Green Creek Hunter Pace

(photo by Donna Odom)

It's been a while since the Green Creek hunter pace on the 21st of March. It was an interesting pace with some negative mixed in with the positive.

The Scotsgrove trailer left the barn at 9am with a full load of 6 and the Kuntz's double trailer following. Lucky, Flame, Tricks, Pan, Folly, and (squeezing in) Spirit completed the Scotsgrove trailer, while Bill rode with Teddy in the Kunz's trailer. We met up with the Odom's (riding Gypsy and Leah) at Green Creek. It was a large Scotsgrove group to say the least!

We split into smaller groups once out on the trail. Leslie on Tricks led Teddy and Spirit, Flame and Bill rode at the head of the group, Lucky and Pan rode together, and one of our newer riders rode Folly with the Odoms.

Then things got a bit exciting! Teddy started to feel like a real Thoroughbred racehorse once he got out on the trail which gave his rider a bit too much to handle. Leslie had to make up a temporary lead with her stirrup! Next Lucky and Pan moved up to pass Flame and Bill. Well. That was NOT what Flame had in mind. He pitched a big fit. He bucked, he kicked (and hit Bill), and he powered his way through his bit. (And I have this from first hand experience, unfortunately.) Luckily, Pan and Lucky agreed to stay with Flame and Bill until the half-way point where I would gracefully bow out of the second half to give the rest a fun time.

Once at the half-way point (where Flame continued to be awful) I met the very nice ladies there who called for a trailer to come pick Flame and me up. Dr. Eastman and his assistant came to my rescue and trailered Flame and me back to the starting point to meet up with the rest just as they came in from the pace.

While my adventure turned out to not be as rewarding as I would have liked, I did learn that the rest of the Scotsgrove group had a great time. Teddy even jumped small jumps while being led by a stirrup leather! We also timed everything just right so that the predicted rain started to really fall just as we got everyone into the trailers again.

Of course, the grilled hot dog lunch and the dessert tent (yes- a whole tent devoted to desserts) were amazingly good after our adventures. We piled into the trucks and ate our lunch as the rain came down in torrents! It was a good way to end the day.

~Gwen