Keeping up PSA and arranging the field

[FitToBeTied]

I’ll bring this up as we are approaching hunt season in just two weeks. I was out on a hunt trail ride recently. There were some people out with herd bound horses and were telling everyone they couldn’t be separated, etc. As we were going along we had to go around some down trees. The rider on the first of the herd bound pair went one way and the rider on the other another. The second horse got frantic and kicked out and caught the horse… Luckily the horse that got kicked was far enough behind that it took a weak kick. No damage.

To me, bringing horses out like that is dangerous to other riders and horses. If they can’t be separated in the field, then leave one of them home. IMHO

[xeroxchick]

Ugh. At least keep them in the back. That’s like the “my horse likes to be up front.” Most of them do, that’s why we actually work on that stuff, as in, train them to hunt. Or the rider that is not aware that their horse is moving to cut off other horses from riding beside them when the field is two by two. But kicking and pitching a fit is just where the field master needs to step in? IDK, who am I, I have a new horse who’s never hunted before that I’m planning on hunting so we will see how much I know, lol.

[FitToBeTied]

As we are about halfway through the hunt season, a couple of updates.

1. On keeping up. I was out last week and we were in the woods on tight trails. There was one rider who was going so slowly up and down hills that twice we had no idea where the field had gone.
2. Same rider when they hit the bottom of the hill after crawling down would take off at a canter at the bottom in order to catch up.

Keep up people!

3. Just like everyone else’s horses mine aren’t perfect but we tried. My young horse got antsy on a field reversal in a tight situation and just wanted to turn and go with the other field. I would let him and he bounced around a bit. So when our field reversed I did a double reverse and moved him to the back of the field. When you horse is being fractious be aware that you are impairing other people’s fun. Get them out of the way.

4. I’ve heard this several times this year when someone has a new horse out. Another rider in the field trying to be helpful will say “it’s OK if you horse bumps into mine, he doesn’t care”. While you are trying to helpful doing that, you are teaching the young horse that it is ok to run into other horses. That is just going to lead to the new horse getting kicked in the future.