Hunter pace with Rocky

Instructions

(Description Rocky wrote has - at the start, mine has * at the start) -Me and Moss went on a hunter pace today! -For reference, I, Rocky, am on the palomino and am in blue, Moss is on the liver chestnut and is in White -We did it on the XC course as it isn’t too hard, so if it kinda just looks like a XC update that’s why. -I got out Elara and tacked her up before heading to the arena to warm up. Me and Elara did some walking and trotting. (1-4) *Me, Moss, Drove over to North Ridge for a fun hunter pace, it was my first time, so I had Rocky lead me through the course. I got the horse Rocky said I would be riding, Fate, and tacked her up. Then I followed her into the arena and we warmed up together. -Trotted over to the start of the course. (5-6) *Fate followed Elara quite confidently, and it kinda felt like I was just a passenger on a much more experienced horse. -Picked up the canter. Then it was the first jump! Elara soared over easily, proud of my girl! 7-8 *I followed rocky, who did amazing on the jump, and Fate jumped it just as easily! She did need a bit of leg, though. -Second jump, Elara barely bothered to jump, we just kinda cantered over it. 9-10 *Fate did really good on this jump and cantered over it very quickly! I had to half halt her a few times so we wouldn't run into Elara, and she gave me a few head tosses of protest! -Water crossing with a small jump on the island! Haven’t really ever done these with Elara before so we just stuck to the water and went around. 11-14 *I saw that Elara was sticking to the water, and remembering that Rocky had told me that Fate was more experienced, I decided to do the jump in the middle. Fate was very happy at this decison. -The water narrowed to a stream that runs along the bottom before making another pool in a bit, but Elara seemed relieved to be on dry land. 15-16 *Fate loved the water and splashed around alot as we cantered through this stream -Another jump, Elara hesitated a little but jumped it with a few inches to spare, gotta work on higher jumps with her. 17-18 *Fate way overjumped this one, and I got thrown off balance, but luckily was able to regain it as she kept cantering -Downhill jump this time, Elara barely bothered to slow herself and just powered right over the jump. 19-21 *Fate got distracted at this, and did trip a bit, she was staring at a funky shadow, I think. -Another uphill, but a smaller jump and Elara jumped it well, although stumbled a little a few strides after the jump so I slowed her down so she could get her stride back. 22-23 *Fate kinda came right up behind Elara on this jump, and so I ended up adding in an extra stride, which threw me and her off balance. -Double log obstacle, which seemed to confuse Elara with how close the jumps were together but she jumped them all the same. 24-27 *This was a fun one for fate! -Another downhill, as we neared the end of the course but Elara was still going strong. We dropped to a trot after clearing it and kept moving on at the trot. 28-29 *Fate cleared this one very well, and I was super proud of her! -Last little bit, a brook. Elara seemed suspicious that it wasn’t secretly wider, and chose to jump over it instead of stepping over or in it. 30-32 *Fate just nonchalantly stepped over it, almost telling Elara 'Look it's fine. I told you so!' Which made me laugh -I had a great time and Elara did too! It seemed like Moss and Fate did as well but I’ll leave that up to them to say. *Oh yes, it was great! I love north ridge's cross country course and will definitely come again! Hopefully we can do more group updates like this in the future!