TWO YEARS AND 5 DAYS LATER…….Azid is back out competing. The last competition Azid did was back on the 6th of April 2019, where he bossed his first 80km at 13kph. He was balanced and consistent out on course, superb in the vet gates and a little pro away from home for the weekend. We were scheduled to do another 80km to complete our FEI qualifications at the June Euston Park. However, in May, Azid cut his legs and we were going to miss our ride…..no problem, we rescheduled for the Euston in August BUT on July 4th 2019, Azid came in lame from the field. He was sound quite quickly but it was more important to me that he recover properly than try and get out for the end of the season. He was then lame off and on for a while, with a hoof abscess here, a pull there and whatever other excuse he could find to injure himself in the field.
The beginning of 2020 after having a Welsh Mountain holiday I was bringing him slowly back into work, he then went to Readwood Rehabilitation livery for 3 weeks water treadmilling and came back looking like the FEI fit horse I wished he had been all along. The difference in him was astonishing and I was super excited to get back on. I gave Azid two weeks off after his treadmill holiday and then I was going to get back into the proper training.
In those two weeks I was still doing groundwork with him and on the day I was due to get back on, incidentally the 5th of July (My Birthday of all days). I walked down the field with my Mum, looked at Azid strolling towards us, saw a lot of red and said ‘Either that’s a leaf stuck to his foot or something has gone horribly wrong’. It had gone horribly wrong. You can check out Azid’s Injury Diaries for how he fared during the last two years and his Injury Update from back in August 2020, followed by his rehab journey for the full low down.
Anyway, here we are a little while later….and HE IS BACK!!! We didn’t know if he’d live, never mind come sound so when we set off on our first 40km competition of the season I was grinning from ear to ear and you can see the result of our day in the vlog below.
Beth Endurance 