Today was the first hunter pace of the year. It was 9.4 miles and we finished in 1:38. This year we moved up 1 division to the Hilltoppers, which is supposed to be mostly trotting, with some canter and some walking. We did that, but apparently our horses trot too fast or too much because we were more than 16 minutes too fast. In fact, we were only 3 minutes and change off the pace for the hunter division. I think we will move up again next ride.
Last month, Ace joined our farm as a boarded horse. Alexis, who used to lease Huey, got to do her first hunter pace and Ace did great. In fact, all the horses did great. Alex and Alexis got 5th in the Jr division.
It’s been 2 weeks since I posted. It’s not that there hasn’t been anything going on, but rather, we have been so busy I’ve been too tired to sit down and write.
On May 16th, we had the CT State 4-H Horse Show. 6 kids from our club, the Barnyard Buddies, attended and had a great time. Vicki managed to win the walk-trot division and the 18″ hunter division. On the 17th, our club participated in PetTopia in Jewitt City.
Monday, the 18th was Amanda’s fifth birthday. We had a small family party Sunday evening before my parents (who had been in town for the previous 2 days), left with all 3 kids and our travel trailer Monday morning. They took a trip to Steamtown, PA and had a great time. I don’t have any pictures because I stayed home with Anna.
A friend who knits made Amanda a “big pink stocking” in accordance with her repeated requests.
Of course, while they were gone we got some good trail riding in on Dakota and Mysti. We have found a nice 6 mile loop for conditioning the horses. We also have a 4 mile loop and occasionally even ride in the arena.
This weekend, the weather was amazing. Since I had both Friday and Monday off work, we did a family trail ride on Friday (6 mile loop) with everyone geared up for the first hunter pace which is 2 weeks away. Never try something new on race day! The plan this year is Vicki and Anna will ride in the slower division and Alex and I will ride in the middle division. So, today, Alex and I went out and ratcheted up the speed. Dakota and Mysti are an amazing team on the trails. Dakota is a rock star in the lead! Mysti has found her confidence and is very sure-footed. She isn’t ready to be a leader, but we will work on that later in the summer. We logged about 20 miles in the past 8 days, so her conditioning is progressing nicely! When we got back today, Vicki hopped on to cool her off in the arena.
Sunday was Amanda’s “A Very Hungry Caterpillar” birthday party.
This afternoon, Anna and I worked on planting more in garden – this will be our biggest garden yet. Anna also spent about 4 hours teaching lessons in the arena today. After dinner tonight, Amanda insisted that we have a Memorial Day party, so Vicki and Amanda did an impromptu performance of dog tricks with Turbo and Mack.
Luckily, I go back to work in the morning so I can rest up for next weekend!
Now that the weather has improved, we are back in the saddle and riding regularly. The kids are riding 5-6 times a week. Considering last year my rides were measured more in “times per month”, the fact that I have ridden 4 times in the last week is a huge increase.
Last week, I took 2 days of leave. On Thursday, all the kids were at activities, so Anna and I hit the trails with Dakota and Mysti. I was our first longer ride of the season and we went a little over 6 miles in just under 2 hours. We definitely were not pushing the pace too hard, because we were testing out a number of new items along the way.
Anna decided she wanted a Garmin GPS watch for tracking her mileage on the trails. We also decided to buy 2 horse heart rate monitors that interface with our Garmin watches. It isn’t a big concern, but more of a neat thing to have and see how the horses are doing from a conditioning perspective. Since my goal with Mysti is to ride some limited distance endurance with her, it will be a nice accessory for training.
We did get plenty of water and Mysti is fine with it now. The horses both did well, although, I’m not knocked out with the fit of my English saddle on Mysti. I have an Endurance saddle on loan that was used on a 4 mile ride this evening for the first time. While that fit her much better, I’m not sure I like how it fit me.
Overall, we are off to a good start and will be ready for our first hunter pace in early June.
What does 12 miles in 2:35 on a gorgeous Sunday get you? 1st place in the Trailblazer division for me and 1st place in the Junior division for Alex. Today was our 3rd hunter pace of the summer and it was a fabulous day. King and Dakota were rock stars, as usual.
Alex is getting into the hunter paces and decided that we needed to match (I agreed). So, we wore our khaki breeches, blue farm shirts, matching Mystic Pony Club saddle pads, matching pommel bags, and even our protective vests match. While we aren’t setting any record speeds, I require the protective vests to instill good habits for the future when I expect he will want to jump a lot more than now.
Alex has also started to figure out it’s not always bad that there are not a lot of boys at the horse events…
Today was the second WGHA Hunter Pace. Since we sold Calli, and Vicki didn’t handle the distance very well last time, this one was me (Rob) on King and Alex on Dakota. We did the 10.3 miles in 2:10. That was good enough for me to get 2nd in the Trailblazer division and Alex to get 1st in the Junior division.
Alex on Dakota at WGHA Hunter Pace #2
Alex on Dakota at WGHA Hunter Pace #2
Alex on Dakota at WGHA Hunter Pace #2
Alex on Dakota at WGHA Hunter Pace #2
Selfie on King at WGHA Hunter Pace #2
Alex got to choose his prize for winning the Junior division; he chose a new chair. Once he got home, he immediately set it up in the yard and shared the umbrella space with Amanda.
Alex sharing his new chair with Amanda. He chose the chair as his prize for winning 1st in the Junior division at WGHA Hunter Pace #2.
Alex sharing his new chair with Amanda. He chose the chair as his prize for winning 1st in the Junior division at WGHA Hunter Pace #2.
It was an exhausting weekend as we kicked off the 2014 fair season with the North Stonington Fair.
Thursday, 8 rabbits reported for show duty and spent the weekend looking pretty for the masses.
Friday, Anna and the kids spent the day washing goats, washing horses, and Anna was up past midnight braiding manes. Saturday morning, we loaded the trailer and headed to the horse show.
Amanda rode on Huey in the lead line class.
Jack, one of Anna’s students, also rode lead line on Devil. Vicki rode Devil in the walk-trot classes along with her best friend, Alexis, who was on Huey. Alexis actually beat Vicki for the walk-trot championship (in her first show ever). It does Vicki good to get taken down a peg every now and then. Alex has no interest in the ride around the arena classes, however, he was keen to ride in the Gymkhana classes. He did the mounted games at the 4-H show in May with Dakota, so we let him do it again, only this time, we let him canter Dakota. He did come close to the fastest times, but he maintained control and had fun doing it. He even decided to add-on a 1 walk-trot-canter class for the day.
Alex, Alexis, and Vicki on their mounts, getting a pre-ride brief from their instructor (Anna)
Alexis and Huey
Alexis on Huey
Vicki on Devil
Alex on Dakota
Alex on Dakota
Alexis won Walk-Trot champion and Vicki got Reserve
Vicki loves Devil
After the horse show, the kids put on their new Barnyard Buddies 4-H shirts to walk around a few minutes, but needed a food and drink break. Ruth is another one of Anna’s students who came along for the day to watch Amanda, but seemed to get bitten by the show bug and is talking about getting more serious in her plans with King.
Sunday was the goat show. We had 11 goats with 5 kids (Alex, Vicki, Amanda, Alexis, and Selena) our herd. Amanda got to show Sprout in Pee-Wee showmanship and the Pet class. Another long day, but everyone had a good time and Alex is actually starting to get more into the goats. Sawyer Farm’s Onyx won Best Jr Lamancha and Sawyer Farm’s Sequoia won best Jr Recorded Grade.
Amanda with Sprout.
Amanda with Sprout.
Amanda with Sprout.
Amanda with Sprout.
Amanda with Sprout.
Alex with Tang
Alex with Tang
Alex with Tang
Selena with Saffron
Salena with Saffron
Alex with Poco
Vicki with Tang
Alexis with Willow
Throughout the afternoon, WCTY was doing karaoke next to the goat show, and the kids were constantly on stage giving it a try. Amanda and her friend Lily spent almost all afternoon on stage.
Instead of a stressful afternoon of cooking and worrying about special dishes, we decided to saddle up the herd and go for a trail ride. It was a nice 35F outside and the weather was clear. Our neighbor was nice enough to come snap a photo before we left on the short ride in the woods. From left to right: Alex on Dakota, Vicki on Devil, Amanda on Huey, Rob on Calli, and Anna on King.
As is the tradition, the girls had to do some bareback riding in the snow. Vicki loves to ride bareback in the winter because it keeps her warmer. Vicki decided to try out Dakota, Alex’s new pony, while Amanda rode Huey. This was Vicki’s first bareback ride on Dakota and it went well. Both girls had a good time and no one fell off.
Alex and I will be doing a trail ride in the snow after lunch.
On Friday, we took a trip to check out a couple of ponies. We have been looking for a new pony for Alex to replace Precious. We decided to bring home Dakota on a 2 week trial. He is a 6yo grade pony of uncertain breeding, but suspected Welsh/Arab cross. He is a little greener than we hoped, but we are going to try him out for a couple of weeks and then decide.
