Banks, Ditches & Hills, Oh My! Sport of Horses Park Update

This past weekend I took Gracie and went to Sport of Horses Park since I hadn’t been there in quite a while and wanted to see what had changed and if some of the obstacles were finished. Needless to say, I couldn’t believe how much had changed and was completed.

You can see all the before pictures in my first post on Sport of Horses Park. Looking back at those, it really is amazing how much they got done this year.

The gate at the entrance was now functioning how they intended for it too. As long as your a member, then your number is programmed into the system, so to get in all you do is call the number and wait for the busy tone. Once you get that the gate starts to open and you can enter. 

 

Isn’t the gate lovely? I love the horse designs in the metal. 

After arriving and tacking up, I headed straight for the back of the property. My intentions for going were to work Gracie on the hills and strengthen her butt muscles. On the way to the back, I stopped at the first eventing obstacle which was the ditch. When I was last out they were still working on it and it wasn’t ridable. This time it was and boy did it turn out awesome!

 

 

You can see in the picture, the left side of the ditch is a little wider then the right side. So depending on how comfortable you are going over it, you can choose an easy challenge or a little bit harder of a challenge. At first Gracie didn’t know what to think about it. I spent 5 minutes just getting her use to it and walking up close. Since I hadn’t warmed her up at this point, I didn’t try to take her over it but after we got a good workout in, I couldn’t resist. She jumped it like a pro. Wasn’t scared a lick! I love my moo-moo. She is just so awesome. I’ve really been wanting to get back into jumping but wasn’t sure how it would go with her, but now I know she’ll do anything I want her too. <3

After checking out the ditch, we walked up the hill and checked out the other eventing obstacle, the bank. This jump was so neat and awesome. I rode Gracie on the top and walked to the edge and I swear she would have jumped down if I would have let her but being as she wasn’t warmed up I didn’t. However, after our workout you best believe we did the bank. I was a little chicken (bac bac I know) to jump down so I just jumped her up. She didn’t even hesitate, went right for it and enjoyed it. I really think Gracie loves challenging things. 

 

 

Continuing on, after we checked out the bank we started our workout on the hills. There were two nice hills to ride up and down both of which weren’t extremely steep but did offer enough slope to make it a good workout. 

Here’s a view from the bottom of one of the hills.

 

This is a view from the top.

 

This hill was on the left side of the property and there is actually a trail that starts at the top of the hill on the left and then comes out at the bottom of the hill, goes through the woods and comes out at the second hill on the right side of the property. So I spent about an hour or so walking down one hill and back up the other. By the time we were finished I was certain she got a nice little workout. 🙂 

Now that she was warmed up we headed to play in the jumping arena (I just couldn’t resist!). Since I was riding western, doing any jump even 18″ sounded like a bad idea and could end up with a sharp stab in my stomach, so I stuck to working gracie over a fun trot pole exercise. 

 

When I was last there the dressage arena has just been leveled out and was still dirt. Now it had footing and was set up with the letters and posts lining the parameter (poo on me for not getting a picture). Outside of the dressage arena were a few extreme trail challenge obstacles – a narrow bridge, ground poles and the wagon wheel. Of course, I tried all of this with Gracie too and she loved it. I know I know I’m bragging on my horse too much but hey! isn’t that what proud mommas do! 😉

 

As you can imagine I had a blast riding at the park and taking advantage of all the fun things to do. I’m super excited to go back this weekend for a members breakfast and do it all again! 

If you live close to Snow Camp, NC you really should take a tour of the park! They have membership packages that are perfect for everyone and won’t break the bank! 

So Tell Me..

What riding did you do this weekend?