Yesterday I went foxhunting here at the farm with the TN Valley Hunt. I was taking a student out for his first hunt so I let him ride my "made" field hunter Isabella in my very balanced Flyover saddle that is made for hunting and cross country jumping. John was riding Falstaff so I decided to ride my "carriage" horse Ritza in my dressage saddle since we were not going first flight. No problem I thought....then the snow started blowing so hard sideways that you couldn't see anything. Trotting through the woods blind can be a exciting experience and was all well and good till Ritza over and over tried to buck me off, especially after jumping ditches and logs like a crazed grand prix jumper! As the day progressed I knew I was on borrowed time so I went to the back of the field in search for some calmness:) I didn't get it. 

I saw the log coming up that was on a slight down hill and saw the riders ahead of me having trouble, but all stayed on and then the next thing I knew I was flying through the air and realized, oh sh** I am falling off! (Ritza took off about 15 ft too early and then bucked). Then I hit and continued to hit various body parts as I flipped down the hill:) My first thought was I can't even remember the last time I fell off- then my next thought was well thats what I get for not riding a real true hunt horse! Especially in a dressage saddle, I knew better but thought I could get by....the number one thing I tell prospective fox hunters is that its all about having the right horse and equipment. My student riding my wonderful hunt horse Isabella finished the hunt a few hours later, smiling. I decided to come on back with a friend who had to get back to work. Next time I am riding Falstaff and John can ride another young one! As for Ritza, she will go back into the carriage and keep on showing in CDE's where she is a great driving horse.

I competed Bella & Ritza in Intermediate Horse Pairs at the Little Everglades International CDE in Dade City, FL this past weekend. We were 2nd after dressage out of 5 horse pairs and I felt like we had a good test. The marathon was beautiful driving around the ranch and the hazards were fun. We placed 2nd in most of the hazards, the girls did well but we didn't have as much bursts of speed as I would have liked.  On the walk section they calmed down so much that I couldn't get them to walk on and racked up a lot of walk penalties. That brought us down to 3rd place even though we had a awesome cones course and was actually 2nd in cones as well, but 3rd place over all is fine with me since the girls performed beautifully in all 3 phases. Amy Neary also showed her mare Reggie in Prelim Single Horse and had a amazing marathon with a 2nd place there and a good cones course to finish up in 4th place over all. John went with us and was my groom for dressage and cones and navigated for Amy. A very special thanks to Scotty for navigating for me! It was a really fun show and would recommend it to anyone to show or to come as a spectator.