I’m in no way complaining, I love going on adventures, being busy and staying away but sometimes it’s nice to have a weekend at home. My Friday evening started off with a demonstration from Ben Atkison, which gave me a few more ideas for my groundwork progression with Etrsid.

Followed by a Saturday taking Tissy for a hack and getting jobs done around the yard. Topped off with a Sunday bike ride, focusing on my cornering and line choice, as I’m still quite nervous of left hand berms, as this is where I crash the most often. Then I gave Estrid her twice a week medicated bath for her skin with my new gadget that has been a game changer for bath time!

Endurance GB is run by all volunteers, there’s no financial reward to ride organisers or the army of helpers needed to run a ride. So our whole sport relies an the passion, kindness and spare time of those willing to give up a day, week or months to allow us to do what we love.

With Estrid out of action due to her skin ( I keep telling myself at least she’s sound 😛 ) I thought I’d volunteer at the ride I was going to attend instead. Every time I’ve ever helped at a ride I’ve had a great time. I’ve been a gate steward, Vet gate timekeeper, vet sheet runner and now vet writer and every time I have learnt something, had great conversations and met lots of new and known faces.

If you’re new to the sport it’s a fantastic way of picking up tips and tricks, learning the rules and getting to know everyone. If you’re an endurance veteran it’s a lovely way to see everyone having a great time and give back to our sport.

My top tips as a volunteer would be take plenty of water and snacks, pack for all weathers, if you don’t know something don’t worry, just ask. Take a chair or stool for the times where you get a minute to sit down and take every opportunity for a toilet break or to get some fluid down you. It’s so easy to get caught up in the role and forget about yourself so make sure you and those around you are looked after so that you can all do your best looking after the riders and horses competing.

Collingham horse adventure park is basically an obstacle course/agility/spooky training area. I signed onto a clinic here with ROSCO Horsemanship. The morning was meant to be groundwork and the afternoon ridden. With Estrid’s back still recovering I decided that I’d still go to the clinic but continue on the ground into the afternoon, not a bad thing as we don’t really struggle with ridden obstacles but she does struggle to keep her cool on the ground.

It’s a testament to Ross that in a group of horses I came away having done something entirely different to the rest and not really quite the description of the clinic either. We did exactly what we needed to do and that was practice doing nothing.

Estrid has been getting much better with her anxiety at venues, but keeping an eye on that many horses and what they’re up to is quite stressful for her. It was made so clear in the clinic, we had 7 horses, who she’d never met and if one went out of sight she’d start whinnying and spinning, no wonder an endurance venue stresses her out.

She did all the obstacles, if not sometimes a little rushed and stressed as she was so focused on what everyone else was doing. The obstacles and her bravery aren’t our problem, but her focus definitely is. So Ross had us working on our connection and her focus, whilst everyone else carried on with the obstacles around us. At times it looked like we were just standing there doing absolutely nothing, but we went from her screaming and spinning when just one horse in the group went off to do something else to standing still quietly when everyone left her behind. Now she was still tense about it and her focus wasn’t entirely on me but it was miles better than she was at the start of the day and I’m so excited to continue that work with her.

Isn’t it always the way when you agonise over your next steps and decisions with horses that they do something to send you off to Plan G in a matter of days or even hours! But we’re all used to it, it doesn’t come as a surprise to go down to the field to lost shoes, torn rugs, random injuries or a fly mask on back to front (how they manage that one always baffles me).

Estrid managed to get what we assume was a bite right under the saddle area. Which settled down well and she had no soreness, but after her last ride, a few days later it flared up and turned into a decent area of swelling that was hot and tender. The conclusion was that it was infected and we needed to use an antimicrobial wash daily to settle it down. Luckily that has improved it and we don’t need to go down any more intense treatments yet but she is still very sensitive, warm and tender over the area. Which of course means I haven’t been riding her, which in turn means I don’t feel like we’ll have good enough preparation to go to our two day 80km ride.

I’m not worried about her fitness, it’s more the routine of getting out in the trailer, keeping her consistent and being happy with our prep that is disrupted. So Plan B is hopefully to still go to the event, practice a stay over in a corral but only ride one day.

With Estrid out of action, I decided to take Tissy for a little adventure. She’s still being ridden once a week and is as keen as ever. But she has started the wear her hind feet very differently to what’s normal for her, and excessively even over a short distance. Now we could fix the hoof wear with shoes but she’s doing it for a reason and I don’t want to mask that and the farrier agreed. She’s sound and the Physio & vet are happy with her overall, but I don’t want to ride her too much anymore, I still want to keep as much muscle on her and keep her as fit as possible, so now when we do ride I like to take her out to more scenic fun places rather than just a hack around the block on roads. It’s actually really nice to be doing these more mindful, not for fitness but just for the experience rides.

I have never seen such a commitment to making a venue work. The rain running up to the Barbrook ride made the original venue too boggy to park on so they sorted another field with a track and yard, as we were driving in they were putting down hard standing to make it easier for the lorries and trailers to get in, having to individually sort through the arriving riders to make sure the non 4×4 went in the easiest parking spots. It was a mission and it was much appreciated as the ride was well worth it.

The route was wonderful, despite the rain the going was perfect bar one very short muddy section. It was an amazing mix of open moor with bouncy grass or track to canter along and technical rocky climbs through the woods. We did 30km at 11.7kph and I would have loved to stay out on course for longer.

Estrid has upped her average trot speed from 9.7kph back in January to 14kph now, it’s great to objectively see that progress. She’s starting to choose to canter more as well, though I haven’t done any proper canter training yet, I just let her canter when she wants to.

We did have a couple of dramatic moments. She spooked sideways and half fell in a ditch scrabbling around to right herself, she managed not to fall over and then carried on like nothing had happened though she did have a little heat in her knee at the end of the day and had cut the inside of her leg she was perfectly sound, phew! She also took against a couple of chestnuts, she has never been aggressive, she’s not dominant in her herd and she’s used to horses being too close behind her. But for some reason she pinned her ears back snaked her head towards them and sent a very meaningful single leg kick in their direction, not once but on three occasions. I apologised and said she’s never kicked before, though I always think someone should never be in kicking range anyway…and I’ll definitely be putting red in her tail in the future just in case.

The views were stunning, the weather was perfect and the going was great. Estrid and Fluffy still aren’t the best together and I find it slightly frustrating riding with someone else with Estrid as she’s so much better if she’s gone to a ride by herself but we still had a great day and the end of ride sausage bap and cake stand was a definite bonus.

Thank you to everyone who made the ride happen I can’t wait to be back!

I am ashamed to say I have let our groundwork go a little awry, especially in the standing still to mount department. So I have re-introduced one session of groundwork into our weekly schedule. I do so much groundwork in winter but when it’s light the draw to go for a nice ride often supersedes a session in the school. I like to do something a bit different every time but the foundation of the session is much the same.

I love using poles, just because it gives me some sort of target and objective measure. I find it much easier to do the drills with some form of direction and guidance from poles. I usually do a 5min warm up in hand walking back and forward over some raised poles. Then a bit of weaving along a line, then halt and stands and backing up in a box or between two poles. I usually set up two at 90 degrees so I have a corner to practice turning on the forehand or moving the shoulders and then I’ll have some sort of obstacle or training objective, like standing on tarpaulin, walking around with an umbrella, mounting practice etc.

I am by no means very knowledgeable in the groundwork department and I am just doing the best I can with the information and skills I have. But it’s certainly something I’d like to progress. I feel that any horse but especially Estrid, who’s so nervous in new places, will really benefit from it and my hope is that it will make vet gates much easier next year.

I did my first ever actual cross country schooling on an actual British Eventing course! Not a sentence I thought I’d ever say but some of the most enjoyable 2hrs on a horse I’ve had in a while.

In a bid to give Estrid as much variation in experience as possible, I’ve been venturing out of my endurance comfort zone. One of the biggest achievements of this outing was that she didn’t shake at the venue at all, not even once.

She was quite sharp initially with a few high speed sideways getaways, jig jogging and head throwing but nothing too dramatic. Considering we were also sharing the course with what looked like a hundred pony clubbers I think she did very well to settle. I would be interested to find out the etiquette of cross country schooling, in endurance it’s the responsibility of the overtaker to pass safely not the person in front to get out of the way. Considering we had two youngsters out for their first time in our group, I was very surprised when on two occasions we were yelled at from behind to get out the way as someone cantered at speed past us. Fortunately, all our horses were quite relaxed about it but I found it strange that when we were showing our horses a feature that another person could come from behind between our horses and jump.

I had no expectations that we’d actually leave the floor, I wanted her to just walk around the jumps without being terrified of them, anything else was a bonus. Our strategy was to boop each jump with her nose so she could have a good sniff and then step over them and then trot over if possible. We were only aiming at the 50cm mini course to give the horses confidence.

They all did very well and I was super proud of Estrid, I really want to get some coaching so I feel like I know at least a little bit about what I’m meant to be doing. I can’t wait to keep building her confidence, the goal is to be able to canter and pop over the full 50cm mini course and if we keep having fun then maybe progress up the heights.

I made a mistake with the qualification pathway, doh! So having read the FEI rules which allow longer multi day rides to count towards qualification and then read the EGB rules on the website which state that you must do two 60-90km rides, at least one being a one day 80km+, I assumed that a two day ride of the required distance would count towards upgrading. However, thanks to you guys for pointing it out, I was wrong. The EGB handbook states that it must be two single day rides (Maybe I should contact them to update the website? Or it may just have been me being particularly dim)

The FEI qualifications, I also had a little wrong in my head, you don’t have to get 2-3 consecutive anymore, but largely they remain the same, 2 successful rides at each star level within 2 years. Estrid will be allowed to compete at FEI from the 23rd of March 2024 based on her first Novice ride (You have to wait a minimum of 12 months from their first Novice qualifier). So now I feel like doing a two day longer ride at the end of the season doesn’t really get me anywhere qualification wise. Maybe I’ll just do it for fun, for the experience and just because….something I’m not used to doing.

I still want to aim for a two day event where Estrid can practice staying over, so my training is still going to focus on preparing her for consecutive days but now I’m not entirely sure what distance to go for. Do I just do two PR’s, a GER and a PR or do I go for the 80km two day still! I think a 64km or 80km two day would be my preference as I feel like that’s progress and a nice goal rather than just venue experience but we’ll see.

Estrid has had her mid-season break after achieving our 2023 goal of completing her Novice qualifications and upgrading to open, so now I am wondering what to do next. She is not psychologically ready for vet gates, although she has improved tenfold on her anxiety and shakes at venues her heart rate still hovers around the 50’s and spikes into the 90’s as soon as she’s spotted anything. But physically she hasn’t found 40km an issue at all.

Everyone is different and there is no ‘best’ way to go about progressing through the levels in Endurance but my ethos is minimum competitive mileage. For me this means I only do the required 3x 40km. I don’t think Estrid needs lots of 50-64km rides to get used to venues so I don’t feel the need to do them, I also have experience as a rider of doing the longer distances, if I was starting from scratch I would definitely progress through each distance but I feel that I am comfortable with the jump from 40 to 80km. Though I do see the advantage of steadily increasing the distance by using incremental rides and I may even do a 64km next year (a distance I rarely consider). I still don’t want to put unnecessary competitive mileage on Estrid and also it’s an extra cost that doesn’t get me any qualifications.

Instead, I will be taking Estrid to lots of Pleasure rides for venue experience and I’ve booked cross-country course hire and groundwork clinics to add to that. However, Estrid does need two rides to progress to advanced, which we have an opportunity to do in September. (EDIT: I misunderstood the rules on the website, a two day 80km does not count towards advanced qualification). I love two day rides, they offer a different challenge and it’s a nice way of doing a longer distance. Well within Estrid’s capability fitness wise and with 11 weeks to prepare, plenty of time to tweak her training schedule to train for it.

The silver lining of not having any horses competing at FEI level is the ‘horse/life’ balance I have discovered. I spent a lot of my teenage years so focused on training that I didn’t do much socialising, I would never change that as I made amazing friends in the endurance world and had incredible experiences, but over the last 10 years (Yep it’s been 10years since I’ve been attempting to get another horse up to Championship level) I have found that I actually quite like having time and finances to take up other hobbies and have non-horsey experiences.

Our trip to Morzine this year was incredible. I loved mountain biking through the French and Swiss alps, I was terrified and out of my depth at times but it was still great fun. I loved the jump lines and the minute I got back I was emailing pro-riders to ask for coaching and looking up where I could do downhill races in the UK. It’s not really in my nature to do things without trying to be as good as I can be and I feel a new obsession coming on.

I was still excited to come back and see the horses though and I know that I am beyond lucky to live the life I lead. A little girl walked past me the other day as I was riding Estrid and she said ‘Wow, you have your own pony, she’s so pretty, you’re so lucky’ and I wholeheartedly agreed with her.

I do hope to get a horse to FEI level again but I think even if I do I will make sure that I keep some of the life balance alongside the aspirations and drive.