Cierra, Mary-Jo and I went to a fun judged trail ride today at Acorn Hill Farm in Whitefield, ME. It was a brisk cool morning and we headed out bundled up in layers. I've never been to Acorn Hill Farm but had no trouble finding it. We arrived early enough to take our time getting ready to ride. There was a great turn out for the ride with 63 entries. Two distance options were offered for the ride. A 4 mile and an 8 mile ride. Both distances would have the same obstacles to do.There were two places were the judged obstacles were. One place out on the trail, the rest back at the stable at the end of the ride.
The ride had hot and cold drinks and some wonderful breakfast goodies. We relaxed enjoyed admiring the horses at the stable, then got ready to ride. Tinkerbell was a little excited but behaving well. Marie was relaxed and Arthur was being quite good also. Once out on the trail, all three horses settled down nicely. Cierra and Tinkerbell led quite a bit of the ride. The trails were very nice. There was a some muddy spots on the first half of the ride but nothing too bad. When we got to the first set of obstacles, there was a large group of riders waiting to go through them. We had quite a long wait here to go though the obstacles but Marie, Arthur and Tinkerbell were all super good about the crowd of horses and the long wait.
The first obstacle was going down a steep hill. We actually did that before getting in line to do the rest of the obstacles. The 2nd obstacle was a rope gate. 3rd we had to trot a serpentine though a line of three barrels. 4th was to walk through a box with a tarp in it. 5th we had to walk between tires set vertically in the ground. 6th and last was to side pass over poles set in a V. Cierra went through first and did very well. Tink lost concentration on the side pass but after working at it for a minute, they got through. Mary-Jo and Arthur did well also. Marie was a good girl and got through all obstacles fine.
The trail back to the stable was very nice. We had some nice places to do some trotting and a bit of cantering. Cierra cantered up ahead of Mary-Jo and me at one point and Marie had a small melt down and threw in a few bucks but nothing serious. Back at the stable were the remainder of the obstacles set up in the arena. Cierra went first and the 1st obstacle was to canter a figure 8. Tink did this very nicely. 2nd was to trot over some ground poles which Tink also did nicely. 3rd was to back through an L. Just as Cierra was getting Tink set up for this, a large group of riders came galloping down the road startling Tink and Cierra was not able to get her to back the L. 4th and last obstacle was to pick up an object hanging of a pole and hang it on another pole. Tink still could not concentrate on obstacles and Cierra appropriately didn't push her. Mary-Jo and Arthur did well through the obstacles and Marie did a nice job overall. We actually managed to keep up a canter though the figure 8. It wasn't pretty and there was no lead change but she did her best and did maintain the canter. We did step on a pole backing the L but it was a pole that was already out of place so not really her fault.
Once done, we untacked our horses and tied them to the trailer with lots of hay. Mary-Jo tied Arthur to my trailer also so he would have company. We then went into the barn for a lovely lunch that the ride provided. Then we all gathered for awards. Marie won the "vintage horse" division. We got a nice certificate and a folding chair. It was a fun ride and we were happy to hear that the stable is planning to do more rides next year.
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