labor day paper chase! (with a surprise twist!)

Hope everyone (or at least the US readers) had a great three day weekend! Some folks from my barn took advantage of the holiday to head out on a much-anticipated group paper chase at Tranquility.

We had been planning this outing for... gosh, it feels like forever. And all these last minute circumstances kept cropping up, trying to thwart our efforts (not least of which included a blown transmission on one of the trucks meant to pull trailers....).

matchy matchy  much?

BUT. We were so determined. THIS WOULD BE FUN, DAMMIT. OR ELSE. Hahah. But. Like, seriously tho.

Especially bc all but one of the riders were in on a little secret: that one rider out of the know is getting married later this year, so we decided to go all in on a surprise bridal theme. Complete with hand-painted t-shirts and some special garb for the bride-to-be and her horse.

omg so many sparkles tho. and yea, DIY bonnet tutorial will be forthcoming shortly!

We all had matching black bonnets, except for the bride who got to wear white. This isn't just any bonnet tho. I mean, sure it began life as a standard off-the-rack frilly monstrosity. But with some added bling and a couple stitches here and there, it's transformed into something very special. DIY post to come.

team effort!

And like any good surprise, it couldn't be complete without ridiculous nervous efforts to distract the surprisee so that we could all change shirts (she thought we'd all be wearing white or some boring shit like that haha) and get her mare Birdie dressed.

regal Birdie!

So birdie got her white bonnet and a white specially embroidered saddle pad. Plus everyone got pink electrical tape on their boots, tho we all put on black boots and Birdie got white. Oh. And obviously Birdie got to wear a veil too. Obvi.

omg mare tho, can you at least try to suck it in?

Even poor Isabel got pulled out of her pasture puff lifestyle for the ride. And I promise you - while she didn't exactly get dragged out kicking and screaming, there was a definite sense about her of, "Um, excuse me but didn't you hear I'm retired now? Sheesh, wtf is all this noise?!?" lol. Sorry princess, but duty calls!

thoroughly surprised

It all paid off tho - our friend R was beyond surprised. Everything went off without a hitch!

#matchingveils

Then obvi there wasn't much left to do but for everyone to finish tacking their own horses, mount up and head out!

assembling the team

And I gotta say - I've been on a couple paper chases now and there really is something to be said for a larger group. This was by far the largest, with our outing at Fair Hill not very far behind.

that willow at Tranquility is always so photogenic

Of course it's all a bit dependent on the horses in the group (the golden rule is generally ride to the level of the greenest group members, right?) - but luckily everyone in our group was more than equal to whatever fun stuff might present itself on this ride.

heading out!

So there was obviously MUCH galloping. And lots of leaping across small streams. Plus just about every member of the group jumped around at least a little bit as we made our way through the cross country fields on the premises. In fact I suspect that Isabel and I were the only ones who didn't jump anything.

#veilgivesyouwings

Isabel was good tho. Not really great - she started the ride shying sideways at some teeny tiny jumps that we totally dominated at one of our earliest visits to Tranquility a couple years ago (remember the windy fall hunter trials?) and spent a good deal of time bucking through some of the first few canters and gallops (methinks she's too fat for her saddles now, womp womp).

lots of narrow wooded sections as well as big wide open fields

But whatever. She's Isabel, she's never going to not be fun and reliable out on a trail ride (even if she was kinda a bitch haha).

boots and electrical tape still intact after the ride! sadly, down one shoe tho. oops!

We finished the ride with one last big wild fast-as-you-can-possibly-go gallop that was just.... how to explain? SO FUN OMG. I just live for that feeling of the horse digging in and finding another gear and just flying across the ground!

isabel and birdie are NOT friends in the pasture. but are apparently inseparable off property. they kept screaming at each other across the trailers until we finally acquiesced and tied them together. 

So it was just so fun. What a great way to spend the day with friends! Plus there was cake and bubbles and sandwich fixings back at the trailers for us to chow down on and enjoy post-ride :)

how cute, right?

And as an added bonus - turns out we hit the optimum time exactly, so we won! Which can also probably be attributed to the bride, who dropped her phone earlier on in the ride and apologized for the delay it caused as someone hopped off and retrieved it. Tho she noted "If we win or are only within a couple minutes from the time, you'll thank me for this!"  Haha, yup!

So it was a good ride. I think my favorite thing about paper chases or hunter paces or whatever is that group or team element. Getting excited about matching outfits and horse gear etc actually seems like half the fun, and then there are always so many great pictures. It gets all the advantage of some big event - but none of the pressure. Just the fun stuff :)

Do you like big group outings? Formal or informal?