I attended a hunter pace once where you had to pick up items along the way. The items were in Christmas stockings which were hung on trees. The stocking were not “hung with care” and kept falling off, which meant you had to get off your horse, etc. Then you had to keep up with all the stuff until you finished. I found the whole ordeal rather bothersome, especially trying to maintain a certain pace.
I’ve attended hunter paces where the course were not marked well. They used a tiny piece of survey tape that you could hardly see until you were right on top of it. Turns were not marked with the usual three ribbons. They had also attempted to pull down some old markers but left enough hanging that we thought we were on course but were not.
Our hunt always gets compliments on how well the course is marked. Using the right color of survey tape for the time of year is helpful. Orange and pink show up well in the spring. Blue shows up well in the fall. We usually hang 18"-24" pieces of tape. Be sure to hang them close enough that riders don’t go too long without seeing a marker and begin to wonder if they’ve missed one. We also use directional arrows where there’s nothing to tie survey tape to. We always have a separate,slow/shorter course called Strollers (4-6 miles) for riders/horses not comfortable in the 10-12 mile course. The long course has three divisions: Full Cry-10 mph-mandatory jumps; First flight-8 mph-jumps optional; Hilltoppers-6mph-jumps optional. Riders are not told how long the course is and try to ride it at the optimum time for the division they’ve entered.
I can’t imagine marking the entire course the morning of the event. Are you marking it on foot or horse? We use 4 wheelers to mark the course. We spend the better part or a day doing it. Maybe you should mark it the day before then ride it early the next morning to fix/repair any markers that have been pulled down. Best of luck and let us know how it goes.
