Hurrumph hurrumph hurrumph.
Poor old Radar won't eat his tea he is so frustrated. I ate mine, but I'm not happy. Meet was off? No, it was on. Rained and we got soaked? No, it was fine. Radar refused to jump? No, he did well. What then?
Well, we were covering new country that we have not been over before and the day was put together by a 16 year old boy and a 50 year old woman who "sort of" mentors the boy. It was a dreadful day. We were not allowed to canter across any of the grass, even though it was not new seed, and we were constantly having to walk around the margins. We did get to canter on what was left after cutting a corn on the cob crop, but the fields were small and we didn't get much of a run before having to stop again. Radar was so unhappy!
They hadn't been around and built hunt fences and we only got to jump about four, and one hedge (though I don't think we were supposed to jump that, the guy in front of me got glared at). Three jumps we were expected to do were loose steel gates, propped up against barbed wire. I refused to jump them. If your horse clears them it's fine. If not, you could lose the horse to damaged legs.
We were also expected, twice to walk over steel gates lying flat in gateways. And very early on we went through a bit of wood where the going was so deep that horses were in up to their bellies, tripping on submerged roots, and falling over. It was carnage! Some of us refused to do that too, and turned back. So all in all, it was a hopeless day.
To rub salt in the wound, the huntsman tried to tell us at the end what a great day we'd had and said that if every day ran over "such varied terrain" we would be " the best hunt in the country". Who was he trying to fool, because it didn't work!?
I'm just glad that I schooled Jazz before we went, otherwise I would think the day was a complete write-off horse-wise.
Just to cap things off, we have enough snow forecast for tomorrow to stop Campero from getting here. It had just better not arrive, that's all I can say!
C
ps got my Radar photos and they are even better in a 7x10 than on the screen. Dead chuffed with them and with him.
posted by cptrayes @ 7:58 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Oh, phooey, that doesn't sound like any fun at all. What's a hunt without lots of galloping and jumping? (And I don't mean jumping dangerous stuff, either!)
The snow keeps ruining everything.
You will be pleased to note that Scott, my farrier, came by today and we decided to pull Tuck's other shoe so he is barefoot for now. It's going to be muddy and messy for weeks with all the snow we've had--unless we have a weather miracle. I decided to just pull his shoes instead of calling Scott every week to do a replacement. Solves the problem. I haven't been riding anyhow as it's virtually impossible footing around here, so time for the experiment.
Jean can you get hold of some magnesium oxide and give him 25 grams a day? It should help him a lot with his feet. My agricultural supplier sells it as calmag, but you can buy food grade finer powder in this country on eBay. I hope he takes to it easily and you can keep him with none on, it would save you all those lost-shoe stresses!
C
Brewers Yeast at 50g a day also contains lots of stuff that their feet love, chromium, b vits etc. Some of them don't do so well on commercial balancers and much better on BY but all of them need added MgO because there's no natural source for it.
C
Sounds like a horrid day :( Hope that snow holds off for you!
what was the huntsman thinking? or no, he clearly wasn't !
How incredibly frustrating! I hope the message gets to them how hopelessly inadequate and even unsafe the course was.
Danni, horrid is the right word.
The Huntsman is an arrogant young man with a very rich father who's never had to earn a penny doing what we could consider a "real" job in his life Claire.
There is a man with a VERY big mouth who will have told them in no uncertain terms ML. Knowing he took his young horse back early and will meet them in the pub afterwards meant I didn't feel I needed to stick my own neck out and say anything.
The trouble is that it is a club, not a business, and they really can do what they want. On the other hand, they are appealing for new subscribers and more people to turn out each week and pay £25 (me) or £40 (guest) and that's not going to happen if they put on days like yesterday.
Radar ate his breakfast and has calmed down. I'm still buzzing, but then I am now waiting for Campero. More after he arrives.
C
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