I have been asked a couple of times to share how I got into Endurance and my story in the Sport, so I have finally filmed the video telling the story of my endurance journey. Now turns out I can chat forever about Endurance so this has had to be split into two parts.

I got into Endurance purely by circumstance. I grew up with miles and miles of amazing hacking next door to the Welsh Team chef de equipe. My Mum was the first to give it a try and I followed in her footsteps the very next year. It has shaped so much of my life, I am the person I am today because of my Sport. My closest friends are from all around the World because I have met them at a competition and my best moments and dearest memories usually involve a horse!

I’ll let the video explain the rest, the ups and downs, the horses I’ve had the privilege of riding. Goals achieved, Dreams just out of reach and everything in between.

What does everyone’s lockdown weekends look like? Anyone else getting bored of the same hacking routes from home yet? I mean I can’t complain, for a start I can go hacking from the yard, yes they’re not great, yes it’s a lot of road but hey it’s something! Lockdown 3.0 seems loooooooooong compared to 1 and 2. I quite like the winter weather so for me it’s not so much because the sun isn’t shining it’s more because the lack of adventure is creeping up to its one year anniversary. I feel like we’re all work and no play with nothing certain to look forward to (Maybe that’s a bit melodramatic, but you know what I mean).

COVID has had its challenges for everyone, and affected us all in different ways. For someone like me, who is driven by goals, deadlines, schedules and routine, I’ve had to learn to manage the way my brain works, but I have also learnt to just enjoy the present for the sake of it, which is something I rarely did before. A good training ride was good because it got me closer to that competition goal not purely because it was fun at the time.

The other great thing to come out of this strange time is riding other peoples horses. With more time on my hands and less need to train my own horses hard I have been riding the hunters over the road from the yard and I’m a little bit in love. They are so smooth to ride, really quite speedy and it’s been great for my riding having a variation in horses to train.

The funniest thing for me is that every weekend is the same. It’s hard to distinguish one from another. I ride, bake, walk, eat, read, sleep, repeat. So here is a taste of what every weekend looks like for me at the moment.

When I finish work and get to the yard I’ll pull the bed down, sort out any haynets for the stable or field, make up the hardfeeds, ride whichever horse needs training that day and then bring Tissy in as my last job so she gets as much turnout time as possible. I wash her legs down as this is what works best for her sensitive skin and susceptibility to mud fever (I’ve tried leaving the mud on and letting it dry but it just doesn’t work as well for her) pick her feet out, switch to her stable rug and tuck her up for bed.

So really my evening routine doesn’t consist of very much. I think the hardest part is lugging my giant haynets the 200m up hill through the mud in the dark for the feeders out in the field. It’s always touch and go whether I might lose a welly, fall on my face or send a haynet catapulting through the air.

If I’m not riding, the yard jobs and checking the ponies usually take me around 30-45minutes (depending on if I’m feeling chatty or anti-social, ha!). If I have a horse to train then I’m usually there for about 2-2 1/2hrs. I do like to schedule the training so I never have two to do in one evening but if all goes well there may come a time where I have two training for FEI and I will have to start training two a day in which case I imagine I’ll try and get one done in the morning.

It’s been a few weeks since Tissy started her new winter routine, in previous years she has lived out 24/7 with grass, ad lib haylage and hard feed. But she’s 23 and starting to need a little bit of extra care. Her teeth aren’t as good and she has arthritis in her jaw so keeping weight on her is a little bit harder. Getting her fit and building muscle also takes a bit longer which is why I don’t really give her long winter breaks anymore but keep her ticking over fitness wise.

So Tissy will continue to do 2-3 training sessions a week to ensure she keeps her muscle bulk and stays nice and fit and active. These tend to be one hack, one lunge and then whatever fits into that week for the third session. It’s a balance as although I want her to stay fit and healthy I don’t want her to lose too much body fat. So I take pictures and measure her weight every week to keep an eye on how we’re doing and act accordingly.

Tissy is now stabled overnight, I started bringing her in as soon as we needed to supplement the grazing with haylage, as she finds it harder to chew these days. She comes in around 6pm after I’ve finished work and goes out around 6:30am. Basically I wake up, pop on some trackies, waterproofs over the top and hop straight in my car to the yard at 6am.

I switch her rug over to her turnout and take her straight out, then I muck out, throw up the bed, soak her fibre beet/speedi beet mix, which were using as a forage replacement, but she still has ad-lib access to haylage at all time. Then I go back home, do a 20minute workout, do about 15mins of housework and then get ready to go to work which starts at 8am in clinic.

I know that it sounds like a lot before work but if I don’t do it in the morning it’s not happening at all, plus I feel much better throughout the day knowing a couple of things are ticked off my daily list and the last thing I want to do when I get in from doing the horses around 7pm every evening is housework.

So far she’s looking really good this winter and has settled into her routine nicely, I even enjoy mucking her out every morning!

Now I’m aware snow can be quite disruptive but the child in me just loves a bit of fresh powder! I actually don’t mind it as a horse owner, it’s preferable to ice and rain and mud, and although yes, it does create a bit more work, there is just something so lovely about snow.

I love the quiet, the bright blue sky in contrast with the white scenery, the sound of crunching snow beneath my feet and how it makes everything look so beautiful. The only real change I make for the horses during snow is extra fibre in the form of fibre beet to replace the missing grazing and just make sure they have plenty of haylage.

We had a great time building a snowman with Tissy (she didn’t look as pleased as us) and Dan even gad a go on his skis outside our house!

This is one of my favourite training routes from my parents house because it really does have a bit of everything. It’s about 17km long with some big climbs, around 400m elevation.

It starts off on quiet country B-roads for the first few km’s with a steady climb from the valley floor up to the local Forestry, there are some lovely off road grass/stone track sections which pass some old stone wales and run down stone cottages.

The first forestry track is all up hill and I choose to canter or trot most of it as the middle section is mostly walk. I then turn off the forestry onto open moor land at the top of the first mountain, this bit is great to teach them where to put their feet and flex at the hocks as it’s very undulating and soft in places, this grassy track meanders through forest along the mountain ridge so even in horrendous weather it’s always sheltered.

This then opens out into more forestry which is flatish (as flat as you can get in Mid Wales) and we have a good canter along here, it then turns onto the mountain road which gives you a great view down the valley with two majestic mountains flanking you on either side.

When I deem my horses balanced enough I trot down this road but Azid isn’t ready for that yet to we slowly walked back down to the valley floor. The last section turns off down stony track, through a wood, we cross the river and then come back down the lane to my parents house. I love that it’s a loop and you don’t repeat any sections.

The whole thing took Azid and I about an hour and 45mins in total with almost an hour of walk, 12minutes of canter and the rest at trot, it’s also great gate practice as we had 11 gates to open, and I’m pleased to say he hasn’t forgotten his training and we did them all mounted without any drama, apart from the odd temper tantrum about wanting to get on with it while I struggled with the clasp!

This was the longest ride I’ve done on Azid since his most recent accident (and since the two before that actually), it was so wonderful to ride him, spend the time with him and share one of my favourite routes through his little bay ears, I particularly love the little black border and tips he has around his tiny ears, they make an extra lovely frame for some pretty spectacular views.

Having endurance tack is particularly handy during winter. If it gets covered in mud I can just dunk it in a bucket. I always say to people that aren’t endurance riders that the main reason for having our biothane tack is ease of rapid removal and the safety of never having to have that moment when you switch between bridle to headcollar, which makes vet gates faster and safer. Also that you can clean it with water during an event so you go out on every loop with clean tack. My tack is all made bespoke by Pioneer Endurance.

But I have never actually put my endurance tack up against leather tack to see the difference in time for tacking up and un-tacking so I thought I’d give it a go. Now I don’t use leather tack often so it’s probably not a fair trial as I’m not as used to the process but still it’s pretty interesting to see how much quicker endurance tack really is. I can’t imagine trying to undo buckles and thread the girth through a loop with leather tack being particularly efficient or easy on the move so I didn’t try it (Azid gets himself into enough trouble without my giving him any excuses).

I know I was extremely lucky to grow up where I did, it’s a little bit like living in ‘The Lord of Rings – The Shire’. Rolling mountains, a river to play in, waterfalls to jump off, the sea an hour away, hundreds of miles of hacking where you don’t see a soul.

So every time I go back it feels like it makes my very bones happy, I love the views, the familiar hacking routes and best of all having my horses on the doorstep so I can literally roll out of bed and look out the window to see them.

So here’s a little tour of my childhood home and one of my favourite hacking routes! (*NOTE: I went to Wales prior to the recent restrictions and current lockdown announcement*)

I’ve been umming and arring about writing and sharing this. I think it probably opens me up to much judgement and criticism. BUT, for me anyway, money is a huge part of managing my mental health and a huge part of managing life with horses. So I thought the more openely we can talk about it, maybe, the more people will be comfortable sharing and helping eachother when it comes to horses and money. Plus it feels like everyone on the internet is #gifted or #ad so I think a dose of normal may be good for us!

Now my childhood was extremely lucky, my parents had land, built stables, I had my own ponies, went to competitions and not once thought about the financial implications, well at least not until I started representing Team GBR and knew that my Mum would set up a savings account every year (kudos Mum for believing in our ability to be selected so strongly) to pay for the trip to a Championship, which is a whole different budgeting story and in all honesty I would not be able to afford myself without a good couple of years saving.

I am so grateful for the support of my family, their money, time and patience and there has been more than one occasion where I have had a Mum and Dad bail out as a ‘grown-up’. More occasions actually than I would be willing to admit and for which I am so so lucky and thankful for, but also feel a bit guilty for not being a good enough adult. As I know many people do not have that financial and emotional safety net like I do.

However I have worked quite hard to get myself the wage I earn and an embarrassing amount of that I spend on the horses. Horses, I always say, are a lifestyle choice, I don’t eat out much, don’t shop for clothes or makeup much, I get excited about the haylage order and trips to the feed store when others would go on a night out out. So I have a monthly budget and a separate bank account that I have a standing order straight into which is purely for ‘horse stuff’. I’ve done this based on one horse as I thought it would be less complicated and I am well aware you can spend much more or much less…..but this is my budget, within my means (just) and the way I have chosen to do it and I’m sharing it as an insight not a guide!

During the second lockdown I made a new hacking friend. Stuart who lives at the farm across from my livery hunts, missing the lack of fun through the countryside I invited him along for a hack. Little did I know how fast hunters are! In all my time living at the livery I’ve always ridden a bit slower, more conservatively to go hacking with anyone else, the arabs are just so fast over varied terrain in comparison. Stuart and his lovely boy Taurmore can give Tissy a run for her money, he is also substantially bigger than my horses…..so when I’m behind on 14hh Tissy I am the optimum height for being splattered in the mud flying off Taurmores back hooves……try telling Tissy to stay back another 20m though, I swear she grits her teeth, puts her ears back, closes her eyes and hopes for the best rather than be seen as too slow!

It has turned out that we are actually ideal hacking partners (when I say hacking it sounds less like training, but for me hacking is training, we concentrate on changing leads, being on the correct diagonal for corners, managing pace and terrain, getting the distance in). So after a few weeks of going out with Stuart on Tissy, returning back having received the full mud spa treatment, tack and all (you may have seen that vlog), it was now turn to take Azid.

It was the end of his trot only training phase, I wanted to get a slightly longer hack in and add about 5 minutes canter. Now Azid, back before he was injured, wasn’t well know for his good behavior so cue Stuart and Taurmore as the ‘sensible’ influence. I needn’t have worried, Azid was exemplary. Unfortunately I made quite a rookie error in the filming and turned my helmet cam off for the good bits……and on for the ‘boring’ bits, so you don’t get to witness Azid expertly opening and closing 5 gates, made all the more impressive by cantering ON THE BUCKLE through open fields before hand and calming down enough to listen, slowly and carefully to open gates.

I LOVE MY HORSE! There are some moments between all the injuries, stress, bad days, monotonous days, days you wished you could just go home after work and not trudge through cold dark fields, days where you seem to have spent every last penny on a horse that does not appreciate the fact….you get my gist…..there are moments where it is worth it and this hack was one of them, nothing overly impressive about it, 14km of road and bridleway but Azid was everything I had trained him to be, he enjoyed it and so did I. ( Also Azid is 15.2hh so we were no longer in the hunter mud flinging firing line).

And on that note MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!