Well we did it, we made it to Lavenham and we had not only a great time but a very successful time!

Estrid got off the trailer a sweaty shaking mess….no idea why, she usually travels well and we had a very straight forward very relaxed journey along straight roads. Nevertheless she settled well into her corral, ate and drank, and also had a good mooch around the vetting without being a drama llama.

My ride plan for our 80km CER was to be going above 16kph but no faster than 8kph, taking into account I though she’d take about 8-12mins to present at the vet gates. Safe to say we nailed the plan with an average ride speed of 16.86kph. If I’m being picku our second loop could have been a bit slower, it was 17.09kph and our third loop could have been a little faster (16.61kph) as I prefer a negative split. But I think our speeds were consistent enough that it’s not too bad.

There were two big surprises of the day. Firstly Estrid’s vet gate presentation times were consistently around the 5 minute mark, a dramatic improvement from last year. Secondly, Estrid led a horse around almost the entire 80km. Estrid used to just stop or be very wary and stuck in the mud if there was ever a horse close behind her, so I would opt to part ways with anyone we came across so we could get into a rhythm. There were moments where she wasn’t quite sure and she’s still definitely more forward by herself but I was so impressed that we had a nice ride with Jenny and her stallion, Jasper.

Jenny and I discussed the finish and we opted not to do a racing finish, but as Estrid had taken the lead for the majority of the route I have a sneaky suspicion Jenny may have held back by a nose to let Estrid take the win. The best part of the whole thing was behing awarded Best Condition. Estrid was certainly a little tired towards the end of the last loop, more mentally than physically but the later that evening and the next day she trotted up with as much enthusiasm as she had the morning of the race.

I’m really glad I opted to do an 80km CER rather than go straight to a 100km 1*, as I now feel really confident that we’ve got our vet gates down, I know what she’s like in bigger groups of horses and what kind of speeds to think about doing.

Vet gates are highly personal and very horse specific in terms of how you set up and how you run them. It depends on your horse, the amount of crew and their experience, your goals in terms of speed through a vet gate etc. But if your a first timer I thought it might be useful to see how we set up, what we take with us and why we do what we do.

Ultimately it will be a lot of trial and error and getting to know what you like but here’s what we do.

I find thinking of my horses a great motivator when the enthusiasm for a workout is low, but I obviously want to keep fit, healthy and mobile for myself too. I lead a very active lifestyle regardless of whether I did any structured training. I’m a Physiotherapist working with athletes and trauma patients so my day to day has a lot of movement. Throw in riding 4-6 x a week and I probably hit above the average activity level for most people.

But none of these things work as well as lifting weights, staying mobile, keeping my low threshold core strong and maintaining my cardiovascular health with purposeful training. Working with athletes who often get their dreams crushed and patients who’ve had their whole world changed by injury really makes you respect your body and want to maintain it the best you can.

For me that looks like a minimum of 4 sessions a week with sometimes an extra 1 or 2 thrown in if it fits with my schedule. I do a mix of weight training, Pilates (Mat or Reformer) and running with a hike or a bike ride thrown in as the extras.

I try to get my training done first thing in the morning before work because I find motivation harder to come by as the day goes on and also the post-work time slot is where I ride my horses.

With all our transport troubles of late it was extra nice to make it to a venue on a warm sunny evening and sit in our campervan watching my horse graze.

Thank you to the Cheshire group and all their helpers for a lovely weekend, we also had lovely camping company and an all round good time. Exactly what a weekend of endurancing should feel like!

Estrid was a little unhinged to start with but got better as the day progressed and gave her all with the hard going and heat, she even tolerated actually being crewed in the vet gate. A successful outing to give us the prep we need to step up to her first race ride in a few weeks time.

Tapering is a pretty well researched art in humans, taking into account the physiological and mental aspect of preparing and peaking for certain events is standard practice. In the equine world it’s certainly not as standardised or well researched and although equine physiology is vastly different to human, human is what I know, so I work with what I’ve got and base my training blocks, tapering and peaking on my human athlete experience with a sprinkle of equine research.

If it was as simple as pure physiology then it would be pretty straight forward, but peaking for an event is an art, as you have to take in the psychological aspects too. I’d say it’s the same for horses, some you could not ride for a week and they’d be on their best form from the rest, some need riding everyday and kept in a consistent routine. It doesn’t really matter to me how we do it, it’s just about reducing load and maximising recovery, whilst being as confident as possible that the preparation is as good as you can do.

I haven’t really learnt what works best for Estrid yet but she seems to really benefit from the physical and mental rest of being left to mooch in a field and do a few chilled 5km hacks in the run up to an event. On the flip side if I don’t trailer her out at least once a week she quickly loses her ability to regulate her emotions and stay calm in new or busy environments.

This year one of my main focuses has been on improving Estrid’s canter, she has a lovely canter but she prefers about a 26kph pace, while I would like her to get better at a nice slow controlled 20kph. We don’t have any hacking with long canter stretches to train this so we head to the gallops twice a month with the aim of eventually getting a continuous 20km of canter for an hour. We’re definitely not there yet, and we might not get there this year but she improved every time and that’s all that matters.

Tissy, who is now 28, get’s 6 months of the year off and then once the grass starts growing and she can keep a decent amount of weight on her we start riding again and going on little adventures. Getting behind her ears is always like coming home and the easiest place to be. Despite long periods of time off I never have to worry what she’ll be like that first time back out…I know she’s going to be a diva!

A little later in the season than planned due to transport issues but we’re finally back out at Poplars Farm equestrian utilising their lovely grass 4km farm ride for some faster training work. It’s got plenty of turns, some nice steep sections and good grassy ground, and only 15mins drive from the yard. So it’s perfect for getting in some consistent, longer and faster work in.

We usually do between 10-20km (3-5 laps) once a week at a mix of speeds depending on what the focus is for that training block. The van breaking down has given me the reminder that I’m lucky and should be grateful to even have horse transport and so many lovely facilities to box to near by.

The van has to go back to the garage next week, so we’ll be out of action again. But I’m really looking forward to being able to get into a good routine with our training and enjoy the summer competition season!

With everything going on in the world, me lamenting about my lack of horse transport to do my hobby is quite frankly laughable. Yet here I am moaning about my lack of horse transport. I am 100% aware that my life is one of privilege, luck, comfort and opportunity but sometimes I just want to have a good sulk.

I have worked hard to be in the position I’m in and I’ve put a lot of effort and money into preparing Estrid for the 2026 Endurance season, so when my van broke down leaving me without transport to attend training sessions or go to competitions I felt a bit bummed.

But after a lengthy moan, a bit of perspective, and a good think we just pick up and move on. It will cost money, it will take time but my van will be fixed and I’ll be able to go to the ball eventually.

Estrid and I were all packed and spruced ready for our 40km ride at Pikehall when the van started making a slight, almost imperceptible fluttery noise the day before. I asked my husband Dan to come out and listen, gave the engine a rev 3 times and it just stopped and hasn’t worked since…

Without a tow vehicle and only 12 hours to sort any other transport before we were actually meant to be leaving we weren’t able to go. I messaged the organisers in the hope that at least there would be someone pleased on the waiting list and thought about what we could do instead.

I wanted to do the 40km specifically that day as I was due to head away to Austria for work for 4 days and it would fit perfectly with Estrid’s time off after a ride of that distance. If I hadn’t been going away for work then I would have just carried on our normal training schedule.

With that in mind I decided to map out a 40km route from the yard, it wouldn’t be as fast as we’d have a lot of road work between bridleways and it wouldn’t be as fun and it wouldn’t give Estrid the venue and vetting practice I wanted but it would have to do.