We are 13 weeks out from Man Vs Horse (well we were when I wrote this). Which means it’s time for Tissy to start training. I’ve been seeing lots of updates of people in full swing training on Facebook and I must say I’m impressed with the preparation. Tissy, however, is a seasoned pro and has an excellent foundation of fitness and strength, coupled with the fact that winter training is too hard for her to keep weight on, I knew that we’d have to start our prep later than everyone else.

Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, in human and horse athletes I have seen people get the peak of training wrong, training harder and harder instead of smarter with very little recovery. So although a little part of my brain felt like I should be keeping up with everyone else, I also know that my plan is sound, it just doesn’t allow for much wriggle room.

So here we are at the start of a new challenge. I have broken her training down into 3 blocks. We aren’t starting from scratch as she’s been ticking over with a ride here and there for the last year. Which means we’ve done the longest part of any training, setting the foundation. The first block will focus on strength with x3 sessions a week of 2x 10km minimum training rides at an average speed of 10-12kph and x1 Pessoa or pole work. I’m also trying to make the majority of her rides on hills to add specificity to her training and have a week booked off to go home to Wales in April.

The next block will focus on distance, increasing to 2x 10km minimum and x1 20km training ride, whilst increasing speed slightly, and the last block will focus on speed, based on previous Man Vs Horse results (Yes, I have run the stats for all finishers over the years) my aim is to up her training from 12-14kph to an average speed of 16kph.

I have lots of experience training Tissy, so that part I’m pretty confident about. What I’m not so sure about is our hoof plan. Now I know people have done Man Vs Horse barefoot and booted, but I have only ever raced Tissy with shoes on. There are pros and cons to both. Shoes might come off in the bog but so might a boot, barefoot negates that risk but the stony terrain might be too much for her. If she wears shoes I can use the boots as back up. It really comes down to my inexperience of anything other than shod. For now I have 5 weeks of training to decide what to do, so I’m going to see how she copes barefoot over harder, stonier terrain and go from there.

My aim for the event is to have fun on a horse who loves to race, I am going to stick to my race plan (that is adaptable depending on conditions), if that plan means we’re first or last I don’t care. It’s just about setting my own goals and enjoying my favourite pony in her favourite environment.

Horses are a wonderful lifestyle but there’s no denying that comes at a price both literal and metaphorical. I think we can all agree that we’ve had to turn down social occasions….if we even manage a social life. That we go without so are horses can have all they need. That we may turn down opportunities because we don’t have the time or there’s no one to look after them if you’re not around. It’s a price I am more than willing to pay and it is my choice at the end of the day.

So when I was given the opportunity to be medical lead for two weeks in Nevada, USA my first reaction is ‘oh, but can I do it’. For a few reasons, one I’d have to take unpaid leave from my full-time job, so could I afford that. Two, would someone be able to look after the horses while I was away and three, it’s out of my comfort zone and did I want to do it.

So I turned to the people whose opinions I trust, my family and Dan (my Fiance). Dan’s instant reaction was ‘I’ve got you, you can’t turn this down’. We worked out that he could cover the finances (most of which are solely horse related) and he agreed to look after 3 horses, one of which is stabled overnight, for two weeks. But even better than that, Dan and my brother, Will, believed that I could do it, that stepping out of my comfort zone is the best way to make that zone bigger and the best way to gain life experiences.

I am so grateful to have people in my life that push me, believe in me, and enable me to do what I want to do, that mean I can take opportunities when they arise and feel confident that everything else is taken care of. I know how lucky I am to have had this kind of support my whole life, and I just want them to know I don’t take that support for granted.

So this weeks video is how Dan fared looking after the horses while I was away working!

We headed off to Shipley Park near Nottingham for Estrid’s first outing of the season. A really different ride for us, we had never been here before, it was such a suprise to have a ride somewhere so urban! Maybe not quite as urban as the famous Concrete cows ride which goes through Milton Keynes but still not your usual country side.

Firstly Estrid did very well with all the dog walkers, runners, push chairs, children and general busyness of the park. However, Estrid and Fluffy do not make the best adventure companions. Estrid is very nervous of overtaking horses and if they are close behind her. Fluffy doesn’t really enjoy being up front. So although if Estrid had a good lead she did really well out front and was also happy behind when Fluffy got going it was a little messy in places with the flow of our speed as we struggled to keep a good rhythm when one of them wasn’t happy.

Despite that we still had fun and managed a nice 17km at 9.7kph. It was also quite a hard ride underfoot with gravely tracks or paved paths so a great test of Estrids bare and booted feet. I’m still so unsure about doing her 40km’s barefoot, and about when would be the best time to shoe her, but so far she hasn’t been sore and her feet are holding up well. So I guess I’ll keep as we are and see how we go but I’m pretty certain that I want her shod for anything over 40km, but we’ll see it’s such unknown territory for me.

Her heart rates weren’t great, 60bpm at the start and finish but she was beginning to settle down and I am quite confident we could manage this for a graded ride so I have entered our first 40km, everything crossed that we make it to the start line!

I always use a 16km training ride as a test before I enter a 40km. It’s more for my peace of mind than anything. I use it as a baseline throughout training to compare to and it gives me confidence seeing the improvements. Estrid did her first one of the year and breezed it. I focused on how she was feeling, how she coped with changes in terrain, the speed she could maintain, the percentages and ratios of walk, trot and canter. It’s nothing different from an ordinary training ride really, other than I really think about how it went and what that means, comparing it to past attempts.

Estrid is ready for a 40km physically. But I’m still not sure if she’s ready for vettings mentally. She’s still pretty hyped and shaky when we go to new venues, her eyes are out on stalks, her breathing is shallow and rapid. She does nothing wrong, she’ll stand still for a mock vetting. She’s easy to handle and as soon as you’re on board she’s good as gold and ready to go on an adventure. I’m just not sure we’d be able to keep her calm enough to get her heart rate within the required parameters.

We have a social ride lined up to put this to the test with a before and after ‘fake’ vetting, my personal parameters are that she completes between 9-12kph and has a heart rate below 60bpm within 5 minutes of untacking, and then hopefully we’ll be off to our first 40km before we know it.

There are a few things that get me through winter that I really appreciate:

• Waterproof trousers over my wellies: It doesn’t look cool, it’s not aesthetic BUT I spend all winter in waterproof trousers that are over my wellies, it stops all the hay going down the top. It stops my clothes getting dirty when the horses stand in a muddy puddle and catapult mud in all directions, its warm and practical and I don’t care that we’ll never win any fashion shows. I keep the tousers on my wellies all season so I just pull them down around my wellies and then take them off rather than putting them on and over the tops all the time.
• Blue horse ribbon bedding: It’s SO easy to muck out, it works out cheaper than shavings for me and it takes up much less storage space, which is always handy when you’re at a livery yard with limited space.
• British Horse Feeds mash: Either the fibre beet or speedi beet, it keeps the ponies fibre intake up. Gives me peace of mind that they are getting some form of hydration when it’s super cold and most importantly keeps Tissy looking great
• Ariat Tempest Parka: This is a new addition to my winter gear and oh my gosh, it’s so cosy and comfortable, and I genuinely look forward to putting it on, it’s made all weather practically pleasant. It is quite pricey, I bought it for 60% off in the Boxing day sales but I would buy it again at full price.
• Carabiners: I hate knots that are tight and that you can’t undo with gloves on. So I don’t tie any knots. Everything that requires hanging up, tying together or securing , I just use a climbing grade carabiner. I pop them on the bottom of my haynets and secure the rope so they turn into little back packs to carry up to the field and then clip them into the feeders. It’s a simple pleasure not having to tie and undo knots!
• Waterproof gloves: When temperatures are sub zero and I need to fish the ice out of the troughs I really appreciate not having to do it with my bare hands.
• Pig oil: The joy of clay washing off the legs with just a hosepipe and no scrubbing can only be achieved at my yard with help. Pig oil just makes getting the mud off so much easier and they get less staining. Which I’m all up for with 3 greys!
• Hot clothing: We don’t have hot water at the yard so boiling a kettle with some leave in wash and wringing out a cloth to really buff the sweat and muck out the horses coat is a necessity. Much better than getting a sweaty horse soaking wet in the cold when they need to be turned back out.

Roo is currently on week 10 of a x3 a week training schedule. One hack, one school and one groundwork. We’re not particularly looking at improving fitness or strength but more ticking over and not losing too much condition over winter. So our sessions aren’t hard or long but just a nice bit of maintenance to keep the foundation ready for when it’s time to start doing a bit more.

I took Roo for his first outing of 2023, a nice quiet 10km around the Upper Boothay Farm ride which also has a selection of jumps. Roo hasn’t jumped since April last year and that was in a group. Most of the jumps around the ride were too big for us at this stage and ideally, we’d take a lead into some of the bigger beefier jumps, where the consequences of getting it wrong are higher. But we still managed a few little poles and logs. Roo was particularly good at ditches, step downs and step ups.

It’s the first time I’ve taken him ‘out out’ bitless, and even with other horses jumping and cantering past us I could still happily ride him on the buckle. I just need to increase his confidence going over the more solid looking fences without other horses to follow and I think we’ll be able to pop around a little course before long.

As Tissy is getting older I thought it would be a nice idea for her to come out and about without the load of a rider. Now I know it’s not the usual method to lead from the younger less experienced horse but for what I wanted it for it meant that Estrid would be the ride pony.

It actually went surprisingly well, Tissy was a bit keen to start with and kept trying to go in the lead or pushing Estrid over but as we got into the swing of things, apart from being cross about walking what Tissy thinks should most certainly be a canter section, it went pretty smoothly.

I’ve since tried her in a rope be nice halter and a bridle and I can safely say it doesn’t make any difference what method I use. But each time we’re getting used to the routine and voice commands seem to be the most effective at tempering Tissy’s need for speed. So for when I’m doing long slow hill work it’s definitely an option, but I think I’ll pass at trying to control Tissy for the faster canter work from a lead rope!!!

The main star here though, as usual, was Estrid. She took to it without any hesitation, fully accepting a lead rope at all angles and staying in a nice calm walk while Tissy cantered on the spot beside her!

Well I thought I would be starting my endurance season off with a nice 18km around Woburn. Something I was actually super excited for after seeing the wonderful tracks on Bella Fricker’s stories. But alas the ice and snow meant it wasn’t safe for the ride to go ahead. It also meant that I didn’t really have any at home alternatives either because I couldn’t get the lorry off the lane from the yard, vehicles had been getting stranded in both directions all week, and although I had a moment of madness where I considered hand gritting a whole mile, I decided against it.

The school was also frozen solid but was actually flat with a soft layer of snow still on top so I decided to do some groundwork and raised poles instead. I really wanted to give Estrid a bath, but decided it was a bit cruel in sub zero temperatures so I settled on giving her a good groom, massage and stretch.

I have only recently managed to convince her to take food from my hand so baited stretches have been impossible so this was an ideal opportunity to start her stretching training.

I’m changing up how I plan my 2023 season. Usually I have a ‘big’ end goal and work back from there, I plan out my ideal Plan A rides and have a Plan B for each one spread out over the whole season. This year I still have an overall goal: Complete Estrid’s Novice Qualifications but I’m not aimed at a final ‘big’ ride. I’m also not planning to go to any rides in particular. This year I have selected one ride a month that has a 40km Novice class and if we make it to that, excellent, if not, onto the next one. I’ve also done this with Pleasure rides, so I have a list of one a month fairly close to me and we’ll use them as options rather than targets.

Ideally, I would like to have finished Estrid’s Novice qualifications (3 x 40km) by the end of June. The past few years the ground has been very hard from July to September so I’d like to be able to avoid having to compete then if possible. If the ground is still good then I might do a few extras if budget allows.

I would like to do around 3 pleasure rides with Tissy and also I have a slightly bigger ‘bucket list’ ride in mind, but that all depends on whether I get an entry and how Tissy is doing after this winter. Roo I have aimed at a bit more of a mix of things, obviously continue to bring him back up to his previous strength and fitness and then I’d like to do more cross-country with him and a few early Pleasure rides.

With all that in mind for the first 12 weeks of this year, Estrid and Roo will be trained 3x a week and Tissy will be having 3 months off. Estrid will do one schooling, one pole work and one hack and Roo will start with one pole work, one hill work and one hack.

My biggest decision to make is whether I keep Estrid barefoot for her Novice 40km rides or I put shoes on her. I guess we’ll just see how she goes! Lastly, I need to budget for the whole thing, so I usually work out entry costs against my goals plus fuel and then divide that over Jan – Sept to put away into an account monthly as my pony spending account. Whos know’s what will happen in 2023 but I hope that whatever it throws at us we can stay positive and have fun.

I’m really in the preparation for the year ahead mood. January is one of my favourite months (I know, unpopular opinion). First up on my checklist was to get the saddles checked and fitted ready for the pre-season training to begin. Dean & Gini from Reactor Panel Saddles came out to check over Estrid and Roo, it was nice to hear that they thought Estrid had muscled up and Roo hasn’t lost too much muscle either.

That also meant a good clean and check over of all my tack, boots, chaps and gear in general. I clean them using the Carr & Day & Martin 3-step process and then I use a waterproofing dressing on the top of my saddles, boots and chaps to give them a bit of extra protection over winter.

There’s something really satisfying about a clean and tidy tack room full of well looked after kit, I know where everything is and in what condition it is in ready to get stuck into the last of our winter training.