Keeping Pace

Second to One!

Georgia and I set off early this morning for Yellow Springs, about an hour and a half away. It is the home to the Boy Scouts of America's Camp Birch. The Camp was the site of a Hunter Pace, and on a chilly midwestern morning, what joy is a pace!

More likely to be full of boys in tents than horses in tack...




A hunter pace, for those who are saying "Wha?" is a rather informal, fun competition. Designed to prepare horses and their riders for the upcoming season of Fox Hunting, Hunter Paces are undertaken by teams of 2 or 3 riders on a set course through woods, fields, streams, jumps, etc. much as you would encounter in a Hunt. The teams are timed, and judged according to how accurately they pace their ride. The courses in this area tend to be between 4 and 7 miles and are ridden at one of three paces. You choose your pace prior to setting out on course. The three paces are:

• Slow, often called "Scenic Cruisers". This is a pace that consists mostly of walking and some trotting.
• Moderate, sometimes termed "Hilltopper". This pace is largely a trot, with some canter.
• Hunt Pace. This is sometimes called "fast" by the uninitiated, but this is the real pace. This is the pace as you would ride when following the hounds in the Hunt. This pace is trotting on hard surfaces (as a road) and pretty much cantering or galloping elsewhere.

The way they set the pace is to have an actual team ride the pace prior to the event. The team is usually made up of a Master of Foxhounds and a Huntsman. In the Hunt world, the Master is boss. Bottom line. They are the head honcho, big cheese, numero uno. The Huntsman is just as important, but in a different way. The Huntsman is the one who controls the hounds. This person is a highly skilled individual who shares a relationship with their tongue lolling, stern flagging, nasal savant charges. When in the field, in all cases you defer to the Master and the Huntsman. Their are other members of staff as well, and you also defer to them, but they listen to these two as well.
For this ride, sponsored by the Miami Valley Hunt (who had their 50th anniversary last year) the Master, Carolyn Uecker, rode all three paces to set the optimum time. The Scenic Cruisers time to match was 45 minutes, the Hilltoppers were 33 minutes and the Hunt Pace was 21 minutes. The tricky bit, is this is a secret until after all the teams have gone and completed the ride. You find out the optimum time only at the awards ceremony.

When I was a kid, I loved to Hunter Pace. As I recall, the rides were much longer, and there were checkpoints during the ride, where you were timed in to the checkpoint, and you had to dismount. You were given a small amount of time for recovery of breath- say, 5 minutes, then you were off again. The more official paces took a pulse and respiration on your mount, and you were not allowed to continue on course until they reached a certain level of control. This could really set you back if your horse was unfit, and put you out on course quickly if your horse was properly conditioned.
 I have not run into this style of pace as an adult, but then again 4-7 miles isn't very far, so the checkpoints might seem a bit overdone.


Georgia and I had a fine time. I had intended to ride Oslo, with Georgia on Peaches, but as I went to get his trailer wraps on his legs, I thought his foot sounds were funny. Investigation revealed a loose shoe. Bummer. Trailer is ready to go, lunch packed, sleep forgone, and no horse. This is when it is truly fine to have a backup plan. Poor Samantha was more or less abandoned as my primary mount when Oslo arrived last spring. She has had all summer to get fat and out of shape. But, easily pressed into service, she was thrilled to step into Oslo's extremely large shoes (not really she is already wearing her own, but metaphorically) So, big black one back into the field, smaller ?colored one onto the trailer. (Samantha's color designation has long been a source of wonder).
We were joined in our trip across the flatlands by friends Vicki and daughter Kara, also enthusiastic pacers. Before we knew it, "5-4-3-2-1! You're off!" and Georgia and I went on course, Vicki and Kara following a few minutes behind. My happy mount set a blistering trot pace for most of the course, with occasional enforced walking. We jumped- albeit not very gracefully the first few times, but give the gal a break, she's been eating, pooping and sleeping for exercise for months! We skipped the Chapel Log fence- a 3'6" whopper with a acute approach and a ditch and hill on the other side- and took the smaller examples instead. We came in at 34minutes 30 seconds. Normally we then clean up our ponies and tack and head home, assuming ribbons are out of our reach, but today, it was so beautiful, not the usual hot and humid, we ate lunch and hung out with the other crazyhorsepeople. I wanted Georgia to get a feel for hunt pace, and also to meet some of the other kids who participate in the sport.
Imagine our (my) whoops and hollers when we placed second in the Hilltopper category! Go Team!!!
To give you an idea of precision, the top 6 teams within the optimum time for the Scenic Cruisers were within 10 minutes of optimum.
For the Hilltoppers, it was 5 minutes of Optimum.
For the Hunt Pacers, within 30 seconds of Optimum.
These Hunters know how to keep pace.

For anyone who'd like to feel what it is like to "be there", youtube has some of the ride videoed by the "HelmetCam" of staff member John M.. He and his teammate Mark  M. were the team "Midnight Cruisers". They placed seventh at 4 minutes 39 seconds too fast!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUDlXWB3HUk
They also have a shorter video of the last two minutes of their ride. In the first few seconds of this video is the hefty "Chapel Log" jump, a 3'6" whopper with a so-so  approach and a even worse landing. Both teammates take the fence. Fun with a helmetcam...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4McFVfRey80&feature=related