A human runner runs a 5K in their age division. Their times are recorded and then the horses start their portion, with riders navigating a 10K at one of three pace divisions. There is an "optimal time" in each pace division (not told to us in advance) and any time beyond that is added to our runner's 5K time for final score.
To say it was fun is the biggest understatement I could make. The only thing that could have made it better was to skip the motel Gloria and I stayed at the night before, I'm pretty sure they used that place to film Hitchcock movies.
For the event, my partner was Gloria, Emma paired with Catherine K, and Carla with Amy. We saw our runners off to the start line then walked the long hike back to care for the horses until we thought they would return.
Our runners completely surprised us though and I was heading back to the finish line when I began to see them coming back towards us, finishing way earlier than we expected. They did great! Gloria ran a personal best! I was so proud of our teammates!
For the Ride part I rode Scooter, while Amy took Dollar and Catherine K was on her Jack. The boys got along perfectly and even when we asked them to stretch out and run together the first time, no one was shoving for lead or straining against the bit. They paced together, each taking turns being brave in front as leader if another balked.
We came out of the start gate, around the perimeter of a high caliber cross country course. Riding beside those jumps was intimidating, it's hard to imagine competing.
We followed a bush hogged path around over a bridge and into the woods. Here we had to slow down a little thanks to the slippery rocks that were all over the pathway. Water crossings weren't an issue, though our horses all would have preferred to jump it if it hadn't been 3 strides across.
Around another field and we could see pastures of beautiful horses, one had to be an Andalusian with her forelock coming near her nostrils and her mane spilling all the way down the height of her shoulder. Back into the woods and another water crossing we tried to pick up the pace but tight tree crossings and an affection for our own knee caps, kept it to a walk.
Out in the open for a large lap between two paddocks holding around 20 horses together. The horses were all keyed up watching all of these strange horses come barreling down their fenceline and as we asked Scooter, Jack, and Dollar to run, the horses were right there at our shoulders running and squealing too. For a moment I could imagine being out in the wild riding in a herd... having some of the horses running with us be mustangs just added to the fantasy.
We were chased by loose dogs at one point and had a hard time picking nice footing through a tight fence line in single file. Down by a large pond and we were back on the bush hogged path again.
Then both Catherine and Amy started noticing that we were heading back where our last 1-2 mile loop began. Having a really terrible sense of direction, it took me a lot longer to catch on to where we were and what had happened.
After riding beside the pond, the bush hogged path turned sharp right. So we did too. About 50 yards past that turn, beside a kid's swingset basically in someone's backyard, there was a tiny little sign that directed us to go straight. We missed it.
Second lap around the horses running up beside us it was clear our horses were beginning to tire. They weren't struggling by any means, just the freshness of pace was gone.
Back by the pond for the second time, we let our horses walk so we could have a finish at a run.
When we went the right way, we were running up a steep hill, back onto the cross country course, and straight for the finish. We were urging our horses on and laughing in the breeze.
Dollar was in the lead and also saw the finish line. He went from a canter to a dead stop 3 feet shy of the line almost getting Scooter's face up his butt and Jack barely missed wrecking. So our big finish line crossing turned into a walk and our 10K ride turned into more like a 12K.
It wasn't possible to have had a better time, beautiful sunshine, cool breeze, great girlfriends, and happy horses. Three in our group was perfect for the paths we could run side-by-side, and the boys got along better than any group of horses I've ever seen work together.
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