Lisa Unleashed: Frost On The Pumpkin Pace - A Historic Ride With A New Twist
Next weekend, more than 100 horses will grace the Newtown countryside for the 37th annual Newtown Bridle Lands Association (NBLA) Frost on the Pumpkin Hunter Pace on Saturday, October 25.
Teams of two to three riders will take off starting at 9 am to traverse the wooded terrain, tackle natural jumping obstacles, and canter open fields. Each year, this event is the largest fundraiser for the NBLA to help with its mission of preserving, protecting, and maintaining riding and hiking trails in the community. Since its beginnings in the late 1970s, the pace course has utilized old fox hunting trails and private lands opened by benevolent landowners.
This year’s pace has a few surprises! If you happen to be a technophile, the NBLA is offering a trail line download for your smartphone at the registration table. New landowners Clare and Peter Harrison are graciously hosting the start of the pace at its traditional field on Mt Nebo Road. The Harrisons have also added some jump combinations at the beginning of the course. In a nod to the bucolic bovine experience, there will be cattle at the start of the pace as well.
Cherry Grove Farm
Cherry Grove Farm, owned for more than a century by the Mayer family, including George, Eleanor, and Jerome, was, at its peak, 144 acres along both sides of Hundred Acres Road up to West Farm Ridge and all the way down Beaver Dam Road. The farm grew vegetables, flowers, herbs, hay, and fruit and raised cattle, sheep, and chickens for eggs.
From Andrea Zimmerman’s 2005 book Eleanor Mayer’s History of Cherry Grove Farm we learned from Eleanor that “Red Foxes and Grey Foxes always seemed to be nabbing our chickens.” So it made sense that when the Fairfield County Hounds (FCH) arrived in Newtown in the 1940s, they would ride across the Mayer’s farmland helping them with fox control. These were the beginnings of trail riding across Cherry Grove Farm.
As a teenager, I would walk down the road and buy eggs at the farm stand, and in the fall ride my fox hunter across the Cherry Grove pasture lands with the FCH. It was a great place to ride, with fields grazed down by cattle exposing jutting rocks and woodchuck holes, not to mention the challenge of weaving around the cattle!
By 1986, the FCH had moved out of Newtown, but the NBLA remained, and carried on the wonderful annual hunter paces keeping the trails alive. In recent years the pace course has used Beaver Dam Road in lieu of the cattle fields.
What’s New For 2015
Many recent changes have been going on at Cherry Grove Farm in the Palestine District. The Mayer family has moved the cattle and the bees off the farm, creating more opportunities for the horseback riders on this year’s pace.
Where cattle once roamed in the rock-studded pasture on the side of the iconic white farmhouse with its green letters, the pace course will return. According to pace organizers, a new trail will wind through a nearby cedar wood forest over moss-covered paths before meeting the old cattle field.
In addition, an adjacent field across Palestine Road, where the bees once buzzed, has been opened up to ride directly to Ox Hill Road on the way up to the finish field near Steck Lane.
This year’s course will be a bit longer than in the past. Joining the new Cherry Grove Farm trails will be a new direction with beautiful vistas at the former Hundred Acres Farm.
There will be some changes in directions of the pace, so riders need to pay attention this year to stay on course. Once finished, riders and spectators alike can enjoy refreshments and a luncheon back at the Mt Nebo Road field.
Tambascio’s of Dodgingtown will provide a catered warm fall meal. While enjoying the autumn fare and live music, you can browse the vendors with such offerings as tack, clothing, jewelry, and even pocketbooks.
Nonriders are invited to come enjoy the luncheon, shopping, and the equine atmosphere of the day. If you are not riding the pace and wish to join the luncheon, please RSVP that you are coming to newtownhorses@gmail.com to get an accurate headcount.
As usual, there will be pace awards in each of four divisions of hunter, pleasure, western, and junior, with gift baskets and saddle pads for first place, followed by ribbons for ten placements. There is also The Jack Benny Award for oldest horse and rider combination, as well as The Peanut Award for the youngest rider on course.
Being close to Halloween, the costume competition is always a favorite. One vivid memory for me was the year someone dressed as Braveheart, with no shirt, and it just happened to be the same year it snowed! Brrr.
For those still undecided about riding the historic trails, visit nblact.com for entry forms, rules, and directions.
Lisa Peterson — a lifelong equestrian, owner/breeder/handler of Norwegian Elkhound show dogs, and an award-winning public relations professional — owns Barn Girl Media. She blogs about horses, hounds, and history at LisaUnleashed.com from her home in Newtown. Reach her at lisa@lisaunleashed.com.