Old Dominion Hounds - Hunter Trial Field - Theadora Randolf Field Hunter Champioship

 

Today was the last day of the TAR FHC and was held at Old Dominion Hounds.  The weather was actually pretty good given the weather of the past couple of days.  It was overcast but the rain of any form held off.  The foot was actually pretty good.

The fields moved off right on time and about ten minutes in the hounds hit and we were off and running.  The yellow area in the map above is the area we covered with the blue line being the first flight.  It was a run that just kept going and going, and the hounds sounded great the whole time.  At one point someone gave a yell and the fox was viewed.  The run lasted almost an hour and we covered about 4.5 miles. It was pretty zippy on the run and at times hit a sporty 18 MPH through the woods.  18 MPH in an open field is nice, 18 MPH in the woods is sporty.

When things got quiet on that run, it was discovered we had had some equipment excitement where one rider's stirrup had broken but she kept riding the whole run.  She was then assisted by another rider who gave up her stirrup and then hunted with only a leather.  Some really good sportsmanship.

When we got out onto the road, it was discovered that several horses including the huntsman's had lost shoes.  Mine was also one of those. One of the whips swapped horses with the huntsman and the shoeless brigade head back in early.

Bull Run Hunt - Willow Marsh - Theodaora Randolf Field Hunter Championships - 10/4/21

 

Today was the first day of the Theodora Randolph Field Hunt Championships (formerly the North American Field Hunter Championships).  The first qualifier was held at Bull Run Hunt's fixture Willow Marsh.  Willow Marsh is a great mix of bean fields and woods.  It has nice rolling terrain as well.

It was warm by the time we started hunting.  If there was a day I could have done without a coat it was today.  We hit on a run about ten minutes into the hunt.  It was a good fast run and a preview of what was next to come.  A little while later we hit again and it was long hard run.  The hounds sounded great!  It was a really good test of the competition horses.  Again, shortly after that run, we were back at it again.  Really fast and covering a lot of ground.  The hounds hit again on our way in but this didn't amount to a whole lot.  But four runs in two and a half hours is pretty damn good!

There were 29 horses out for the championships.  That was a lot of great field hunters gathered in one place.  I felt my horse was perfect today and we didn't get selected today for the finals.  That tells you something about the quality of the horses and riders out there.

For the day we covered 9.5 miles and had a top speed of 22.3 MPH.  The moving average was 5.0 MPH.  That doesn't sound like much but that means that we had very little standing around.  The weather was hot and the BRH hounds were even hotter.