The annual Frost on the Pumpkin Hunter Pace (affectionately known as the FOTP) will take place on Sunday, October 24, with a rain date of Saturday, October 23. Piggybacking on the success of last year’s pace, the Newtown Bridle Lands Association (NBLA), has kept the cost down so more people can participate in this fun outing. The hot buffet lunch and live music will not be in attendance but ample parking, beautifully groomed trails, and creative horse and rider costumes will.

The cost is $50 for NBLA members and $60 for nonmembers. If you join now, your membership is good until the end of 2022. Visit nblact.com for more details and to register. Registrations and payments must be received by Wednesday, October 20. There is no same day registration, so it is important to get your paperwork in. The organizers are expecting a large turnout. Last year more than 150 horses and riders participated, and as long as the weather is good, the attendance may be even higher.

Much has changed in Newtown since the first FOTP hunter pace in 1978. With some curiosity, I went to the library to look at The Newtown Bee during that time. There was no mention of that first event, but the next year in the November 2 edition, there was a small photo and write up. The pace, referred to as the second annual Frost on the Pumpkin hunter pace, was hosted by Mike and Lorraine Smith of Maltbie Road and the course “wound through the picturesque Hattertown Historical District and included several new trails which were cleared for the occasion.” It appears that there was only one division and the winner was Hope Jones.

What was the horse community like in Newtown 43 years ago? I moved my horse up to Newtown in 1980, keeping him at what is now Sticks and Stones farm. The feel of the town in those days was definitely rural. I rode in the Huntington Road area and there were many fenced fields that held cattle and horses. The trails seemed to go on forever and I often got lost as I ambled around on my gray Arabian. The 1979 Newtown Bee confirmed my memory. The classified ads paint an excellent picture of what life was like. There was a robust livestock section offering rabbits, chickens, Nubian goats, geese, cattle, sheep, swans, beefalo and pheasants for sale. The Farm Produce section offered bread for animal feed, sawdust, 50-pound bags of potatoes and second cutting hay for $1.50 a bale. There were more than 30 ads offering horses for sale with prices ranging from $325 to $5,000, including this somewhat dubious one: “Unwanted Good English or Western using horses; not killers. We are not in that kind of business.” There were also ads for some familiar area stables and shops: Shallow Brook Farm, Tevy’s Saddlery, All the Kings Horses, and Lion Hill Farm. In the fall of 1979, the Horse and Dog News section of The Bee had many photos of carriage events, which were much more popular then than today. I found a snapshot of Dan Reilly driving his team of matched pinto ponies, Punch and Judy, hitched to a peddler’s wagon, at an event in Ridgefield. Dan owned All the Kings Horses for decades and now spends his time drawing lifelike portraits of people who contribute their time to charitable endeavors.

I enjoyed a letter to the editor from a Ms Karen Siksay, who commented on a proposal to build a “riding rink” in New Milford with trails for horseback riding. She said, “I think that if other towns can think ahead to hiking trails, etc, in their town-owned areas, certainly a fine place like Newtown should also. I personally have seen the land on Point O’ Rocks Road and know that with all the trees and hill it would make a splendid trail.”

Today, the population of Newtown exceeds 27,000 and development has transformed many of the fields we used to canter across into roads and houses with tidy lawns. The Frost on the Pumpkin hunter pace is a 42-year-old bridge connecting our rural past to our wonderful town today. We can mourn the loss of what Newtown used to be or celebrate what we do have: a vibrant and economically robust community with dedicated open space and generous landowners who welcome horseback riders.

Tracy Van Buskirk is a 36-year resident of Newtown and co-president of the Newtown Bridle Lands Association, at www.nblact.com, a nonprofit volunteer organization formed in 1978 to foster an interest in horseback riding as well as preserving, protecting, and maintaining riding and hiking trails in the community. Horses have always been a part of her life. She owns a small bay quarter horse named Little Bear.