I am so grateful to the effort of the Shuckburgh Hall endurance ride organisers that it was able to go ahead. The weather made what is normally a tough job even tougher, with marking and choosing a safe route but they pulled it off when so many equestrian events had to cancel and I would like to thank them and everyone that made the ride happen for their hard work.

Shuckburgh was more of an old school endurance ride, we’re very spoilt sometimes with excellent going on non-technical terrain and although I love those rides sometimes it’s fun to mix it up. It had a very varied mix of tracks, set aside, bridleway and quiet lanes, I think it may have been less technical if the ground hadn’t been so wet and soft but the conditions called for more care and a slower pace. It did have a fair few gates but most of them were manned with lovely volunteers and there wasn’t one that I would have had to get off for.

Estrid was brilliant! She was much better at the venue, not perfect but definitely an improvement on the first 40km she did with lower starting and finishing heart rates. Best of all our trot up was straight this time! Out on course she was on fire! She rode in a pack, in a pair, by herself, in front, at the back, in the middle, side by side. I coulnd’t have been prouder. She was more patient at the crew points, even if she did throw sugar beet over Dan, and she even managed her first slosh without any drama.x

She is naturally fast, and although as a novice I would prefer to be going between 10-12kph it just doesn’t work for her. She did an average speed of 13kph, made possible by doing a fair bit of walk, for this ride and she didn’t even puff once, she never felt tired and she certainly didn’t look tired when we were back at the venue. I really enjoyed the fact she seemed to be enjoying herself and I had a lovely ride, albeit a tad spooky, there were several occasions where I surprised myself with my staying on abilities.

Her personal performance was enough to make me grin from ear to ear but when I heard we had also won the Performance Formula I genuinely couldn’t have been happier. I really love that EGB have used the Performance formula throughout all levels of endurance now, it means that although you don’t have to be competitive you can be and it really adds a bit of icing to the cake with the sense of pride and achievement. Thanks to Baileys Horse Feeds for my wonderful prizes and Lucy for getting them to me as I had to dash off to an 80th Birthday party!

I knew the bit I had was too big for Estrid and I could have just bought a smaller one but I really wanted to get an expert opinion on her mouth and what bits would suit her. I had seen Expert bits on YouTube and I really liked their ethos, the bit designs and how much they seemed to cater for each individual horse.

I have used Myler bits for decades, I like that they don’t have that nutcracker action that so many bits have and they offer lots of options. I’ve prefered the hanging cheek because I like that it holds it’s own weight off the tounge so when Lisa from expert bits also recommended I try a smaller hanging cheek I was a little bit pleased with myself that I’d been making the right choice.

We also tried an eggbutt and a loose ring. Estrid didn’t like the loose ring and she made that quite obvious, she was better with the eggbutt but seemed a little unsure, potentially because of the slight increase in weight on her tounge. Lisa also said that I didn’t need a port, my current bit had a low level port to allow for extra tounge room, but because Estrid’s mouth is so small and her roof fairly low and hard it would be better to have a straight bit for maximum comfort.

It’s funny how, even though I was on the right track and I knew what I needed to change with my current bit, having someone who knows what their doing gives you that extra bit of validation and confidence in your choices. I feel like when Estrid starts schooling properly in the autumn that I’ve now got the right bit for her and we can confidently start asking for more contact and communication.

After Estrid’s first 40km I noticed that the neoprene gaiters had rubbed her skin. The day of the ride there were no marks and she had no tenderness but the day after she had dry flaky skin. Her feet were completely fine but I did notice that she was much happier on the soft ground than on the road. So I made the decision that I would do the same as Tissy and shoe her to compete and boot her the rest of the year. We went for shoeing her with the Ibex frog support pads to try and maximise the hoofs performance by loading through the frog and she was a very good girl for her first shoeing.

Transport: I have made so many lists over these past few weeks! Pros and cons, costs, reliability, efficiency, usefulness. I am definitely suffering from choice fatigue (Although choice is a lovely thing to have). I have visited horsebox manufacturers, I have looked at 4×4’s, pickup trucks and vans.

Hunter horseboxes based near Lymm, came out on top for a new build horsebox, the quality, honesty, straight forwardness, emergency exits, communication and the beautifully tidy workshop had me salivating over my next lorry. But to get what I really wanted on a young-ish chassis was 6k out of budget. So I decided I’d rather wait, save more money and get what I really wanted than compromise on design or an older chassis.

Que the tow vehicle option research. Ideally I would want to just have one vehicle, so my tow vehicle would also be my day to day car. I wanted a minimum 2.5t tow capacity, 30mpg and under 100,000miles on the clock.

After a lot of thought it came down to this – what would be the smallest financial burden with the most versatility that would allow the storage of a horsebox.

When you have someone who is a Man Vs Horse fountain of knowledge offer to take you for a ride it would be silly to refuse. Jocelyn kindly agreed to take Tissy and I on a guided training ride around Cannock chase, which is incidentally the closest thing to the Welsh terrain we have near us. This was exciting x2, one we get to explore the Chase with someone who knows it much better than we do and two, I can ask all my Man Vs Horse questions and queries while we do it!

Tissy and Squidge actually got on very well and paced together nicely, making easy work of an undulating and rocky 22km. I thoroughly enjoyed what was a lovely evening in good company, chatting strategy and tips and I feel much more in the know about the challenges ahead.

So thank you to Jocelyn and Squidge! We’ll definitely be back for some more joint training if you’ll have us!

Well first of all, we made it to the venue!!!! I was disproportionately nervous for this ride which I think you can really tell in the video. I’m usually quite a positive human being but after the last couple of years I think I’ve started to expect things to go wrong rather than right. Something I need to shake off before it becomes learnt negativity.

Anyway, I was nervous about getting there, I was nervous that Estrid would be nervous and her HR would be too high to vet, I was nervous about doing my first 40km barefoot and booted, I was nervous about getting the HR at the final vetting. Basically at every tiny step I was just waiting for something to go wrong. Spoiler alert, IT DIDN’T!

First of all thank you to the Cromwell EGB group for putting on a fantastic ride, to all the helpers and to the sponsors that supported it. It was a great route, well marked with excellent field margins that went on for miles.

Dan did an excellent job crewing all by himself, dealing with a nervous rider and a nervous horse. It’s one thing crewing a horse you know well, that basically has a crewing handbook that comes along with it, it’s an entirely different skill to crew a horse that we don’t know very well yet and we don’t know what it’s going to want, when or how it’s going to react.

Estrid was incredible out on course. She was forward, she was keen and she was asking to go faster, but not running through the bridle out of control faster, she wanted to power from behind lift up and have fun faster. It was a dream 3 hours, she passed horses, left horses at route splits, lead out in front and followed from behind. She was balanced and responsive and I couldn’t have been prouder of her.

She was much better than expected at the venue, we had a HR of 48 to start and 60 to finish. We had a HR of 57 in under 5 mins at the end but every horse that went past, or thing that moved, or gust of wind, basically anything had it shooting back up. So we used the ‘do nothing at all but wait’ crewing method and grazed for 20mins before heading to vet. She was also very cold without her rug, so although her HR was in the 40’s when we presented to vet as soon as the rug came off she started shivering and her eyes were out on stalks. I wasn’t even sure that her HR would be under 64 but thankfully it was and she stood pretty well for it too. Our trot ups were entertaining…the last one using all lanes and chasing after the horse trotting up in the next door lane, but at least she was keen and sound if not in a straight line.

We finished on a speed of 13.5kph and came 3rd in the Performance formula, thank you to Enduro Equine for our prize! It was an excellent day, with exactly the result I hoped for: a fun 40km on a horse that seemed to love the job and a 40km novice qualifier in the bag. Hopefully with all the positive steps of our first ride I won’t be so nervous for the next one!

Estrid has never been on a trailer, so with only 1 week to practice before she did a 1.5hr journey to her first competition I was keen to do as many load, unloads and short journeys as possible. She travels well in terms of she stays still, doesn’t kick and has good balance but she is a nervous traveller, she has her eyes out on stalks, she’s always looking everywhere and she sweats up. So I set up the trailer with the full intention that it may take a little while for her to get used to it.

With a trailer being louder, slightly less stable and smaller I was a little nervous that she really wouldn’t enjoy the experience and what is already stressful for her would be made much worse. But Estrid being Estrid she just copes, she may not like it but she doesn’t make a fuss and she does what’s asked of her with minimal questioning. She took to loading, standing and coming off well and she even loaded straight back on after a little trip out, phew!

While Connie the lorry is at the garage, the crew have rallied to get my ponies and I out and about. Dan has fitted a tow bar to his van, traveled to Wales and driven many hours to pick up the trailer that my parents had cleaned up ready for me to use while I wait for my lorry to be fixed.

First world problems, but, I know have to decide do I sell the lorry once it’s been fixed up while it’s still worth quite a bit and is mechanically sound, do I buy another second hand box or get one built or do I buy a tow car and continue to use a trailer. All with pro’s and con’s and varying degrees of financial input.

The second big change is Tissy’s hooves, after a fairly normal 20km, her hind hooves were so worn laterally that it was rolling her fetlock. In hindsight, I should maybe have been training her in hind boots as well as fronts and that’s something I’m going to explore in the future. But for now she needing shoeing pronto. She’s always worn the outside of all of her feet laterally her whole life, she just doesn’t land flat so that’s inevitable. She’s worn her front boots in the same way. She is actually more forward going now she has shoes back on and I’m happy that we’re doing what’s best for her to get the job I want her to do done.

Typically I don’t ‘train’ the week before a competition I just maintain and assess. Recovery is so important for performance and you won’t make any improvements in fitness the week before a competition so I find it’s best to just keep ticking over. Of course the training you do in that week will benefit future weeks but depending on my training schedule and goals I tend to train in blocks based on peaking for each individual competition in a Novice year.

All my horses have been different too, I’ve had one that needed to do something daily or it was like riding a ticking time bomb. One could literally do nothing the week before and be on top form and some in the middle of both. I don’t really know what suits Estrid best yet but I went for the middle ground of 3 sessions in the 7 days before her first 40km.

We did one ‘easy hack’ of 8km with lots of trot and walk with a tiny bit of canter. One 5km just walk hack and one 10min lunge. She actually seemed to really benefit from the deloading and was looking great, full of energy, really responsive and bright but not too wired.

I cleaned my lorry, packed everything, ticked all my lists. Estrid had her first plaits in and absolutely WINNING, she didn’t roll overnight so was still sparkly clean the morning of our event. Ironically in this vlog I have a good chat about my lorry and how I’ve considered upgrading and that I’d decided to keep her……if only I knew the lorry would be the reason we never made it to Estrid’s first 40km.

On a positive note, we managed to get to a safe place where I could unload and walk her the 3 miles home. It’s in the garage and will be fine. So everyone is fit and healthy and ready to fight another day, it’s just disappointing to not get my season started when I wanted to.

With two weeks until Estrid’s first 40km I wanted to get in another ‘public’ outing. Thank you so much to the Team who made Freehay happen, despite torrential downpour the course ran beautifully and as usual, I think Derbyshire group must have the loveliest helpers going!

Estrid did a solid 19km at 10kph and really impressed me with her progress, she was taking the lead, she did more canter sections, her balance downhill was impressive. You could really see that she was getting more confident and forward. We were accompanied with Cat on Tissy and Izzy on Fluffy, the three went quite well together and it was a lot less frustrating than when we take Estrid & Fluffy out together.

It was a lovely course with lots of hills and lovely canter stretches, woodland and views. I was actually really impressed that despite the deep mud that all our boots remained on too!

Despite being so much better on the trail, I can’t say the same for her venue shakes. She’s much less stressed after traveling but as soon as we’re at a venue with lots of other horses she has her eyes out on stalks. When I take her out in the box for training she’s fine but there’s something about lots of horses together that she struggles to process.

Her HR was in the 90’s when I jumped off and then stuck in the 70’s for the 10mins after before I popped her back on the lorry to eat her food. I’m hoping that within the 30mins we have I can graze and calm her down enough to pass the vet for her first graded ride but we’ll just have to wait and see.

For those that know me in real life, they know that this has been on the cards for a while. Firstly, I must say a huge thank you to Roo’s owner, Liz, for giving me the opportunity to have Roo for the last 18 months. He taught me a very valuable lesson, to enjoy horses for fun not just for competition. A lesson you would think I didn’t need but I most certainly did and it has totally changed my perspective on goal setting and doing riding activities for fun not just for training.

Roo is the most dependable, safe and reliable horse I’ve ever ridden. He never quits but he doesn’t work harder than he has to, there are no surprises, he tells you exactly what you need to know. You put him in a gear and he stays in that gear, he’s excellent in traffic, if he’s unsure he just stops and waits.

But it was time for him to find a new human who would really appreciate all this and after seeing a wanted ad on Facebook that basically described Roo, I reached out to see if they would like to come and meet him. A few weeks later and he had a 5 stage vetting and was sold to the most lovely home where I know he will be cherished and they will have a lovely time together. I wish them the best of luck for the future and many happy adventures.

Thank you Roo for all the fun, all the life lessons and for being such a cool dude when I needed you most.