There is something so magical about riding next to the sea. It was dreamy to have both Tissy and Azid at the beach together. Dan did an amazing job of keeping Tissy calm and staying on for his first ever beach ride. Although I did jump on Tissy at the end so she could have a bit of a blast through the waves!

I know I’m going to treasure this video, it’ll be one I look back on over the years to remember how lucky I am. Made all the sweeter by the amount of help we needed from my parents and brother to make it happen. Three vehicles, one back up truck, a sausage dog, two horses a boyfriend and a whole weekend to get there!

A huge part of owning a horse is taking care of it’s every need. Competition horses are much more prone to injury and lameness due to the high stresses put on their body during training. That’s why it’s really important to me that I have a regular ‘check in and check up’ so that I can catch any abnormalities as soon as possible.

Now I am not a vet, this does not replace the knowledge and experience a vet would give. But for me the basic place to start is knowing what’s normal. I regularly trot my horses up, probably every other day on their way from the field to the stable. I lunge once a week and slow motion capture their movement so I can see how they are moving and compare it to previous videos to note progress and change.

When I pick out their hooves I always run my hand down the whole leg, checking for lumps, bumps, swelling and heat. I also have a thermal camera that I use around every fortnight to check for any signs of sub-clinical heat (where it’s hotter but not drastic enough to be felt by my hand and there’s no outward signs of injury or lameness yet). Now thermal imaging is a little controversial but for me because I do it regularly on the same horses, under the same circumstances, it’s that built up bank of knowledge and what’s normal for that horse is what makes it a valuable tool. I also use it after riding to look at the heat distribution on their backs and the bottom of my saddle, it’s a great way to show where the contact is and if the fit is even.

I also stretch the horses after every session and run my hands over the muscles, feeling for any tightness, soreness or just unusual flickering. I regularly test the joints range of motion and watch for any reaction to check if anything might be a bit sore.

It’s because of this that when Azid went lame this time, I had stopped training him 3 days before because I felt something wasn’t right, low and behold 3 days later he was lame. Azid has some pretty subtle tells when he’s not comfortable. usually a forward going horse, he’ll just stop and I have to ask him to walk on, where normally I can just think it. He also prefers canter to trot and wants to rush into canter rather than stick to a steady trot. Apart from that though, this time, there is no heat, no swelling, no soreness on testing.

When a horse is lame we tend to stick to a straight forward assessment to try and establish which bit has gone wrong:

• The history of training: I look back at my training logs to see if there are any clues, dips in performance or hard ground for a session or maybe I noted a slip.
• A good look at the horse at rest: Balance and weight-bearing, as well as look for any evidence of injury or stress. How they are grazing in the field, or which foot they are stepping forward with first when asked to walk or trot.
• A thorough hands-on exam: Touch everything! checking muscles, joints, bones and tendons for evidence of pain, heat or swelling.
• Using hoof testers. Applying pressure to the soles of the feet to check for undue sensitivity or pain. Plus checking for any signs of an abscess. I would also always get the farrier out to check feet, shoes and movement.
• Evaluation of the horse moving. I walk and trot up in a straight line on the soft and on concrete and also on a slope. I would then lunge on soft and hard surfaces. Turn on a tight circle both ways and watch them back up. It’s important for me to see them trot straight from the side too, so you can really get a good look at where they are landing and how they are moving.

Actually recognising the signs of injury or lameness is the hard part, particularly if its subtle or they’re not actually lame, just have altered bio-mechanics. There’s quite a cool online tool to help you get better as assessing and recognising lameness: Lameness Trainer. But if a lameness is persistent and I can’t pinpoint the cause then I’ll always get the Physio, Farrier and Vet out.

I took Tissy to the Avon Valley pleasure ride and we had a wonderful time. Pleasure rides are up to a maximum of 34km, we did 32km at Avon, and should be ridden at no more than 12kph. Which is an easy speed to stay around as long as you mix in lots of walk, trot and canter. I use a GPS watch but I also work out my maximum and minimum total ride time so that if it fails I know the amount of time the ride should take me.

So when you get to the venue the first thing I would do is go to the loo, ha! Because once the horse is out the box you can’t leave it tied up unsupervised. Then you need to head to the secretaries tent, where you will receive your number bib and some emergency tags to attach to you and your saddle.

Once I’ve got your number and have headed back to the box I prepare my post ride buckets and water so that they’re ready for when I get back, I try to work out where the shade will be at my estimated arrival back so that the water is cool and my horse can be in the shade after the ride.

Then it’s time to take the horse out and prepare them for vetting, remeber to fill out your vetting form and take it with you. For Tissy all I did was give her a quick groom, pick out her feet and give her a 5min leg stretch around the parking area. For a pleasure ride you will see the farrier first to check if your horses feet, barefoot or shod, are in adequate condition to complete the terrain. After that you head to the vet, the vet writer will take the vetting form off you and the vet will watch you do a trot up. If the horse is happy and sound then you are ready to start the ride.

From the trot up time you have 30mins to tack up and head over to the start. You’ll be given a start time and the timekeeper and off you go. You’ll have seen a map beforehand so will have a rough idea of the course and most Endurance GB rides are very well marked so just pay attention to any turn offs and make sure you have seen some markers at least every 1km or so.

You’ll be on the same course as some competitive riders and most of them will warn you when they are coming up behind and ask to pass. If you would like them to walk please say otherwise they will slowly trot past when it’s safe to do so.

There are check points out on course, they’ll be clearly marked and usually a car with some sort of antennae on it. Just make sure they have seen you, give them your bib number and say thank you, as most people you see at the ride have volunteered their time for us to have a lovely ride.

Once you get back to the venue you have 30mins to cool off your horse and go back for your final trot up. Then you can take your horse back to the box and give them, and you, a well deserved munch. You usually have to wait around 15-45mins before your results are back with the secretary. So enjoy a bit of a relax before the drive home. Then take your number back to the secretary where you will be given your vet sheet and ride results along with a rosette.

Endurance GB have group and national Pleasure ride trophies so if you are a competitive spirit you might want to have a look at how you can compete for a trophy. Take a look at the Endurance GB website for info on rules and where you can book your Pleasure ride.

As a human physio I’m well aware of all we need to do to keep strong, mobile, stable and fit. I spend a lot of my time making sure my horses are symmetrical, injury free, happy and healthy…..but I am guilty of not spending the same amount of money, time and effort on myself.

I workout 3-5 x a week, my job is active, my hobbies are active. But I’ve had a fair few injuries over the past couple of years and have I been to see anyone for an assessment or treatment…..no. So I thought it was about time to make sure the jockey was just as balanced and functional as the horses!

I went to see Kirsty at Fit2Ride for an assessment on the simulator. It flagged up several things that I’ve been struggling with on my flatwork and also a few dysfunctions I wasn’t aware of. Kirsty is quite the drive from me so time and finance mean it isn’t something I’ll be doing weekly. However, we’ve come up with a plan to visit Kirsty every 6 weeks for assessment, treatment and exercise prescription.

This wouldn’t really be enough ordinarily but seeing as it’s my job to rehab people, I can do the bits in between. I just need another set of eyes to assess and set of hands to treat me. I’m quite excited about spending a bit more time on me, getting into the nitty gritty of my biomechanics and sorting out the aftermath of all these injuries.

I used to be naturally a very balanced and strong rider but the past few years, broken bones, head injuries, tendinopathies and muscle injuries have meant I’ve lost my symmetry so I’m going to put as much effort into myself as I would my horses.

I am ordinarily a fairly positive, logical, practical human being. I have actually spent a lot of time working on my brain, sport psychology is one of my favourite subjects and I pride myself in being resilient, focused and confident.

I’ve read countless books, been to many talks and read paper after paper on what makes athletes so good. The answer is almost always, the top two inches, how they get their head in the game and not purely their physical prowess.

I really got into sports psychology in 2012. I was in the lead going into the last vet gate of a Europeans when I went the wrong way and ended up coming in the top 20, instead of racing for a medal position. I knew my horse could get a medal that year and I had let her down. I had thrown away my dreams in one silly mistake and I couldn’t forgive myself. I couldn’t sleep through a night, I’d replay it over and over in my head, I was angry and I knew I’d never get that chance again because the next year I was a senior and that was my last Young Rider Championship.

This is when I went to a Charlie Unwin talk and I started working on the mental aspect of being a horse rider. How our mindset effects every minute of the day and how to harness just the power of my thoughts to improve. Since that talk I’ve learnt so much and have a great toolbox of strategies in my head to improve my performance, maintain consistency and keep a level focused head.

But when Azid went lame just before our 80km qualifier I had reached the end of my emotional resilience. I have had, like most people, a very up and down journey with my mental health and understandably it is easier to be positive when things are going well, but I’ve always been pretty good at looking on the bright side.

After two years of rehabing Azid for different injuries I was so excited to be back on track, at the back of my mind was the niggle of ‘will he be capable after all that’ but alongside that is the hope of ‘he’s going to make it’. In my head I could see us at the start line of our first FEI competition at the Royal Windsor horse show, and could imagine us crossing the line, the best 30th birthday present I could have wished for. But without that 80km under his belt Azid isn’t eligible for FEI and we have to start his novice qualifications all over again as he’s run out of time to upgrade.

What I would like to share is that I did feel sad, I did want to give up, I felt selfish for wanting Azid to be sound for me to compete on, I felt dread and regret that I’d have to go through the process of selling another horse so I could buy one that would be capable of doing what I want to do, I felt self-pity and like I would never make it.

And that’s ok, it doesn’t last, it might be a ‘first world problem’ and ‘pretty minor on the grand scale of things’, BUT to me at that time it was a big deal, that’s where all that research and training comes in and picks my emotions up. I’m not going to give up and I will keep working until I reach my goal. It takes elite athletes hunderds if not thousands of tries before they make it big, most people never make it because they never kept trying not because they weren’t capable.

Equestrians are pretty tough both physically and mentally. We haul haylage and water buckets around, push massive wheelbarrows and throw up lorry ramps. We spend every day caring for an animal in all weathers through all seasons. Horses are an emotional roller coaster and you have to become practical, resourceful and resilient. There’s often no one around to see the good or the bad bits of training, what we share with others is usually the competition highlights. That first place may have taken months, years even, of hard work without reward. I’m going to try and get better at celebrating my training successes, but inevitably, I think those emotions will always be hooked on the thrill of competition.

Everyone’s run up to an event varies. Not only from person to person but from horse to horse. What suits one, won’t necessarily suit another. I generally have the same kind of ethos towards the two weeks running up to a competition though no matter which horse it is.

Two weeks out I do my last canter training session. Hard fast work is where injuries are most likely to occur and fitness will not significantly improve over that two week period therefore I start to taper two weeks out. Over the following week I still do some longer training sessions, between 10-20km, but at slower speeds. Now I’ll still let them canter but not for long periods of time and not at anything much over 18kph.

In the week before a competition, I will do a couple of walk hacks and then a lunge about 3 days out, this lets me see how they’re moving and make the final decision as to whether they are definitely going to the event. After that I don’t ride until ride day. If they’re stabled at an event the day before competition I’ll hand walk them but other than that they get 3-4 clear days off before competing.

In the final week they’ll have a massage and stretch almost everyday and I change my feed and electrolytes slightly, just as a human athlete would pre-load (They eat the same thing but in different quantities throughout training depending on how hard they’ve worked anyway so nothing new is added).

I’m always on the look out for new places to train. It’s quite hard to find places with good going, variation and enough distance to train an endurance horse. And even if you do find it, having a bit of a change and trying somewhere new often gives me a way better training session because the horse and I are more excited for some exploring.

So as Azid wasn’t able to do his scheduled training session I took Tissy on a little adventure to Fox Covert Equestrian. The ground was pretty hard but we did about 13km over the cross country course. There’s a straight gallop up a slight hill and a really nice 500m canter track.

It’s been ages since I’ve done any continuous canter or gallops works on Tissy because she just doesn’t need to. But it was great fun to do some more ‘serious’ training with her, she’s just so good, so consistent in her speed, so forward and fun to ride. It almost made me a bit sad that I’ll not have a horse like her again.

There are a few things I do after every training session, my routine has evolved over time and I change it based on the horse or current research. I’m always happy to hear of better ways to do things or add in new elements, but at the moment we have our routine down. I don’t really have to think about it and I’m pretty sure, Azid in particular, would start doing it by himself!

Once I’ve untacked I always offer my horses some Baileys aqua aide to drink and they have a haynet where they are tied.

Next I wash off all the sweat, and if it’s been a particularly hot one then I wash down everything, paying attention to the major muscles to help with cooling. If it’s cold I then sweat scrape the water off, if it’s warm I let evaporation do it’s thing and leave the water on. I always have some sort of wash in the water from NAF skin wash, Botanica cleansing wash, Kevin Bacons Lucy Diamonds or the NAF citronella wash. I just find it gets all the grime off that little bit better and helps soothe sensitive skin.

Next I use some sort of arnica and witch-hazel cooling gel, lot’s of companies make them and they usually come in green or blue jelly like form. Now the quantities of ‘active’ ingredients in these might not actually be therapeutic but it makes me feel better and importantly it acts as a great lubricant for massage so I can feel the back , hamstrings and tendons after training and make sure there’s no heat, lumps, bumps or soreness. I tend to either use the NAF Arnica gel or the Gold Label version.

After that I whip on my equilibrium massage pad and if it’s really cold then a cooler on top. I leave that on while they have their post-training feed of British Horse Feeds fibre beet and Baileys Ease & Excel. I feed this in addition to their normal daily quantities as I increase their feed depending on the level of work for that day. So they get a baseline feed daily and then added feed before and after training.

While they munch and have a massage I then pick out their hooves, just in case we’ve got a stone stuck during our ride. Then I brush on some Kevin Bacon hoof dressing (on non-training days they also get the liquid dressing put on in the field).

To finish off I do some stretches using my Baileys Tasty treats as bait. I tend to do two stretches each side, two between the front legs then one stretch for each leg. If they need it I also do some pelvic tilts and tummy lifts but I don’t tend to do that every time.

The switch to summer grazing always makes me happy, it signifies the changing of the clocks, the coming of sunnier days and happy ponies munching green grass. We got some great footage of the horses first setting foot on their summer field on the drone……but Dan crashed into a tree during landing and the footage was lost…..so you’ll have to take my word that they were very exuberant.

This year I’ve decided to split my allocated grazing into two long sections so that I can rotate the horses every 2-3 weeks. The grass hasn’t grown much and I’m hoping this will give us some consistent grazing. There is also something very satisfying about an equally spaced neat section of electric fencing…..or is that just me?

I took advantage of the warm weather we’ve been having to give Tissy a bath now she’s off the muddy winter field. So she is now more white than Staffordshire clay brown! I even fit her leather tack so that she can go out on some hunt fun rides this season.

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.