GA hunt jump? How gnarley should I make the approach? I have a couple of ditches to work with, should I make a teensy trekhaner?
I’m also curious as to how steep a grade you gallop down. This is the one place I’m a bit of a chicken. :rolleyes:
I’m not from Georgia, obviously, but hilltoppers don’t jump anything, much less trakehners. Even second field doesn’t jump, in my experience, where there is a first field, second field, and hilltoppers.
If you are talking about first field, I think true galloping is unusual at most hunts, isn’t carried on for long, and can be avoided if you don’t want to do it, by just staying in canter until the field slows and you catch up.
Thanks. No, I didn’t figure the hilltoppers would jump, but I figure I’ll have to hilltop before I can ride in first or second flight. Sorry, that was a little unclear. I’m just thinking in a ‘train one level over what you can produce in the field’ way.
I didn’t realize galloping was so unusual. I always thought foxhunters were quite fantastically fit.
They are fit, because you may canter for a long time and usually in half-seat, and over somewhat rough terrain so your thighs get quite a work out. You will be out of breath after some long runs. So practice that, lots of laps of half-seat canter.
I think most panels and coops are probably 2’6", typically at the hunts I been to. I’ve never encountered any thing over 3’3", and that was unusual. But, more importantly, these are single jumps, so it just isn’t as challenging as running a course of jumps in an arena. I don’t know how things are in Georgia but I’m guessing not much different.
I woud contact the hunt you plan to go with directly and find out what they do. It depends on the territory and the way the field master rides and whether you are on a grey, red or coyote and whether you can get from point A to B easily in that country. I’ve been on some long fast runs because we couldn’t get from A to B ( land owner didn’t want hoof prints in an area) so quarry and hounds took the short line and we had to go the long way around.
Contact the hunt secretary, and if possible car follow first.
Thanks folks. Since you brought up car following, do any of you have non-riding SOs who follow?
[QUOTE=altjaeger;5450358]
I’m not from Georgia, obviously, but hilltoppers don’t jump anything, much less trakehners. Even second field doesn’t jump, in my experience, where there is a first field, second field, and hilltoppers.
If you are talking about first field, I think true galloping is unusual at most hunts, isn’t carried on for long, and can be avoided if you don’t want to do it, by just staying in canter until the field slows and you catch up.[/QUOTE]
I’m not from Georgia either, but I hunted with 2 hunts down there a few weeks ago. The first one had a 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th flight. I chose to go 3rd. There are some coops/walls in the territory, but not as much as up here in VA, but I was on a leased horse and didn’t want to die, so 3rd it was. By the 2nd hour of GALLOPING I wished I had gone 4th. They hunt some fox there, but the majority of game is coyote. Which runs really, really fast for long straight stretches. If you’re going to hunt with them, you better be able to ride for hours, sometimes on single runs that can last an hour or more. At that hunt, you cannot just avoid it cantering or galloping, and if you can’t keep up, you are left. There is no catching up. Oh did I mention they meet at 3pm, so if you do get lost, have fun hacking at night! :eek:
The second hunt has no jumps, at all. However, they have ditches. Biiiiiig ditches that you walk down and jump out. If there is a serious run, some may try to fly them, but good luck with that! The territory is flat, so generally not much worry about galloping down hills, but you will GALLOP, hard and fast if you hit on a coyote.
Your best bet is to contact the secretary, explain your experience and see if they have a field you would be comfortable in. Also your horse needs to have hunt manners, which the most important is how it will be with hounds. A great way to get an introduction to hunting is to participate in any summer hunt trail rides offered-- you can see the fixtures and get your horse used to riding at paces in a group, and down the road get him introduced to hounds.
[QUOTE=altjaeger;5450454]
They are fit, because you may canter for a long time and usually in half-seat, and over somewhat rough terrain so your thighs get quite a work out. You will be out of breath after some long runs. So practice that, lots of laps of half-seat canter.
I think most panels and coops are probably 2’6", typically at the hunts I been to. I’ve never encountered any thing over 3’3", and that was unusual. But, more importantly, these are single jumps, so it just isn’t as challenging as running a course of jumps in an arena. I don’t know how things are in Georgia but I’m guessing not much different.[/QUOTE]
altjeager, where have you hunted? I’m curious because at several of the hunts here the coops are generally 3’, some more, and at the wonderful fixtures where the landowners train 'chasers, there are some big scary as* obstacles.
I would have to strongly disagree a single jump in the hunt field is not as challenging as a course in an arena. Jumping in the field is very different and can include such things as other horses around you, cows around you, having crappy torn up footing in front of the jump, and having God knows what behind it! Nothing more fun than going over a field jump and finding out it’s a drop! With a ditch 20 feet beyond it! With a cow standing behind a tree! With a loose horse jumping behind you! 
TimelyImpulse, which hunts did you ride with? The more I read, the more I think I won’t be able to really prepare for this on my own. It sounds like each hunt is a singular experience, and the best I can do is get fit then ride in the back until I feel confident about moving up.
Timely Impulse has given good advice!! Each hunt is very different in territory quarry and how the fields ride.
JMHO!
Try a topic search in this forum on this subject area for some good information about jumping and prep for it. We’ve covered it altho’ not necessarily in your area of course!
Good luck and don’t overthink it. Get the horse to the jump - it’s his job to jump it!
[QUOTE=kinnip;5451042]
TimelyImpulse, which hunts did you ride with? The more I read, the more I think I won’t be able to really prepare for this on my own. It sounds like each hunt is a singular experience, and the best I can do is get fit then ride in the back until I feel confident about moving up.[/QUOTE]
That would be wise. It’s usually best to inquire of the hunt secretary when making your contacts prior to hunting what to expect of the territory, and then to remember that discretion is often the better part of valor, at least when first starting out. Many hunts often have websites and/or facebook pages where you can see pictures of what goes on.
Once you see a little more what the territory is like most hunts will let you change fields with appropriate notification to the field masters.
If you plan on hunting with Belle Meade, be prepared because they “aint no joke”. They run coyote, and some of their coops are 3’ with a 4’ drop on the other side, so it just depends which side is the take off side. I remember one coop that was at a junction of 3 fence lines that came together in a T. You went through a small break in the fence, made an immediate right angle to the left, took 3 trot strides, jumped about a 3’ coop and the landing was straight down the side of a hill, that had flat rocks on it on the way down to a stream.
So you need to be fit and able to be pretty tight in your tack to hang with stuff like that.
And I agree, hunting is much more challenging than jumping a course in a ring any day. No one is grooming the footing or watering it or anything else. There may be a hole, uneven ground, I have even jumped a large coop as an armadillo ran out from under it and one that had a small fawn lying in the grass on the other side. You may not have related distances (usually) unless you are jumping out of a field, crossing a road and into another field, but you have to have your s#&* together.
TimelyImpulse, I’ve only hunted 4 different hunts in Texas. The taller coops here are almost always “real” coops required to move from one pasture to another, and there are no drops either side of them because each side is a field. I’ve heard of some hunts (Piedmont comes to mind) that people say you can be faced with 4’ or 4.5’ jumps, but it just isn’t like that here.
Yeah, there are some “traffic control” issues at the jumps, but on the plus side, if your horse doesn’t like to do 3’, you’ll get it over eventually just because of the herd effect and fear of being left behind.
I’m planning on hunting with them next season - and will be at the gym ALL summer. And when I’m not at the gym, I’ll be in the saddle.
I figure that’s the only way I’ll have a fighting chance not to be left in a ditch wondering what the hell happened. :lol:
You will have a blast and you will be so glad you spent all that time in the gym.
That said, I don’t know how it is in the field, I’ve only ridden with the whips up there so we really get in it, but the territory alone is worth the trip, it’s spectacular.
Belle Meade is totally worth it, I just love going up there.
Jaegermonster- Belle Meade is a blast We had a great time there, and they showed us a fine day/evening of hunting, with a wonderful breakfast after. You do need to be prepared to ride. Even our diehard 3 or more times a week hunting members were a bit tired that evening!
altjeager, here in Virginia, the coops are “real” too, but with varied terrain sometimes you just can’t avoid a drop on either side between fields. The traffic control issues shouldn’t be issues-- if your horse (or you) can’t clear 3’, you shouldn’t be riding 1st field. It’s a safety issue and a courtesy to other riders around you, as well as being respectful to the Hunt.
Well my horse can do 3’, but I’ve been with other riders whose horses didn’t want to on the first try.
Unfortunately you can’t control how others ride only yourself, but IMHO if your horse won’t consistently jump whatever you put in front of it on the first try then you need to drop back a field and do some more schooling at home til it will. Otherwise you and your horse become a hazard in an already very dangerous arena.
And if first field challenges are just too much for the horse (which does happen) or the rider (which happens more) there is no shame in riding in second field, or even hilltopping.
I had gotten the impression that horses refusing at jumps was sort of “normal”, I guess, because Wadsworth mentions the etiquette for when this happens and also from watching lots of videos like this one:
[QUOTE=altjaeger;5451634]
I had gotten the impression that horses refusing at jumps was sort of “normal”, I guess, because Wadsworth mentions the etiquette for when this happens and also from watching lots of videos like this one:
Jumping a wall hunting[/QUOTE]
LOL! altjeager, that’s IRELAND!!! That’s a class of hunting all unto itself! There was only 1 true refusal the 3rd horse, the white horse was cut off. Hard to tell how the height of the wall from the angle, but looks like fun, huh?
Jagersmonster-- do you happen to know MFH Charlie Lewis’ horse named Levi at Belle Meade?
