This week’s ears photo was sent to us by Lindsay Berreth, of a trail ride benefit held at Morven Park in Virginia, that she and her mom participated in. Thanks to Lindsay for submitting such a cool view, and thank you for reading. If you’d like to submit your ears photo, please send it along with a caption describing it to: [email protected]
This photo was taken in March of this year, on a trail ride to benefit Morven Park. I went with my mom, who trail rides and rode her Missouri Fox Trotter. A large group showed up, with riders from just about every discipline. My horse, Sam, had never seen that many horses together, so he was a little “up”! He’s been recently retired from eventing because of soundness issues, so we’ve been playing around at local dressage shows and going on trail rides with my mom. He did advanced and many long format CCI’s before I got him.
We’ve competed at the Morven Park horse trials many times over the years, and he definitely recognized we were on a cross country course when we rode past the lower-level course. The ride wound throughout the property, and went into the woods, where we stopped at stations to listen to Civil War re-enactors talk about the history of Morven Park. They had camp sites set up that replicated those used by soldiers camping on the property during the War.
We also rode around the advanced cross country course. I’ve spectated there for many years, but it was fun to be so close to the advanced jumps on horseback, especially the Leaf Pit, which attracts a big crowd every year because of the huge drop. We stopped to listen to the assistant curator in front of the mansion. She said that the expansive lawn used to be grazed by sheep. It was hard to get Sam to stand still while I took the photo of my mom, because there was a lady riding a large donkey in the group. It brayed once or twice, and most of the horses were spooked by it!
