Once or twice a year, AG arranges a group ride for all of the "big" horses and Icelandics together - today was the first time since I moved Barokko here. Today's ride was a mounted orienteering in Rude Forest. 5 teams of 3/4 horses & riders, one big horse on each team and the rest were Icelandics. Each team had prepared a station, and had a designated starting point. The teams rode from each of the starting points at 11 AM, and continued around the route, bringing home the last station they visited, so there was no clean-up afterward.
At our station, the teams were each given a small bag of rubber bands, and had to present a minimum of 3 braids (on horses and/or riders) to complete the station objective :P
When I woke up this morning it was stormy, rainy weather, cold and wet wet wet, to the extent that I wasn't sure we'd go through with the ride. Barokko had the day off yesterday because I was visiting my parents, so I was planning on riding out regardless, but riding in lousy weather is always a bit more fun if you have company ;) Luckily, only one person bailed out, so we completed the orienteering.
Because of the weather, we agreed to just pick up the objectives at each station, and complete them back at the barn. The ride took just over 2 hours, and I was LOVING my Musto jacket and Ariat boots by then - my chaps had soaked right through so my legs were drenched, but my upper body and feet were toasty and dry :)
I actually always end up having a blast when I ride out in rain like that. It's really hard to motivate myself out of the door, but once I'm out there and as wet as I'm going to get it becomes something of an adventure, and I end up feeling pretty heroic about the whole thing :D
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5 comments:
Does sound rather like a lovely way to spend the day! Mounted orienteering... hadn't considered it!
there's mounted orienteering in europe!??!?!?! please tell me it exists in germany! it's my FAVORITE sport in america, and i've been totally missing it since moving to germany. i've been totally jealous of the people who can still do it. i stopped reading the newsletter cuz it was tearing me up.
if it's the same sport that i know and love, i want to do it here!!!
www.nacmo.org
~lytha in germany
http://horsecrazyamerican.blogspot.com/
It's very common in Denmark, almost every riding club, breed organization etc I know har at least one orienteering every year, some more serious than others. It's not an organized discipline as such, just a typical "lets do something fun together" kind of event. Orienteering (on foot) is a VERY popular sport here.
Germany is bigger and has more disciplines than we do, they might well have organized mounted orienteering...
can you put me in contact with the organization in europe? what is it called?
i was hoping it would be here, i hope they do it twice per month from feb->oct like back home, though! but once per month would be cool too.
i have no idea what it's called in germany, so i cannot look it up myself. if there is an organization that runs it (prints the rulebook, etc) up in denmark, maybe they have contact info for the german org.
thanks,
~lytha
oh, i didn't read your comment carefully enough. you mentioned it's not an organized discipline.
well, any help would be appreciated.
lytha
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