A treasure hunt on horseback

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It was a cold start on a bright autumn day. I was heading out to do the club’s first ever mystery word rally in the woods. From the start to finish, it was estimated to take 2-3 hours.
Me with my adopted winning team.

I was a little nervous before we began, as there was supposed to be 60+ rider and buggy teams on the trails with different start times and racing for a finish. But, I nicely asked the organizers to curb the cantering/galloping so it became a walk/trot ride. Much safer for all.

Sometimes at these events we have horses that haven't been ridden much in the last few months and so they get quite excited with all that is happening. Loose horse panic galloping in the woods was something I was hoping not to encounter.

Turns out, I had nothing to worry about. In fact the organizers made the treasure hunt so difficult that you would penalize yourself if you did anything else but walk. I was in the first depart time, and I was nauseous. Having had a sleepless night after our wedding anniversary celebration, I was anxious to "get this over with" and go back to bed.

First step was getting my clues. I was going solo as the Unicorn Team, and so I was the first one out of the gate. The clues were on a two-sided piece of paper and had 9 pictures of trail locations with minimal indicators. We had to guess where on the 200 km trail network these locations were. Good news that the rally was focused on the core 25 km section, so we didn't have to venture too far out.

Very little distinguishing characteristics on these pictures
And some of these sections practically nobody rides on (But I do!)

I was off to the first ravine to find the first clue. I was pretty sure it was this particular ravine (and not one of the other 5) because it had a straight incline and a wooden fence over the bridge. I get there and Im looking for the 8.5x11 white piece of paper. I go back and forth a few times. I'm about to give up, but I keep looking at the picture and reconfirming that it is the right ravine. But where is it??? Im about to give up and turn around to go to the next spot. And then I see it. 20 feet off the trail hanging over the stream. And that's when I knew that we were in trouble.

The words were hidden under bushes off the trail, inside rotten tree stumps, and behind trees. I took off to the second spot nearby but on a trail that practically nobody rides on. I found the spot quickly, but could not find the word. Circles, circles ... wow, where is it. Tada! In a tree stump.

Off I go to the third word and we are 10 minutes in. I catch up with the soon-to-be-winning team that has just found the word. We start chatting about where the fourth spot is. They aren't sure, but I have a fairly good idea. 10 minutes later, we find it, but can't find the word. One of the young woman spots the word quickly. And this became the new theme.

I would find the trail spot, they would find the word. After a few times like this we decided to join forces. They were lovely young women and they had great eyes for the hidden spots.
Words hiding under bushes, off the trail

By the end, we realized that they were missing two words (my first two spots). I told them where the spots were, but didn't tell them the words. Not until we got the ninth word, and I realized that they had been instrumental at helping me find those words quickly. So, I gave them their missing words, we composed the sentence "Nothing compares to the therapy a horse can give" and trotted back.

They had the fastest time (they had left the start gate 8 minutes after me), all the words, and we were all still carrying our sacred eggs. Except that when I jumped off my horse, my egg fell to the ground near Q's hooves. One of the girls pointed it out, and saved my egg. I told her that if my some fluke I won first place I would give her my prize.

Well I didn't have to. Because they won first prize and I was tickled pink. While the unicorn team did officially finish third (a second team beat my time by a few minutes), I think we won. And Q with his 40 pound bag of carrots and huge bag of apple snacks thinks we won too.


It was a nice day, with lots of colors.


In all, the club raised over 1600$ for the local horse rescue.



Comments

  1. lythaOctober 8, 2019 at 1:37 PM

    CMO - best sport ever (makes endurance seem easy).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nat DOctober 18, 2019 at 1:46 PM

      I now understand why circling is important! ;-)
      But when you are in the middle of an event, the horse doesn't question why you need to circle. It is just assumed that it needs to be done.
      I was really proud of my Q that day.

      Delete

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