AprilBlossom
Well-Known Member
A week on, and I feel like my 'blown brains' (it's not just horses that it happens to lol!) are ready to recount my first mounted hunting experience with my big old ginger lad!
So, the wonderful marmalade76 ran us up the road in the early hours of Saturday as the meet was a little too far to hack, especially in the dark, and both G and friends cob, S loaded and unloaded happily, unfazed by the hounds making noise in the distance, and G surprisingly calm - moving along at a good walk but still not too strong. Then we met the field and set off.
My surprisingly calm, standing quite nicely and not going too backwards (the go-to hunting pace for G is backwards in the direction of a small pony) turned into a steam train!
Ahead, a young girl was rodeoing about on a chestnut which then slipped and sat down, plopping her onto the floor before being promptly caught and remounted by the brave little jockey, who proceeded to cope extremely well with her naughty little mount the rest of the day (wish the same could be said for me!)
The secretary was absolutely lovely and gave us a few pointers, before we set off across a couple of fields behind the master. I had hung around chatting, until G realised half the field were way ahead and snatched the bit and bogged off! Special commendations to the girl who was on a horse doing a similar 'yank and run' technique who managed to keep a fag on the go whilst galloping along next to me
Hounds had gone over to the neighbouring field, and we were about to pop a hunt jump through, third in line behind the master (see how much we'd moved up the field!) but quickly diverted round after the lady in front of me caught her head on a low hanging branch with an almighty CRACK :O She carried on without so much as a whinge, tough cookie.
Meanwhile I was quite aghast upon releasing my grip on the reins and discovering my hands were stuck in some sort of claw pose - had to manually unfold for brief respite before we set off at a good pace again!
Five of the field were left on point at the end of the next field - decided to follow on as didn't trust Gs standing still skills, and found myself confidently following the master and a couple of others over a reasonable palisade on a less-than-ideal hilly grounding - result! We then found most of the field were not up for jumping it and the gate locked, so had a lovely swig of port and some friendly chat with the people I'd found myself with. S, who my friend was on was being an absolute star and gaining some admiring glances.
We then got put on point whilst on the 'wrong' side of the hedge/trees, and I was just relaxing and starting to really enjoy it when the worst thing in the world happened. Hounds came running out towards us, G stood still as a rock as they ran past us, and then all of a sudden he half kicked, half stamped and managed to land a hoof on the toes of a hound - DISASTER! (I don't believe that I did anything wrong as such that I could have changed to prevent this, but was still mortified)
A very kind man reassured me and handed me his whip - telling me that even if I didn't use it I needed to show I was carrying it and would use if something similar threatened to happen again. I still don't know why G did it, he's never done anything like that before
We then jumped back out over the same fence (I must admit I faltered here and did wonder out loud if anyone would try the gate - I was ignored, thank god, and just got on with it) then carried on up and down some steep hills, me still fighting the steed at various points of excess speed, but very happy with his standing skills when we stopped - he only tried to reverse into a pony once but I was ready for him, throwing my hands forward and sending him on - ha!
Slowing up again, I had a chat with another lovely lady who reassured me I couldn't be down about my lack of fitness, loudly announcing that I had only had a baby a few months ago - what a sweety (it's no excuse, I should be fitter to cope with my crazy horse)
A surprisingly large proportion of the field then got into a little difficulty over a very small ditch, because it was rather overgrown and I think horses were misjudging the take off and landing sides, resulting in some untidy scrambling and some admiring 'well sat!'s - my super jumping hoss happily popped over but I'd been extra careful to really lift him up and over as he's an old boy and I was worried he wouldn't see it properly - no need it seemed!
As soon as we touched down though, I lost all brakes and had to just hang on until it looked like anyone ahead was slowing up - some commotion behind me (a girl had toppled off at the ditch, completely fine, but still unfortunate) made me look round and as I did I noticed a silver disc swirling around in the air right by my head - Gs hind shoe - brilliant!
At this point I asked the master for directions home and he kindly offered me a lift in his lorry, but I decided to walk slowly home then rather than carry on not knowing how much longer they'd continue and at what pace (well, Gs pace would be canter, just on the spot if needs be!) so we set off home, perfecting our 'circle wildly across a stubble field' stop
Overall, I had a fantastic day, however there were points (the hound incident and the frequent loss of brakes!) where I found myself wondering what the hell I was doing!
Im now trying to decide whether to battle on in keeping shoes on Gs rubbishy feet at the mo, hoping to rack up another few days when the meets are hackable, or to remove shoes for a winter off and follow on foot/anything I can borrow if anyone offers once r twice! It can't be worse behaved than G!!
So, the wonderful marmalade76 ran us up the road in the early hours of Saturday as the meet was a little too far to hack, especially in the dark, and both G and friends cob, S loaded and unloaded happily, unfazed by the hounds making noise in the distance, and G surprisingly calm - moving along at a good walk but still not too strong. Then we met the field and set off.
My surprisingly calm, standing quite nicely and not going too backwards (the go-to hunting pace for G is backwards in the direction of a small pony) turned into a steam train!
Ahead, a young girl was rodeoing about on a chestnut which then slipped and sat down, plopping her onto the floor before being promptly caught and remounted by the brave little jockey, who proceeded to cope extremely well with her naughty little mount the rest of the day (wish the same could be said for me!)
The secretary was absolutely lovely and gave us a few pointers, before we set off across a couple of fields behind the master. I had hung around chatting, until G realised half the field were way ahead and snatched the bit and bogged off! Special commendations to the girl who was on a horse doing a similar 'yank and run' technique who managed to keep a fag on the go whilst galloping along next to me
Hounds had gone over to the neighbouring field, and we were about to pop a hunt jump through, third in line behind the master (see how much we'd moved up the field!) but quickly diverted round after the lady in front of me caught her head on a low hanging branch with an almighty CRACK :O She carried on without so much as a whinge, tough cookie.
Meanwhile I was quite aghast upon releasing my grip on the reins and discovering my hands were stuck in some sort of claw pose - had to manually unfold for brief respite before we set off at a good pace again!
Five of the field were left on point at the end of the next field - decided to follow on as didn't trust Gs standing still skills, and found myself confidently following the master and a couple of others over a reasonable palisade on a less-than-ideal hilly grounding - result! We then found most of the field were not up for jumping it and the gate locked, so had a lovely swig of port and some friendly chat with the people I'd found myself with. S, who my friend was on was being an absolute star and gaining some admiring glances.
We then got put on point whilst on the 'wrong' side of the hedge/trees, and I was just relaxing and starting to really enjoy it when the worst thing in the world happened. Hounds came running out towards us, G stood still as a rock as they ran past us, and then all of a sudden he half kicked, half stamped and managed to land a hoof on the toes of a hound - DISASTER! (I don't believe that I did anything wrong as such that I could have changed to prevent this, but was still mortified)
A very kind man reassured me and handed me his whip - telling me that even if I didn't use it I needed to show I was carrying it and would use if something similar threatened to happen again. I still don't know why G did it, he's never done anything like that before
We then jumped back out over the same fence (I must admit I faltered here and did wonder out loud if anyone would try the gate - I was ignored, thank god, and just got on with it) then carried on up and down some steep hills, me still fighting the steed at various points of excess speed, but very happy with his standing skills when we stopped - he only tried to reverse into a pony once but I was ready for him, throwing my hands forward and sending him on - ha!
Slowing up again, I had a chat with another lovely lady who reassured me I couldn't be down about my lack of fitness, loudly announcing that I had only had a baby a few months ago - what a sweety (it's no excuse, I should be fitter to cope with my crazy horse)
A surprisingly large proportion of the field then got into a little difficulty over a very small ditch, because it was rather overgrown and I think horses were misjudging the take off and landing sides, resulting in some untidy scrambling and some admiring 'well sat!'s - my super jumping hoss happily popped over but I'd been extra careful to really lift him up and over as he's an old boy and I was worried he wouldn't see it properly - no need it seemed!
As soon as we touched down though, I lost all brakes and had to just hang on until it looked like anyone ahead was slowing up - some commotion behind me (a girl had toppled off at the ditch, completely fine, but still unfortunate) made me look round and as I did I noticed a silver disc swirling around in the air right by my head - Gs hind shoe - brilliant!
At this point I asked the master for directions home and he kindly offered me a lift in his lorry, but I decided to walk slowly home then rather than carry on not knowing how much longer they'd continue and at what pace (well, Gs pace would be canter, just on the spot if needs be!) so we set off home, perfecting our 'circle wildly across a stubble field' stop
Overall, I had a fantastic day, however there were points (the hound incident and the frequent loss of brakes!) where I found myself wondering what the hell I was doing!
Im now trying to decide whether to battle on in keeping shoes on Gs rubbishy feet at the mo, hoping to rack up another few days when the meets are hackable, or to remove shoes for a winter off and follow on foot/anything I can borrow if anyone offers once r twice! It can't be worse behaved than G!!
