# Foxcatcher 50 miler - MD



## phantomhorse13 (Feb 18, 2011)

This weekend, DH and I went down to Fair Hill, MD for the Foxcatcher ride. Fair Hill International is an amazing facility with a 3* cross country course and tons of trails. Its generally the ride with the largest turnout in our region, and even being down 60 entries this year, there were still over 100 starters between the 50 and the 25!

The weather this weekend was _amazing_. It was sunny, mid-to-upper 70s, light breeze. The warmest we have seen in literally months. It sprinkled on us for about 15 minutes just as we were going to bed Friday, but we got very lucky as not to far north of us got really drenched. Fair Hill terrain varies from lots of open rolling fields to some single-track trail. Footing can get mucky in places, but this year it was lovely.

DH took Sultan and I was riding a friend's gelding, while he rode his 18 year old who was coming back after a suspensory injury. The plan was a CTR pace, doing the ride in 7.5-8 hours. 


































































































We stuck to the plan and finished in just over 8 hours with happy horses! Unfortunately, Sultan took a funny step and tweaked a muscle in his hip and was pulled at the second hold. He was fine the next day (isn't that always the way!).


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## Drifting (Oct 26, 2011)

I love riding at Fair Hill. Beautiful pictures!


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## aureliusandoinky (Nov 28, 2013)

Gorgeous!! Are the horses not scared of the tunnel though?


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## Eole (Apr 19, 2013)

Very nice, love the video. Those tunnels did look pretty low. And must be noisy with cars driving over it.

You had snow not that long ago, how did you get your horses fit so fast?
Sorry Sultan was pulled, but good thing it isn't serious.


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## phantomhorse13 (Feb 18, 2011)

aureliusandoinky said:


> Are the horses not scared of the tunnel though?



Some are def not impressed to start with. Others amazingly don't care at all. The 2 ladies we were riding with had 2 inexperienced horses and one refused to go thru first (tho he did get brave enough to do it later in the ride), the other couldn't have cared less. They are often more reactive to the bridges, since they can see the cars coming to "get" them.




Eole said:


> You had snow not that long ago, how did you get your horses fit so fast?


Well, 'fit' is a relative term. An 8-hour 50 is a pretty reasonable pace, and both horses had been ridden last year and early in the winter, so came back to fitness quicker than a horse just starting out would.


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## Rob55 (Mar 6, 2014)

Thanks for sharing. It gives me goals.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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