2013 “Mushroom hunting riding is not simply a matter of traipsing through the woods after it rains.” Riding correctly is not simply a matter of sitting on the horse holding a certain position. “It is an art, a skill, a meditation, a process.” Me paraphrasing Bone quoting Arora. [Inspiration Is Everywhere]
An ASB class where over 70% of the riders wore helmets!
Thanks to the livestream video by Eventmix Live, I watched the Saddle & Bridle Working Hunter Classic National Championship, Flat Phase at the St. Louis Charity Horse Show, September 30, 2021. Screenshot above.
Of the 7 entrants, 5 had helmets. The other two wore hunt caps.
Judging by the stills, see below, everyone wore a helmet to jump.
Looking through the Hunter Country Pleasure photos, I counted 7-8 helmets, which is more than usual. The rest wore hunt caps.
What’s the difference?
The Working Hunter class has two phases, jumping and flat. I’m gonna guess that these horses go out and do other things, such as hunters, jumpers, and eventing. If you want to jump your Saddlebred, you have to go outside the ASB shows.
Working Hunter is one class. Everyone shows in both phases. Results are announced after the flat phase, or so I assume from the lack of victory photos in the morning.
Hunter Country Pleasure is flat only. That is the case at most saddle seat shows. One show in our area has a hunter hack class, wherein everyone jumps one (?maybe two) small fence at the end of the class.
HCP has a multitude of different subdivisions, with a Championship for each: Prospect, Adult Amateur, Junior, Masters. Then the big final on Friday night.
Jumpers is jumpers. Per the prizelist, .90m = Fences 2’11” in height; 10 –12 jumps, change of direction. Dunno what happened to the two who did not place. Nothing good, I assume.
Crossovers. All five of the Jumper entries showed in the Working Hunter class. None of the Working Hunters showed in the HCP Final. I did not check the other HCP Championships. Apparently my stalking has limits.
Results screencapped from HorseShowsOnline. I’m hoping they reproduce better than they are looking in the preview.
Curmudgeon Comment
Saddlebreds do their victory pass at a trot. Fine, that’s their tradition. Hunter jumpers do a victory gallop (canter). That’s their tradition. Therefore, I am of the opinion that Saddlebreds showing hunt seat should do their victory pass at a canter. Doesn’t usually happen. In this class, after the victory trot with all ribbon winners, the champion and reserve did a victory gallop. Finally!
I’ve decided not to count Rodney’s miles at Full Circle Horse Park, at least not all of them. We did just over 5 & 1/2 miles in two trips.
Originally, the goal was to walk around the edges of the cross-country field, racking up the miles. While we did some wandering about, the two days turned into much more of XC jump schools. Which is awesome! but doesn’t feel as if should count toward a virtual trail ride, at least not the jumping bits.
The other option is to Count! Every! Step! which is what we did last year. Rodney finished just under the wire and Milton needed the extended deadline to finish. This year, we got our miles in early. It’s a lot easier to be a purist when one is over 90 miles with weeks to go.
We will finish next week, one way or another. Rodney has already done 2 & 1/4 make-up miles, so using the every step method, he would be done. Barring rain or other calamities (crosses fingers), we should be able to get to up 103 or 105 miles by next weekend and declare victory. Dragging this out for one more week is ridiculous enough. Not doing that for two weeks.
Leaving those miles in Milton’s total. 1) He’s already finished. 2) He spent the time at Full Circle walking about watching Rodney, a much more trail-esque activity. 3) He did 7 of the miles with Rodney this week, so he’s over 100 miles no matter how you count.
Did I do this because it gave me another week of VT posting? No. I’m enough of a curmudgeon that I would have done so anyway, provided we had the time. Do I object that doing this gave me another week of VT posting? Also no.
Tortoise Power!
Where are we virtually?
Milestone. Rodney.
Map. Close enough to the end that I stopped.
Data Dump – Rodney
Tuesday, September 28 – 1.82 miles, 45 minutes Wednesday, September 29 – 1.64 miles, 54 minutes Thursday, September 30 – 2 miles, 51 minutes Friday, October 1 – 2.03 miles, 54 minutes Saturday, October 2 – .93, 25 minutes. Storm arrived. Rode solo. Rodney was a star about it. Sunday, October 3 – .63 miles, 20 minutes. Muddy footing. That’s all the complaining I could listen to. Monday, October 3 – .71 miles, 18 minutes. The radar lies!
Distance this week – 9 & 3/4 miles Time this week – 4.5 hours Rides this week – 7 days
Total distance – somewhere between 93 – 98 miles. VT results page has us at 98.93 miles. Total time – xx hours. Too confusing to calculate. Total rides – 54 days Total calendar – 73 days
Pace, time to go one mile – 27:16 m/m, per VT results page
Numbers rounded off for ease of reporting. May not add up as given.
Awareness of the outside world. “The Term of the Court begins, by law, on the first Monday in October.” SCOTUS: The Supreme Court at Work. ~~~
Another entry in the ongoing series detailing my failing efforts to achieve the seemingly simple task of finding a riding lesson.
Barn 1. No. Spoke with boarder of barn. No lesson program currently. Had I considered … named barns that had already crossed me off their list. Encouraging. Not.
Barn 2. No. Stopped by barn. Trainer out of town. Was told boarders only. Judging by spiffiness of barn and monogrammed tack trunks of boarders, I posit a train-and-show boarding barn rather than a we-feed-your-horse, do what you will boarding barn.
Barn 3. Yes, but. Stopped by barn. Well-established lesson program. Full. Sigh.
I have submitted my name for the waiting list. They operate month to month. So, I have to wait at least a month, have someone decide not to continue, & have my name bubble to the top of the waiting list. Not holding my breath.
Filling out the form was fun. Parent Name. Not applicable. School Attending. Not Applicable. Prior Experience. Used to show there. Yes, the last time I was at that barn, I was showing Previous Horse. That was good for a nostalgic sniffle.
Barn 4. No. Lesson program for kids only. This is a change since Covid. Maybe due to having fewer people at barn? Got this secondhand from Barn 1 boarder. Seemed knowledgeable enough that I see no reason to doubt the info.
Running out of places to check. Several more barns in the area, but many/most of the rest are similar to Barn 2, i.e. one trainer with a handful of horses. They may achieve great things, but I am not their business model.
Plus, I’m not just looking for a horse to ride. I have horses to ride. I’m looking for a steady, reliable, schoolie who will calmly trot cross-rails while I hyperventilate. The sort of horse who unflappably lugs small children around for a living.
Sam. With jumps.
Plus, plus, I am ultimately looking for two kinds of lessons. One set with school horses and another set for me & the Gorgeous Dork. Willing to go to different places for each. Same place would be nice. Any place would be nice.
This go-round was all about school horse lessons. I need to get back to working on the other as well. Am out of juice at the moment.
Whenever I ride or walk around the field, I have to spend the first lap with my hand in the air. That way the spiderwebs glom onto my arm instead of my face. The perils of being in the lead. Unless the lead is a pony and you are on a horse. (You know who your are!)
Virtual Brush Box 