Or, if you want to be proper about it, 'hound exercise'. But it's the off season, and who has time to be proper anyway. Not me. Well sometimes I do. But not right now.
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| Views from the trek over |
Once formal hunting season is over (around late March/early April for us), we start taking the hounds out for exercise on Wednesday afternoons. I've heard various terms for this, from 'roading' to 'hound exercise', and it can be done on foot or on horseback, depending on the hunt. For us at Belle Meade, we primarily go out on horseback, with several members of the hunt in trucks and four wheelers serving as road whips helping us open gates and hold traffic when we cross roads; and they carry the coolers full of water and beer for our mid-ride 'Beer break', of which members of the hunt take turns sponsoring.
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| Beer Break and meeting the hounds |
NOW! On to the most exciting part of the post. Usually I take Bedford or Madison out, but since I've had River two and a half months now at foxhunting boot camp, it became his turn to fit into the rotation and start experiencing more new things. He's been getting pretty darn good at trail riding and doing things at Foxboro, so it seemed like a good time. We also have the benefit of being close enough to the Hunt Barn (where all the activity takes place) to be able to hack over if we want, which serves multiple purposes like a) not having to take two trailers of horses over, and b) a good warm up for horses that are just getting started. We take advantage of this quite often, and tonight was no exception, and before joining up with the hunt midway through, we took a nice long trail ride through new territory, up and down banks & hills, stream crossings, and many, many logs on the trail, some of which (gasp!) he had to jump, which he did, in fine style. Of course, when he did this, he jumped about three times what he needed to, which left me laughing at his silliness but so proud of him.
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| Gettin prepped! |
In preparation for a little bit more excitement, I switched River's every day bit out (fat loose ring) for a D-ring french link, just to give me a teensy bit more 'whoa' just in case I needed it, since bringing him into a group of 25 brand new horses and then about 30-40 hounds can be A. LOT of new things all at once. Everything else we kept the same, and turns out I didn't even really need to worry about the more 'whoa' because other than some minor hissy fits when asked to stand for long periods of time and when a group from Fourth flight rode up out of the woods at a nice trot kinda blew his mind a little. They were nice and courteous to slow down to a walk so that he could calm down and then we joined in right behind them.
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| Best OTTB evah! |
By the end of our 5.6 mile trek from the Foxboro barn, to joining up with the hunt, and then riding back to the barn, we were all tired. Well, except River. He found the energy to slow trot/jig and show off his fancy side pass/lateral maneuvers once we hit midway on the driveway to the barn, but thankfully he realized that his buddy, and pasture mate Bedford wasn't going any faster, he chilled out and walked quietly back to the barn. He's growing up, and learning to do new things, and I'd be surprised if he took it all in stride the first time out and didn't do anything. Bottom line, I'm super proud of him (and so is his mom!) and it really makes me feel good as his surrogate mom/trainer-ish to see how far he has come in 2.5 months. I wanted to hug him, but both he and I were sweating all over, and kinda gross....so I just gave him kisses and 'good boy mints' that his mom sent over....and maybe some peppermint treats of my own. He might have gotten a little spoiled, but rightfully so. I can't wait to see how he keeps growing up during his time at Foxboro, because this little man is excellent <3
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