Montpelier Hunt Races

The first weekend in November (yes, I'm really behind!), we went to the Montpelier Hunt Races in Orange, VA. We were invited by our good friends R&E. I think the easiest way to tell you all about this weekend is to do it with pictures. Of course, this doesn't even begin to do the weekend justice, and the amount of fun we had, but it will give you a pretty good idea.

We stayed at "The Farm". This is a family-owned farm, although no one lives there year round. It is a working farm, but the owners use it as a vacation spot. And who can blame them?! It's gorgeous and peaceful, and huge!

We took the camper, because although the house is a large farmhouse, it was BOOKED for the weekend. I think there were about 25 people already staying there. So we opted to bring our own housing...

The view was amazing, although on Friday night, it was COLD! Down into the 20's. Even with a space heater, I had trouble staying warm (not that unusual....), but at least Saturday night was a tad warmer!

This is the view from the back of the house. Large, and plenty of parking!

On Sunday morning, we took a walk, and took the camera so we could soak it all in.

I just loved this old barn on the farm. They still use it for shelter for the cows. I just loved it on the top of the hill!

And speaking of cows, we walked out to the pasture where they were. We could hear them "moo-ing" in the morning. So we went out to say hi. They were very curious, and watched the closer we got. So we didn't get too close.

Then is was off to the races!

The races were held at the Montpelier Estate, home of James Madison. I don't know very much about horse racing, but these were Steeplechase races with both flat track and hurdle races. Our tent was one of the ones above, and was on the rail of the hurdle races.

This was our tent! Full of Food, Friends, and FUN!

Here's M have a drink and a laugh!

And what's horse racing, without a fancy new hat? D&V were in the hat store, trying things out...

Here's D and I with the new hats that we bought. I was told on the way home that night (by a very drunk friend) that mine was a "Bob Hope Hat". Whatever... I LOVE my new hat. Bob Hope and all!

R&E held a silent auction for some of the pottery that R has made over the last year at her pottery class. All of the money went to the Carma Lee Lewellyn Scholarship Fund at Mary Washington University.

D with one of the pots she really liked a lot! She wasn't the winning bidder on this one, but did manage to snag two others!

As the sky shows, it was a beautiful day! Snapped this one while waiting for the first hurdle race to start. I didn't know what to expect!

The went by so fast, that this was the best I could do on first shot! Yep, that's just a small piece of a horse's tail, out of the whole pack!

Actually, this one was my first shot, but it's funnier to say that the other one above was. The one above was actually my second shot.

The horses came extremely close! And FAST! I know there is probably not a foot between my camera and these horses!

And here is a better one from the day. You could hear them coming about 20 seconds before they came over the hill. And then they were gone in a flash!

It was an amazing, fun weekend! I'm so thankful to R&E for inviting us! We met some really neat people and got to hang out with some of our other favorite folks as well. Can't wait until next year, and do it all again. Next year, though, I'll be better prepared to know what it's like and what to expect.

AMW