Some really good ideas.
So far:
Regular riding (a given) and regular lessons
The regular lessons are actually a great idea.
Cardio
Determined attitude
I think a suitable mount is imperative.
Footpack. Definatly. Love it now, know people in their eighties who outwalk me, a big ys to that.
Cubbing this weekend!
Major Mark…
Are you sure you don’t want to retire to Virginia and marry me? 
Sorry to hijack the post… Carry on!
[QUOTE=Major Mark;6512394]
Well… I’m 54, and can only get out a few times a season with Bull Run because of all my business travel, but I do keep in shape by riding my bike to work during spring/summer/fall. It’s a 34 mile round trip. So when I hunt, I keep up. With Bull Run I’m mostly second field since I ride different horses each time, and it’s actually quite nice to relax and enjoy the countryside.
When I hunt in England, there is no second field, so I’m working hard and staying up front. Oddly, I find myself usually one of the last to go in.
The bike riding through Philadelphia is actually much like foxhunting. Dangerous traffic always trying to kill you, exhilarating jumps over curbs, potholes, etc. Constantly shucking and jiving, moving and grooving as you dodge traffic, people, obstructions, constantly thinking ahead, planning your moves…
When I retire in the spring and move to my soon-to-be- constructed New Hampshire hobby farm I’ll have my own horses again and hunt with Guildford and North Country Hounds til I drop dead. That’s the plan and I’m sticking to it.[/QUOTE]
I am lurking and laughing.
Mark: You will remember me hunting with Bull Run when Gro was master and he was hunting quite a few hounds that I had given the hunt.
How long ago? I think I was in my seventies then.
Turned 84 this month and just got a new OTTB. My big bay died.
Teaching this guy to jump. Maybe by January or February I will have him so he can go to NVA and hunt. That is my hope.
Still have hounds…10 couple at the present, and hunting them in a pen until cool weather when I will go back to hunting outside.
Ginny Moss, whom I had not seen in years but knew very well many years ago, hunted , I think, until she was in her early 90’s. Some one will have to confirm or correct that as I have not been to Souther Pines in many years.
I hope to continue for at least 10 more years.
Just bought a new horse, new truck and new trailer.
Either I am crazy or I plan to gallop on.
Sutton.
Well, #1 tell me exactly what vitamins you take.
I am in awe!!!
[QUOTE=SLW;6511175]
Last week at our first mounted hound exercises one of our Hilltop Fieldmasters was there and just as excited as ever to be getting ready for the season. We chatted for awhile as she saddled up her Clydesdale then mounted her 82 year old self onto his back. 
I’m over 50 and my long term plan to always have a horse I trust if I want to continue to hunt. This is my mare’s second season to hunt and she started out punky last week during exercises. So it meant I had to leave my Fieldmaster buddy above and take the punky mare back into the “walk only” group. There is something humbling about having a 82 year old ride away from you at a canter…sigh. I wanna be just like her![/QUOTE]
Me too!:yes:
[QUOTE=xeroxchick;6513040]
Sutton.
Well, #1 tell me exactly what vitamins you take.
I am in awe!!![/QUOTE]
I think that two things make the difference.
#1 is genes.
Dad lived to 97 and would have lived to be 100 but when Mother died he said that he wanted to die and did within 10 days. She was 94.
#2 is to be active throughout your life. Too many people in their 30’s and 40’s are so anxious to get ahead that they do not get outdoors.
I hunted on horse and on foot twice a week and sometimes three times all through those years.
I made up for it by working many extra hours on the days I did work.
I was lucky in that I worked for my Dad until he retired and he had the same interest in hunting and horses, so I could make my own schedule.
Neither of us thought that rigid schedules were as important as doing the right thing and working hard at whatever schedule we were on.
I realize those who work for others, especially large corporations that have rigid rules can not live as I did, but there are ways to work around that if you really want to.
For instance, when I was in college I would get home after dark, eat supper and then ride my horse in the dark.
Of course in those days of dirt roads and fewer cars and houses it was easier than it would be today, but I even schooled cross country in the dark.
A few lights behind the barn and anyone could do the same today…just in a different way.
Whether you run or bike or ride, it is important to keep it up. You can’t get it back after you are 60.
I was not smart enough to plan it. It just worked out that way for me.
[QUOTE=ridingagain;6512909]
Major Mark…
Are you sure you don’t want to retire to Virginia and marry me?
Sorry to hijack the post… Carry on![/QUOTE]
He-hee. I can’t handle those steamy Virginia summers! Believe me, numerous Bull Run folk have tried twisting my arm to retire in Virginia. I have no doubt they would have hooked me up with a nice little bitty farm to operate from. As a military brat, I spent 6 years living in the Philippine Islands. I am fed up with tropical heat.
New Hampshire is far cooler. And I’m betting on global warming to make it even more moderate. And if the heat don’t show up, that’s OK too, 'cause the cold keeps the riff-raff out. Plus NH is the freest state in the union, no state income tax, no sales tax, etc. The remoteness appeals to my, ahem, survivalist interests…
I’ll still pop into Va. for hunting. Amtrak has a train called “The Vermonter” that stops 15 minutes from my NH place, and goes all the way to Washington DC. So when the snows shut down hunting in NH, just hop on the train. Bull Run also has other members from NH who come down for the hunting. It’s almost scary how nicely things are coming together.
Of course, I’m always interested in a date for the Hunt Ball…
[QUOTE=cssutton;6512944]
I am lurking and laughing.
Mark: You will remember me hunting with Bull Run when Gro was master and he was hunting quite a few hounds that I had given the hunt.
How long ago? I think I was in my seventies then.
Turned 84 this month and just got a new OTTB. My big bay died.
Teaching this guy to jump. Maybe by January or February I will have him so he can go to NVA and hunt. That is my hope.
Still have hounds…10 couple at the present, and hunting them in a pen until cool weather when I will go back to hunting outside.
Ginny Moss, whom I had not seen in years but knew very well many years ago, hunted , I think, until she was in her early 90’s. Some one will have to confirm or correct that as I have not been to Souther Pines in many years.
I hope to continue for at least 10 more years.
Just bought a new horse, new truck and new trailer.
Either I am crazy or I plan to gallop on.[/QUOTE]
Claude, you tough old bird! Happy to hear from you! I’d be thrilled to hunt til 84. There was this elderly couple I hunted with while riding with Avon Vale in Wiltshire. Wore Bowlers, had to be helped onto their horses, then stuck on like glue and rode all day. I swear if either of them ever fell they would shatter into a million pieces. I got the gates for them while they tut-tutted that it was unseemly for visitors to get the gates.
The way the gub’mint is spending itself into a hole, I doubt my gub’mint pension will survive that long. My fallback plan, when the pension ends, is to reverse mortgage the place for money for the property taxes, proclaim myself Lord Mark, and invite family and friends to come be my peasants, and we’ll grow food and carry on…
I think that over half our local hunt club would be over 50. I’m not quite there yet and am definitely a “young un”:yes::yes:.
Major Mark - you might have lots of offers of places to retire with that life plan!!!
One of our members turns 90 next July - we’re carding our hunt for Monday (his actual birthday) instead of Tuesday in his honour. His “child bride” (as we affectionately call her) is a mere 77 and they both hunt every single hunt and jump pretty well every single fence, including some of the full wire fences that other followers decline. They’re farmers, and ride most days, neither would have had a lesson in their lives and have bred and broken in all their own horses for decades. The kind of people I can only hope to emulate. =)
Sedgefield Hunt had a member who hunted until 90 or almost, and who whipped up until he quit.
He was also a legend for hauling his own horse all over the country by himself.
I met him only once, when he was in his mid 80’s, and he was going wide open then.
This is the most inspiring thread of the week–thank you, everyone!
After chores I’m going to get my bum out there and RIDE!
:lol::lol:
How about foxhunting in the morning, racing home, switch gear and unhook the trailer, then go basseting in the afternoon.
Wash, rinse, repeat. Added bonus - whipping in to a footpack after foxhunting.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking. :D:winkgrin:
Tally ho, folks. Keep yer heels down!
Just plain riding over 50???
I’ve been watching this thread with interest. Haven’t been able to ride, let alone hunt for a couple of years trying to take care of elderly, Alzheimer’s mother who lives 3 hours away in another state. Had to give up my horses for a while and sold the young one but am hoping to bring my retired hunt horse back home soon so I can at least look out the window at my pasture puff.
Which means I am now looking for a new horse I can just trail ride and have fun with. Not likely to ever hunt like I used to. But maybe once in a while.
I am looking at 52 in about 6 weeks and I haven’t gotten over turning 50 yet!!! I am struggling with the idea of having a nice horse to ride, let alone hunt!! Can’t decide if this thread has inspired me or if it has furthered my horse-less depression.
I stole the following quote off horseloverz email of the day. Seemed appropriate!!!
HORSE QUOTATION “When I can’t ride anymore, I shall still
keep horses as long as I can hobble about with a bucket and a wheelbarrow. When I can’t hobble, I shall roll my wheelchair out
to the fence of the field where my horses graze and watch them.”
Xeroxchick,
Thanks for starting this excellent thread!
In addition to cardiovascular activities (off the horse) to support riding / hunting, I have found that the addition of some sort of regular stretching activity is very good for riding.
I have never been very limber, and with age (I am 53), that stiffness is becoming more so. So I started taking yoga classes regularly.
The key for me was finding a yoga class that was a good match. The first class I joined, people were sticking their feet behind their ears, and one guy, in the blink of an eye, was standing on his head. :eek: Not the class for me! So I found an introductory (easy-does-it-type) yoga class, populated by stiff and clueless (about yoga) adults like me. (I refer to the class as Yoga-for-Mortals.) The teacher is great, and when she sees that some pose it too much, she serenely says “If the position is not available to you this evening, try this more approachable version”. (This as I am thinking to myself, "That position will not be available to me this evening, next week, next month, not ever!). And I have found that this stretching really does translate over to being more limber (even somewhat supple) for riding.
Another bonus is that the yoga teacher is an equestrian. So sometimes after class I will ask her for any suggestions for yoga positions to help with riding - either balance, strength, or stretching. And those have been very helpful.
So whether it is a yoga class or some other sort of regular stretching activities, I have found that maintaining some degree of suppleness really helps with riding (as well as life, in general), especially as I age.
This thread is inspiring!
And let’s raise a glass . .
. . to Ellie Wood Baxter of Farmington HC. Her Facebook page says she’ll be 91 next month. She hunted last season, and I hope she has a fine time this season as well. An inspiration to us all.
“Glass raised to Ellie”
Took a short little hour trail ride yesterday with some hunt buddies. Here’s a brief description:
All six mounted yawning
Woke up when we went over the Interstate 75 overpass bridge.
Went all the way to the dead end, return.
Less fear, but still a pucker going back over the bridge (my horse had no problem, he was going to his own barn)
Doddled around the back 60 acres,
Return, dismount (I’m ashamed to admit how sloooowwwllly I slid off my 16.3 draftie)
Lunch.
A quick accounting revealed that:
a: I was a lot hotter than I should have been (note to self, leave bandanna off when wearing helmet)
b: Horse was a lot hotter than he should have been (fat horses sweat)
c: My left knee hurt
d: I can’t turn in the saddle to look behind me as well as I could prior.
And this morning, both sides of my lower back were a little achy.
Ellie Wood was present the very first time I hunted- with Farmington, fall 1971. I was, and remain, in awe of her elegance and skills on a horse.
She won the Maclay in 1936, and for my money, she could go back into that class in 2012 and whup all the young 'uns, by a lot.
[QUOTE=SwampYankee;6513668]
This is the most inspiring thread of the week–thank you, everyone!
After chores I’m going to get my bum out there and RIDE![/QUOTE]
I rode. 93 degrees and I rode. Frog-man was awesome (with spurs) and proved to me his “slug-ness” is totally my fault…not his. Unfortunately, $$$ is an object, and we will have to post-pone our fox-hunting debut until next season. (Alas.)
" I can’t turn in the saddle to look behind me as well as I could prior. "
Oh, LOL! I thought only I had this problem.
I love this thread. I have lurked on this hunting forum forever and secretly admire each and every one that is out there hunting. I watch the videos from hunts in England and Ireland and am swept away sitting here in the safety of my chair.
All here have given me the push I need to get out there and start enjoying life as I just turned 61 and have always wanted to to try hunting.
Thanks all.
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
