Firstly I’m so glad that this ride managed to pull off being moved from August to October, it must have been a huge undertaking and I’m so so grateful. We were even graced with exceptional weather. This was Tissy’s last pony party of the season, and as with every end of season ride on a 28yo endurance horse, you wonder if it might be the last. If it is then it was perfect, we cantered along grassy stretches, bimbled through streams and through big arable fields, we got to chat to friends and came home with big smiles on our face.

Estrid has had 6 weeks off since she was lame in August, thankfully she was sound within a week but the timing was right to give her a bit of a holiday. Tissy has also had two weeks off while Dan and I went on a two week European road trip for his 40th Birthday.

Now we’re back and I had got the yard looking at least a little more presentable and organised it was time to get back on board and plan our next adventures! I’d like to take Estrid to as many random activities and places as possible and what better way to start than to a farm shop!

Thank you so much to TLC Farm shop in Hanbury for being so game for having a rather larger 4 legged visitor than usual…Estrid wasn’t the best behaved pony for our visit but it certainly added some fun to our day!

I’m heading into autumn optimistic that we’re going to have a good time! It’s my favourite season and thanks to some lovely ride organisers there are a few late season rides available. After our two week road trip to Slovenia it definitely felt like it was time to do a good reset, have a tidy and set us up for some brrrr month adventures!

It really has been a busy few weeks for Tissy after a slow start to her year and she’s thoroughly enjoying her little adventures. I don’t ever take a single minute in the saddle for granted as I really feel that we’re on borrowed time, saying that Tissy looks as good as ever and she’s still got a few outings left for this year.

The Elan Valley ride has been on my radar for a long time. Having grown up a mountain range over from the venue I have a rough idea of the terrain involved and I’m always longing for the hills! It was always the plan for Tissy to have a late season after Estrid had completed all her big rides this year and the Elan Valley ride was going to be our cherry on top.

For various reasons Tissy hasn’t made it to the two pleasure rides we had planned in July so this was her first outing of the season, and what an outing it was. Elan Valley is truly a bucket list adventure, it’s tough technical terrain, paired with the stunning views and dramatic landscapes make for an incredible experience. We had fog, rain, sunshine, wind and perfect still blue skies all in one day.

Best of all Tissy had a blast and I enjoyed being back in the Welsh hills, well worth the effort of the journey and so lovely to see so many familiar faces!

Tissy and I have not been to a stayover ride for a long time, I think 2018 may have been the last time, and there is nothing I love more than getting to see a different part of the world and camping with my pony! I can’t believe this is the case, but I’ve never actually camped with my van and trailer or gone to a stayover ride by myself without any crew. I guess it’s because when I stay over it’s usually for the longer distance rides. So a trip to Mid Wales for a ride we’ve never done seemed the perfect excuse for Tissy and I to go camping together!

Despite my van trying it’s hardest to prevent our trip to Thetford by deciding to no longer have a functioning drivers door, our garage managed to diagnose, get the part and fix it in time for me to pack everything up on the Thursday. Alas vehicle issues were not the reason we did not make it to Thetford.

I was packed, Estrid was bathed, we were waiting for the farrier to come put our race shoes on. The silver lining here is that my farrier called to cancel, he’d pop her shoes on in the morning before we travelled, so I then proceeded to do our last lunge before a ride. I always lunge for 10mins on the soft and hard as our final prep so I can be confident everything is good to go…everything was not good to go. Estrid was lame.

At first it was so slight, if she was doing her fancy snorting straight line trot up you’d have never have seen a lame stride, but it was obvious anticlockwise on the lunge and it got progressively worse the next day. So that was it, 9 months of prep for our one goal of getting a 1* off the cards for 2026.

Hopefully, this is a short blip for Estrid and we may get to have a few end of season adventures and we’ll go again, hopefully wiser and more experienced next year. But right now I’m pretty sad and feel quite deflated, questioning my life choices…mountain bikes are much easier to keep, fix and train with!

Firstly Tissy was meant to go for her first fun ride of the season but due to another liveries horse getting injured there would have been no other horses turned out to keep Estrid company. No big deal, Tissy has plenty of time left to enjoy some adventures and I could take Estrid instead….lord knows we need as much practice around other horses as we can get.

On the way to said fun ride my van door swung open and then stopped operating as a door altogether so we couldn’t make the journey to the event…not a problem, deploy Plan B. We went for a nice local hack where we then got attacked by the same dog TWICE!

Quite honestly I was relieved to get through the day unscathed and that Estrid still had four functional, legs and a head! All in all quite a lucky day that it wasn’t my horse that got injured in the field, my van door didn’t hit anything and we made it back home safely, and the dog didn’t injure us or itself!

I wouldn’t ordinarily enter competitions so close together, Thetford two weeks ago and Thetford take 2 in two weeks, but I felt like both Estrid and I needed an outing to ensure we went into our next 1* attempt in the best possible frame of mind. I really enjoyed Long Mynd last year and it was perfectly timed for us to get out and do a stress free and hopefully reassuring 40km.

The ride itself did not dissapoint, stunning views, mountain ponies with their foals, hills for days to get those glutes firing, a great training run for us. Estrid was an angel to ride and really professional with her pacing on the long hills both up and down. There were still a few unknows with her vetting even in such a laid back environment, it’s something that we’re just going to have to roll with and hope for the best.

Nevertheless this outing answered some questions for me, gave some reassurances and some doubts but most of all we actually enjoyed our time out together and thoroughly put our failed 1* attempt behind us.

Our misadventure at Thetford left me with a bit of unease as to the solidity of Estrid and I’s relationship. Neither of us had enjoyed our 40km and it felt like we’d fallen out a bit. The next day in the field she was still pretty aloof, turning away from me rather than coming to say hello.

So we went back to basics, gave her some time off and time to herself until she started saying hello again, followed by some ground work and then a few ‘not training’ hacks. A week later and we had our first training session together and we had a great time, back to a calm collaborative Estrid.

I have a couple of outings planned to really put our demons to rest and make sure that I’m going into our next 1* attempt feeling like I’ve done everything to be mentally and physically prepared. Then whatever happens happens.