This is the most unusual prep I’ve ever had for a ride. I basically rode Estrid once between our 32km at Cannock chase and our 40km at Haywood oaks. In the 4 weeks between them I was away in Croatia for work so Estrid was at a rehab yard going on the water treadmill for 20mins every other day.

Estrid is a creature of habit, consistency and repetition is what keeps her little brain chilled. So although her physical prep for this ride was impressive, she’s actually never looked better, I really underestimated the mental preparation she usually has and how much she needs it.

Add in a fair bit of wind and we were back to spicy novice Estrid, that I was just happy we got through the initial vetting with!

As always she was a dream out on course, forward, keen and listening intently. We had a lovely ride around a great course. Thank you so much to the organisers and helpers, many of whom offered sloshes out on course, for a truly wonderful day.

I’m pretty confident with our season prep in terms of fitness but now to get Estrid into a routine and out and about as much as possible if we stand a chance of achieving any of our goals this year!

Honestly I’m not complaining, I’m also not looking for sympathy so the tiny violins are safe, but sometimes balancing work life and the horses can be quite tricky. Over the last year I have been to 6 different countries over 10 weeks for work. Last year my wonderful husband Dan held the fort and looked after the horses, but this year I had 4 weeks away smack in the middle of pre-season training so I decided to splash out on sending the horses to a holiday livery where Estrid could continue work.

Estrid had 9 weeks off at the end of last season while Dan and I were on honeymoon in New Zealand. Then a week at Legacy equine doing daily treadmill sessions while I was away working in Tenerife. We than had 5 weeks of ridden work before I spent 3 weeks away in Croatia and Estrid went on the treadmill every other day. Now this really isn’t a long term option for me, as you can imagine the working holiday livery doesn’t come cheap, but it has meant that at least I can hit the ground running and not delay my 2026 endurance season too much.

I can’t say I’ve managed to find the balance between work and life yet, never mind my job and horses, it’s a work in progress and I think it’s on the side of burnout rather than balance. But I’m so grateful for all the opportunities I have in work, life and horses, saying that I am looking forward to a slightly quieter 12 months!

What a superbly lucky day we had with the weather, blue skies, fairly warm and not a drop of rain. Thank you to the organisers and helpers for a lovely day, the course rode well despite the dire weather over the last few weeks.

I just wanted to take Estrid out for the sake of going to a ride, having a vetting, going through the motions of an endurance ride and just getting back into the swing of things. So I opted for a 32km so that we could still do advanced speed as a pleasure ride is a bit restrictive with it’s maximum speed of 12kph.

Estrid was fantastic, it was so nice to see how excited and keen she was, she was beautifully behaved on course and despite her classic wired shivering at the venue didn’t put a hoof wrong. We had a couple of mishaps with her boots, as she powers down a back one usually flies off, she just produces too much torque we’ve decided, and a front one rubbed where dirt had gone down the back of the neoprene, but she was sound as a pound trotting up barefoot on the stony vetting, which I was very pleased about.

It’s made me a bit more motivated for the training ahead and excited for more competing!

Our usual training rides are literally underwater and the early rides we were booked onto have been cancelled due to rain. This has meant we’ve had to be a little more inventive with our training routes. I got the OS map out and had a look at where the steepest country lanes around me were so that although it’s on road we were at least getting some decent hill work in in lieu of good ground.

I was pleasantly surprised with the route we chose and really enjoyed a change of scenery so it may become a more regular occurrence to scout out new locations and not be too lazy to actually go and ride them rather than the same old easy and close rides we always do.

I’ve been holding off on buying any of the things I need or want for myself and the horses so that I could save up some money and have a proper shopping spree at the national equine show. It was lovely to catch up with friends that used to be at our livery but unfortunately I didn’t get much shopping done, but the ponies did get to appreciate a few random purchases!

I would love to have a rigid set in stone week to week plan but unfortunately my work schedule, life and as we all know horses don’t work that way. So at the moment we’re aiming for 4x a week, when we are 8 weeks out from upping to 80km competitions we’ll go to x5 a week.

In terms of which days I ride and what I do heavily depends on my schedule that week, the ideal for me is Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday with a mix of water treadmill, schooling or poles and a short and long hack. When we up to 5 sessions we’ll add some faster work in at farm rides or gallops.

I feel very relaxed about going into this season as we’ve set our goals pretty late into the year, giving us plenty of time to gear up to the bigger distances. Here’s hoping we get to put our 6 week periodisation blocks into practice this year!

Of course there’s a lot of what if’s, maybes, fate will decide and general who knows to making plans with horses, but I still need some sort of goal and a plan to structure my training and year to. So here goes for my 2026 endurance season.

We’re starting off slow as Estrid hasn’t been out and about since her accident in June 2025. Hopefully a 32-48km a month in the run up to June, where we hope to do our first CER. Once we’ve done an 80km I want to then look at doing our first FEI 1* and also consider whether we want to aim for national Champs.

Due to my work schedule there is only one Area qualifier I can get to this year, which is only a week out from the FEI ride we’d like to do, plus the national champs themselves are also at an event where I may want to be doing FEI instead. So it’s all a bit up in the air as to which route I’ll decide to take or even how Estrid goes this season. The budget is set for one competition a month and I’d love to get some longer distances under our belt.

As for Tissy she’ll be storming around some social and pleasure rides generally having a good time.

We have pre-season training in all sports, I’ve been busy prepping human athletes so the horses have taken a back seat. I’m sure most endurance riders are well into their pre-season plans now, but we’re a little late to the party so we’re still prepping for our pre-season plan to kick off.

We started with 5 days of water treadmill while I was working abroad and now I’m back it was time to book the Dentist, Farrier, Physio, Saddlers and vets. Spend a few hours bathing, clipping and generally getting everything sorted so we can get into a nice routine.

Estrid is such a lovely horse to ride, I’m so lucky that no matter how much time she has off she’s still well behaved under saddle. The tricky part with her is getting her to relax when you’re not riding and getting used to going to new places, being in the stable, that sort of thing. Nevertheless I feel like she’s made a lot of progress mentally over the last year and I’m excited to see what 2026 brings.

Honestly I feel like I’ve cheated and I’m not sure I like it. We went to New Zealand for the entirety of December and into January while my horses were looked after by my parents in Wales, shortly after I was working away in Tenerife while my horses went to Legacy equine so Estrid could start her 2026 training on the water treadmill while I’m away. So I feel like I’ve missed the darkest coldest part of winter, the nights are already getting lighter, ride entries are opening and we’re already in the 2026 planning phase. Which is all very nice but it does make me feel a little discombobulated.

Anyway, the horses are back from their 9 week holiday and we have stables to prep and routines to get back into.

Well it wasn’t great on paper but in reality it’s not been that bad! We had a great start to the year with a super smooth and productive pre-season training. We introduced water treadmilling to our training plan and it made such a difference, especially when our options are limited during the dark winter nights.

Estrid’s goals for the season were to qualify for an FEI 1* and to do her first CER. We got the first but sadly missed out on the second due to a freak accident at the yard. The silver lining of this was that Tissy got a summer of rides all to herself, and smashed her goal of 3 pleasure rides with a total of 5 pony parties!

Estrid still got to go out and about 5 times too, two short GER’s, an 80km at Windsor and a Pleasure ride at the end of the year. I’m so excited for next year, let’s hope we get that first race ride in the bag!