Coming home from church yesterday morning, I noted an adult and child on the bank above the road, riding in hunt clothes so I began to slow down. If a hunt is in progress, there are going to be dogs, and coming around the corner, I was right. This is Angela, in the red and she's the hunt master today.
The hounds blend in so well with the rocks that it's hard to see that there are about 100 of the Red Rock Hounds on this ride. Hunt season doesn't formally open until October 17th, but nevertheless, there were about 30 riders on this event. A surprising number of children participate and are excellent equestrians, all riding English.
When I jumped out of the car for pictures, Angela called to me to go home and get Ian and come for lunch after the ride at the club house. We don't ride but we do like to visit with our friends. This is Wendy. She was the whip today and her husband Ron drove the quad with emergency items, bottled water and an available seat in the event of a dumped rider. A lady did have to occupy that empty seat, muddy but uninjured. Her horse took himself back to the ranch.
And here we have a modern day ranch hand - more billed caps are worn on this ranch than cowboy hats. Harry is a total ham and this is his chosen pose when I asked for his picture. He'll show up in pictures again when we cut Christmas trees the day after Thanksgiving.
I asked Ian to stand next to Baron so I could get some size perspec-tive. He is the biggest horse I have ever seen, and Harry says he is also their more most gentle horse. He ends up with beginning riders because he's so good with them. Looks can be deceiving. His head is bigger than Buster!
Speaking of big, how about that enormous horse trailer and huge cottonwoods,
or this large horse hauler?
6 comments:
Oh my how fun! Looks like they had a super day for it too. Those are beautiful hounds BTW, and Baron looks like a real sweetie. Those kind easy-going babysitters for new riders are worth their weight in gold and then some! Is he a draft cross? That's a lot of gold weight. ;)
Glad to hear Buster is on the mend. We've had a few broken toenails here through the years of varying degree. But all are pretty painful in the beginning.
Someday, I'll get you to get me invited to a hunt - Merlin or Chris would have a blast!
How nice to have such great neighbors who enjoy and appreciate all that the valley has to offer...including the Red Rock Hounds.
That looks like so much fun! Odd to see such a sight in "cowboy country".
That looks like such fun. It was one of those things I always wanted to do as a horse-mad child :)
That looks like a great time!! Baron looks like a wonderful horse. Thanks for sharing the photos with us. I really miss riding....
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