The Horseshoe trail ride is a 15 mile ride around the area of Foremark Reservoir in the Midlands. A really handy talk around and map can be found here. I also downloaded a gps route to use on the ordnance survey app before setting off to park at Foremark Reservoir.

It was a rather wet, windy and cold day so the car park was pretty empty. They don’t have any designated horsebox parking but I would highly recommend taking a right and parking further away from the cafe and picnic area as it’s much quieter. I’ve seen trailers just park across multiple spaces and I did the same in the lorry. I guess if it was super busy parking with a trailer might be a bit harder, however there is alternative parking for the route at Ticknall village hall. It was £3 to park for the whole day at Foremark and I think you make a donation for the village hall.

The bridleways are pretty well signed however the ‘Horseshoe route’ is not marked so I had to study my map frequently to know which way to go, but the talk around was excellent and I only got temporarily misplaced twice. The gates were all horse friendly, I didn’t have to dismount once, and although I didn’t actually count them officially, I think there were about 10 gates on the route.

There are also loads of options to make the route shorter or longer if you have a look at all the available bridleways routes but for this time I stuck with the official Horseshoe trail.

It was a super varied ride, lots of open field canters, farm tracks, pretty woodlands and minimal road, the short section of road we did go on was quiet and all the cars slowed down for us, which was nice. Plenty of brilliant views and nothing I would deem too ‘spooky’ to pass, so I would deem it quite a nice route for a youngster. Saying that Tissy often spooks at purple flowers……heathland and bluebell woods are a nightmare for us!

The Derbyshire Endurance GB group usually run a ride using most of this route in the summer months and I’ve ridden it a couple of times so I can’t quite believe this is the first time I’ve ventured here on my own, considering it’s only 30mins away. My excuses are, I was never that keen on going out and about when I had a trailer because finding parking was so difficult and secondly when I had a lorry my horse was injured most the time. I still could have taken Tissy though, but anyway, I’m super glad I ventured out even in the horrible weather, we had a great time and I’m looking forward to making it a regular visit for training next season.

P.S. Sadly it turns out my new saddle bag was not waterproof and the picnic I had planned to have was a soggy mess, Tissy enjoyed her carrots though.

With the horses in the winter fields and the clocks changing, it is now cold and dark when I see the horses around work. Despite that I love this time of year, I love getting ready for winter and I have a few things that I always like to have handy as we go into the season of mud, stuck wellies, wind, rain and pulled shoes! I have a few things I like to have handy but would love to know what everyone else likes to have in preparation for winter!

So this I guess isn’t so specific to winter but I find they’re used much more this time of year is a set of simple farrier tools. A clench so that any pesky loose nails can be tightened up , Nail cutters and nail pullers so that I can safely remove a shoe if it’s hanging off and pullers to finish the job. I would add to that some bolt cutters too, animals seem to get stuck in fences more in winter….I don’t know why but that just seems to be the case!

Next would be my clippers, my horses live out without a field shelter so they are rugged, I do still ride and train over winter so they get super sweaty. For their comfort but mainly for my convenience I clip and rug them, grooming is easier, washing down is easier, drying off is easier. Having my own pair of clippers definitely saved me money in the long run and because I don’t actually use them that often (3-6x a year) they will hopefully last a long time!

For me I like to have neoprene lined wellies, simple pull over waterproofs, woolly hats and good gloves. I love the Sealskinz gloves for general use around the yard. I keep lots of bodywarmers and coats in my car for when I get soaked and need to change layer if I still have stuff to do. I also keep batteries for my headtorch, I like to use it on the red setting mostly so I don’t blind the horses putting the haynets out.

For the horses I like to have some Protection salve, I pop this on after I’ve washed their legs and they’ve dried, up to the fetlock to help prevent any mud fever. I also like to use this leave in wash with some warm water to get any sweaty patches. It might be a fad but I’m also going to try this spray on the bits that get muddy, like the top of their neck and legs, despite being rugged, to see if it’s easier to groom the dried dirt out.

I like to have a spray tack cleaner and cloth for quick wipe downs and I confess this is something I usually only do if my tack got wet or grubby and should probably do every time. As I’ve said before I only used to properly clean my tack every few months but I am getting on a more frequent schedule, but despite that a quick spray and wipe usually keeps everything in pretty good condition.

Lastly lots of hi-viz, I never ride without hi-viz anyway no matter what time of year or hour of the day. But in winter I have to ride in the pitch black much more so it’s extra important. I use a mercury (super shiny silver material) quarter sheet, hi-viz woof wear brushing boots and then I have these bicycle lights on my breatplates, stirrups, back of the saddle and hat.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing! Whether it’s a pleasure ride or a 160km Championship I always like to sit back and have a de-brief. Pros and cons, things to work on, what we learnt, what we’ll keep doing. Now Qantas’ first competitive ride was quite the de-brief….let’s start where I think it all went a bit wrong! Three days before the competition.

Qantas is naturally stressy but not reactive, he’s wary and measured in his reactions, his brain is thoughtful but he doesn’t follow up with physical reactions, USUALLY. When we first got him he wouldn’t stand still, but when I viewed him at his own home he was perfectly chilled, being tacked up without even being tied up, so I knew this was a reaction to a new and unfamiliar environment. He is so very loving by nature and super sensitive to change. It took a few months but as he got to know us and his new home he settled into the cutest funny little character.

When he ‘spooks’ out on hacks (Compared to Azid you can hardly call them a spook) its more a little flinch, a slight jump, he stops, he looks, he thinks and then he moves on. Occasionally and particularly with weird sounds (lorry air brakes, water in a bottle, trees hitting my hat), he’ll have a more violent reaction and he takes a while to wind back down. So it appears he has a high threshold for scary things but when he reaches that threshold he really falls off a cliff and it takes a while to settle him down.

So back to three days before his first 40km Novice……the local shoot were at the bottom of his field shooting pheasant. Pheasant were flying all over the place and there was a lot of noise (Q’s worst nightmare I imagine). There isn’t anywhere else I can take them when the shoot is near the yard, so it is something he will have to get used to (Azid and Tissy don’t even blink now, although on this particular day even they were snorting and prancing). So when I bought Q in for his pre-ride massage, stretch and check up I couldn’t get near him, he was whinnying for his friends, rearing, spinning, there was just no point, so back out in the field he went, at least he was sound by all the floaty snorty trot I was witness to.

The next day he had his competition shoes put on, at first he was horrendous to shoe but the last few times he’s been good as gold, not quite the case this time. At this point I should have been thinking, he’s still wound up let’s not take him, it crossed my mind but I just thought he’ll be fine, we’ve been out and about loads.

The next morning he wasn’t so bad so we loaded up and off we went to Milton Keynes. He loaded in the dark without any hesitation (something I stupidly omitted from his training) and travelled the best he ever has. In the lorry at the venue he was happily munching and drinking away, the perfect prep for his ride. Now should I have taken him out and walked around the venue for a while before I went to the vetting, maybe, but who knows, I wanted to reduce the stimuli, take him straight to vet and get out on course rather than stress him out walking around, but maybe that was the wrong choice.

He unloaded nicely and walked towards the vetting enthusiastically but perfectly well behaved. I thought that my worries about him being stressed had been unwarranted until…THE GAZEBO!! It was a very open windy venue (great views and lots to see in every direction) again maybe not the best choice for a first competition, should I have researched the ride a bit more first, most likely, but it was my only option and I so wanted to get him out competing. I don’t think it was the flapping of the gazebo next to the vetting in the wind that got him but the sound it made. As soon as he saw/heard it that was it, he wasn’t dangerous in the vetting area, just wouldn’t stand still and was being very bolshy. Should I have put a bit in or used a control headcollar, maybe, but we’ve never had this problem in any of our other outings so should I have know, not really.

The vet was incredible, so understanding and patient, his heart rate wasn’t going to be under 64 so she let us walk back out and said that once he’d calmed down we could try again, even being vetted away from the vetting area. This is where he fell off the cliff…..we walked and walked, tried to get him to graze, distract him with food, soothe and settle him. But he was obsessed with fixating his gaze on a monument in the distance snort, rear, barge, pull, pace and spin. No matter what we did and by this time we had two headcollars, one a control headcollar, on him with a leadrope each side. Was keeping him out in the open and walking around the right call, I’m not sure.

Eventually two hours later and the lovely vet coming to check up on his progress it was clear we weren’t going to pass the initial vetting and in his current state I wasn’t even going to be able to tack up for a pleasure ride and my chances of staying on looked slim. Our arms ached and our hands had cramp so we loaded him back up, he settled in the lorry after about 5minutes. I said my thank yous to the vet team, the organisers and helpers at the venue and decided to call it a day.

I drove him to a car park about 15mins from home in the hope that we could do a fake vetting and he would have a positive experience, apart from shaking from anticipation (he wasn’t cold) he was well behaved, stood still, trotted up nicely and we all went home slightly happier.

So the positives:

• Loaded in the dark
• Loaded well at the venue even when stressed
• Travelled quietly
• Drank and ate really well when arrived
• Didn’t hurt himself or anyone else
• His stamina to freak out for two hours is pretty impressive

The things to work on:

• De-sensitise to scary things, particularly sounds
• Spend more time in busy open spaces
• Figure out if he’s better on the lorry until the last minute or we should arrive early to walk around a venue
• Try headcollars that offer more control if he loses it
• Consider calmers
• Take ques from his behaviour in the run up and know when to pull him from a competition

As you may know I lost the GoPro on my hack around Sutton Park, I had contacted the Rangers but really had no hope of it being handed in. Four days later and it turns out I’m on of the luckiest humans alive……someone had found it and handed it in to the Rangers, the same Ranger I’d already spoken to, so he knew who it belonged to straight away!

So off we went back to Sutton this time with walking boots rather than Tissy, very very happily picked up the camera and explored the park on foot. Of course we had to go hunt down the Exmoor Pony herd and say ‘Hi’, anyone else with horses still get really excited about seeing horses? No? Just me?

Then it was time to prep the winter field, the brambles and hedges had got a bit out of hand, encroaching about 2m into the field in places. So Dan got to work cutting everything back, I cleared the water trough of nettles and scooped out the stagnant water. We knocked some wooden fence posts in to support the corners and gaits of the temporary electric fencing and popped all the electric fence up, which if I do say so myself, looks very professional, it’s all in the equal striding between poles and not letting the tape twist!

The whole livery usually moves onto winter fields when the clocks go back, so not long and the arabs can come off their now very muddy summer field and enjoy some autumn grass, and then not long after that I’m sure we’ll be putting out hay feeders and the winter fields will be very muddy too. Roll on the British winter!

When you lose £300 worth of camera and spend 30km looking for it you might think you’re having a really bad day. However when you’re exploring a lovely new training ground on your favourite pony, the sun is shining and your lorry is all sparkly clean, it’s pretty hard to be really upset about anything as trivial as losing something that can be replaced.

I set off to explore Sutton Park, which is a 50minute drive from the yard after hearing really good things about it from a Photographer at my last pleasure ride. I’ve also seen the maps from previous Sport Endurance rides and thought I’d give it a go.

The parking is excellent, I went on a week day and although still busy out on the trail there was plenty of room for the lorry and for the ramp (The amount of times someone has parked under or right next to my ramp is mind boggling, maybe I should get a sign?). I downloaded a map of the Park bridleways onto my phone and off I went.

The bridleways aren’t marked so it was actually quite fun to crack out my map reading skills, Tissy as usual had her ears pricked and was a keen little pocket rocket, she genuinely loves new places. The trails were a mix of grass, gravel, packed dirt and tarmac. The only thing I would say to watch out for underfoot is there are a few sections of boggy areas, probably only 5metres long with board walk…..don’t walk on them, take the bog, they are pretty rotten. I stupidly assumed as they were on the bridleway they would be safe for horses but they weren’t. Luckily Tissy is as sure footed as a mountain goat and we weren’t injured.

Everyone I met was super polite and Tissy made many a friend who wanted to know her name and give her a pat. About 12km’s in I noticed the GoPro attached to my saddle had vanished….doh! I still had one attached to my helmet, I looked through the footage to see if I could hear when it fell off but no such luck. Cue riding up and down a 6km stretch several times……I didn’t find it.

I sighed, thought well there’s nothing I can do, contacted the Groundskeepers, who actually got back to me in under 5mins, to ask if they could keep an eye out/let me know if anything was handed in and off I went back to exploring.

I passed beautiful lakes, there were a few stretches of short hill but it was mostly undulating/flat. I came across a heard of wild Exmoor ponies……in the middle of Birmingham!!! Which was a nice surprise, one was even chilling out in the pond like a hippo.

All in all a beautiful new training ground for me to explore and get a bit of variation for the longer rides and in a very unsuspecting urban area!

I am one of those people who likes to run through everything in my head so that I find the most efficient way to do something. When it comes to doing the horses I’ve done it so many times that I have a prep the lorry autopilot, a feed the horses autopilot etc. I bet those of you who have had horses for a long time don’t have to think about putting a rug on and which order to do the straps, we just do it.

So I thought I’d share my prep the lorry and go for a ride, get back, unpack and put the horse back out autopilot flight sheet. Catchy title huh!

The Prep:

• Open lorry, add haynet
• Remove lidded buckets (that live in there) fill them up with water, put by side of ramp with the pooper scoop
• Open up tack locker, grab tack from the tackroom. Saddle, bridle, hi-viz, helmet (in that order) into the locker.
• Grab headcollar and on the way pop in the ‘in lorry pre-ride’ feed to the feed bucket that lives in the lorry.
• Walk down to the field with the wheelbarrow, leave wheelbarrow by the gate for poo picking later.
• Catch pony, groom, tail guard, boots and travel rug on.
• Load pony and depart

The Ride:

• I put the bridle on in the lorry
• Remove all travel gear
• Unload and put the saddle on and any of my gear
• Have fun riding

Return:

• Un-Tack, offer a drink and wash down
• Put travel gear back on
• Pop post-ride lorry feed in the bucket
• Load up and get back to the yard
• Unload, pop pony in stable and administer any post-ride therapies (depends what we’ve been up to, sometimes it’s just to dry off before putting a rug back on and turning out)
• Remove tack from the lorry
• Brush out horse area, wash down with a bucket of water
• Close lorry up, put the keys away
• Turn horse out

Now if you wanted to assassinate me, you could literally decide where I’d be in the exact sequence every time I go out for a ride. I don’t think about it, I just do it and it’s the same every time. We have to do this otherwise our brains would be flooded with information to process all the time but sometimes it’s interesting to step back and see if we could tweak the autopilot, if anything could be improved, added or changed.

I guess that’s what I’m trying to get at, although we do many things easily, efficiently and well it doesn’t mean it can’t be better. For me stepping back, analysing and tweaking even the small things like the lists above make a difference to overall performance. It’s the small things we do everyday that add up after all.

First of all why has no one ever told me about the magic of natural bristle brushes…..I have used synthetic brushes, probably in a pink childs set from the age of 2 until now with my grown up KBF99 blue set. Now don’t get me wrong, they last years and years and well they haven’t died yet so maybe decades and they brush really well, clean up nicely and basically get mud off my horses. But the revelation of using natural bristle swooshy brushes is next level amazing!

I got this set for my birthday and put them straight in the lorry to be my competition grooming kit….Azid went lame, COVID happened, they’ve never been used 16months later. Qantas has some skin issues and I don’t want to use the same brushes on him and the others, I don’t actually know if it’s a thing to have separate grooming kits for your horses?, maybe I should have had more sets all along. But anyway rather than buy new brushes just for him I thought why not just use my fancy pants set.

I’m a firm believer in most areas of life that you shouldn’t save stuff for best but use the stuff that makes you feel good, does a great job and makes everything feel like ‘best’. So why I tucked my brushes away in the lorry I’m not sure. Anyway here’s a link to the new brushes. I’d love to know any hints or tips from people who have used them before.

And onto the rain! So what was going to be Q’s first ever competitive ride got cancelled. I love the Red Dragon Ride, going back to my home country, riding through the hills, it’s breathtaking, it’s unpredictable, it’s an adventure and it steals your soul. But it just wasn’t meant to be. Myself and my family had all taken time off work for the competition so instead decided to go mountain biking together.

Red Dragon is renowned for it’s unpredictable and stereotypically welsh weather (rain) and the forecast didn’t disappoint, it poured down and it blew a gail. So instead of getting wet and cold crewing and riding we got wet and cold biking instead and actually I enjoyed every second!

My horses are pretty low maintenance…..or am I low maintenance and my horses are unlucky to have me? Whichever way around it is when I’m not riding after work I do very little in the way of horsey care. Granted that makes my autumn yard routine pretty boring but I wanted to put it out there that actually not everyone has complex lengthy uber fancy yard routines and it’s ok to be basic.

So obviously I have 3 horses and 1 stable, all my life my horses have lived out 24/7 and are rugged up for the worsening weather. They have all had stints of stabling due to injuries and Tissy was stabled in the run up to big races to get her used to it. This winter will be the first time I will actually have a horse in overnight.

Tissy is missing some teeth and has some TMJ arthritis which means she finds chewing hay and haylage pretty hard work over winter. The winter gone was the first time we noticed her tilting her head and really struggling with chewing, it meant she dropped quite a bit of weight and at the time I didn’t have a stable at the yard I’m at.

So I snapped a stable up when the opportunity came and thank goodness I did because I’ve had two of my horses on lengthy box rests this year but most importantly it means that Tissy will be able to come in overnight in winter to have a big bucket of speedibeet as a haylage replacement. Which we hope will be easy for her to eat and thus maintain better condition.

Anyway, seeing as the grass is still good enough not to need to supplement with haylage right now they’re all still living out in their summer fields, and will probably moving to the winter fields sometime soon. Which means all I do on a non-riding evening is grab their feeds, check them over, top up their water, poo pick and go home. What does everyone else do when they’re not riding? Am I missing out on horsey care?

I thought I’d give Westgate Labs worm count service a go. For many years I’ve followed the old school routine of Equest in the spring, Equest Pramox in the Autumn and never thought much about it other than to make sure I popped in my diary what I’d used and the date so I knew for next time.

But with worms becoming ever more resistant to the drugs available and a genuine interest in what’s lurking in my horses guts I thought I’d up my worming routine game. Now I didn’t do the Saliva Tapeworm tests, mainly because I was keeping costs down but I think I’ll do that one next time. What I did get was the pinworm and the red worm test kits from Westgate Labs.

The kit arrived really quickly, was super straight forward and easy to package up and post back. Now if they come back and don’t need worming I’ve saved myself £20 in total, as the wormers usually cost around £60, if they do need worming then I guess I’ve spent £44 more than I needed to. But money aside it will be interesting to see what the results are!

For the first time in a long time I had a weekend where all 3 of my horses came out the field to do something. Granted Azid was just a trot up for the vet, but still it’s something!

It was a pretty busy weekend, meeting new training buddies (Thanks Lucy), getting far too excited about a DIY rug rack (Thanks Will), grooming and trotting Azid up and generally bumbling around doing jobs.

Tissy had an awesome time at Prestwold. Qantas did 20mins of Pessosa and then we learnt a new lunging technique to help him with weight shift, balance and bend, we’re going to spend the winter really working on evening him up. And Azid…..well as you can see got quite exuberant about trotting up!

He’s not sound yet but he’s sound-er and actually looking pretty good generally. Things are on the up for him and as soon as he’s been field sound for 4 weeks he can start training/rehab….again. I’m hoping to send him back for a few weeks on the hydro treadmill….again. Maybe this time I’ll finally get to ride him after weeks of rehab.