...and Merry Christmas from the gang, too!

(Nellie 8.5 years, Tobi 4 yrs 11 months, Peanut 10 months)

Frohe Weihnachten! Merry Christmas!

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Alles Liebe zum Weihnachtsfest von uns aus Colorado!

Arapahoe Hunt Pair Pace

The Arapahoe Hunt Pair Pace took place on September 22nd in Larkspur, that's about 20 minutes south of Parker. Kate rode this event already a couple of times and after ensuring me that the horses are really safe on this hunt and this is all fun, I was in!

We only trained the horses a little over little jumps so that we were sure that the horses can do the jumps but all obstacles had an option to be passed in just riding, no jumping required!

The Friday before the event we could walk the course. We took a map out of a bin that showed us where to ride but it is always better to walk all the fences just to know how they look like. In total there were about 19 fences, varying from 0 to 3.5 feet tall.

The above and below picture gives you an idea of 'what' to jump. The high jump on the right, the low jump on the left or just pass it on the outer left.

This is the water crossing. No horse had any problem with this. The creek was about 4 feet wide and an inch deep..lol

This is the map with the way we had to ride. All in all about 14 minutes of fun!

Kate washing Tempo.

And then it was Thunder's turn while I loaded the trailer with all our gear.

Shelly walking the horses to the trailer, that is parked on top of the hill.

Thunder and Tempo are such good troopers, they just walk right into the trailer! Most of the trailers here allow the horses to stand in an diagonal. This trailer is big enough for 3 horses.

After our ride a picture from Thunder and my 'participation' ribbon.

The trailer from the side. Does not look that big, does it?

Me on Thunder. Photo taken by a professional photographer. Of course that lady was sitting at the side of the two obstacles I did not jump :-(

Kate and Tempo jumping.

Tempo was pretty hot so Kate needed to force him to slow down at times. But this shot is however still beautiful!