So it’s been 3 months and 2 weeks since my riders Birthday when I gave her the best present of watching a vet stitch me up whilst blood spurted everywhere…..she loves anatomy and has always said ‘I wish I could just see inside you to figure out what’s going on’ so who was I to deny her her wishes, especially on her Birthday!

After spending a long time in a big bandage, a longer time in a small bandage, a long time in a stable and a longer time in a tiny paddock I was relieved to hear I was healed and sound enough to go back in the big field. It was quite the self sacrifice letting my rider look at my anatomy and in hindsight she didn’t seem all that pleased so I have learnt that humans don’t always want what they wish for!

Over the months I’ve been trotted up and down and around around again in all directions on soft ground, hard ground, medium soft, moderate hard, wet ground, dry ground, big circles, smaller circles……I tell you they have been OSESSED! But I have been getting lots of hugs afterwards so I’ve upped my circle game and I now go round on the right rein without stopping and twirling around, which has pleased everyone, especially the vet that usually runs beside me while the other vet watches me, I’m not sure why he’s so pleased, I quite liked playing a bit of catch, dodge, chase with him.

Anyway onto the last 6 weeks, it’s happened, the day is finally here, I am the King, the conqueror, the supreme master…I got tacked up again!! Woop woop. I’ve been trying to get my nose in any headcollar when my human comes to the field for quite some time now but she just keeps telling me if I wasn’t such a fool I wouldn’t have to stay behind, quite ungrateful really as I did it all for her.

I have done the dullest 4 weeks of just walking, walking with two really long reins behind me, walking in circles with one long rein beside me, walking with a short rein up and down a big hill, you name it, I’ve walked it! In circles, straight lines, bending poles, over poles….I’m surprised she didn’t make me go under poles! Everytime I’d get tacked up I would hope this is the day she’ll get on and we’ll feel the wind in our manes and go for a gallop but no.

After 4 weeks of the dullest walking around ever I finally got a saddle back on and my human finally jumped on board, it turns out I’ve got a new saddle, actually an old saddle because that upstart Qantas has stolen my brand new lovely blue saddle that was bought especially for me. The saddle is comfy though and although not blue it will do for now, but I will be having words!

I shouldn’t have bothered getting excited, ANOTHER two weeks of the dullest walking but now with a human on board instead of attached by various lengths of rope. At least now I get to go out on adventures, I’ve been out with three different ponies from the yard, through fields and along roads, I remember roads being quite scary because these monsters with lights and wheels and big roars go past so fast but I’m over that now, I’ve been through a lot and I’m mature and sensible and brave and strong……apart from the pheasants, they come out of nowhere right under your nose, screaming and flapping and you just can’t be too sure it’s not something that might eat us, I’m saving us from an unknown harm, I have to rear and strike out to protect my human, she’s pretty ungrateful for my chivalry too….’Azid you dim-witted arab, a pheasant  won’t kill you’ is about as much thanks as I get. But I have seen the humans in their tweed outfits with their doggie friends shooting these birds, herding them into the sky to rid the world of them so they must be pretty dangerous for humans to need guns to be around them. I’m going to carry on protecting us.

After an excruciating 6 whole weeks of walking I finally got to trot, wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped it would be….so I got straight to the cantering, tucked my nose into my chest to avoid the bit and had a good hooley around the school. My human told me that if I continued to behave in such an irresponsible manner I’d be back at square one, not sure where that is but by the tone of her voice it didn’t sound great, I haven’t cantered a stride since. Trotting consisted very much of similar drills to walking…….I’ve trotted up hills, around in circles, over poles (again not under but I’m waiting for it), done these things called serpentines, which quite frankly is just a fancy name for squeezing in as many turns as you can before you hit the other end. I’ve trotted fast, slow, with my nose in the air (my favourite) with my nose ‘in a lovely carriage’ according to one of the other humans I see around and with my nose sniffing the floor, my human thinks I’m stretching…..I’m just getting the reins back so I can regain control of the pace, ha!

Anyway I’ve got 4 weeks of trot and then we get to actually canter for real! I can’t wait! Apparently there are no plans after that because and I quote ‘You are a doughnut and there’s no point making plans with you as you’ll throw yourself in a ditch or something equally ridiculous’…….I’ll show her, 2021 is going to be my year to shine, I will be back out competing and everyone will love me again.

As with many areas, endurance riders like to be a little alternative with their clipping style. Instead of the traditional english clip ‘templates’ you see in other disciplines endurance horses have taken a more functional route to their haircuts! It would be interesting to know what everyone’s favourite clip is and the top tips you have to get the perfect clip.

I think I first saw the clip I now prefer for my horses in winter on Georgina Hirst’s (a GBR FEI Endurance rider and Vet) horse at an early ride in the British season called Haywood oaks. The concept is simple, keep the big muscles warm, get rid of the rest. We see much more variation in clips in the UK from Winter to Summer. In the winter it’s all about minimising sweat but not getting too chilly, in summer it’s all about keeping as cool as possible and getting those big blood vessels free of fluff for optimum cooling down.

My top tips for clipping (although I’m by no way a professional or even a skilled amature) would be:

• Practice first! Clippers are loud, they feel funny and it takes a while to do a whole clip. So in the weeks running up to when I want to clip my horses I like to switch the clippers on so they get used to the sound and just make sure they’re totally comfortable with the sensation before I go and chop any hair off.
• Make sure the horse is super clean. A clean pony makes clipping so much easier, the blades just glide through. I also like to use some conditioning spray and groom it in just before I start.
• Oil the clippers ALL.THE.TIME. Literally every few minutes, it keeps them cooler and it keeps the blades cutting smoothly.
• Wear slippy clothes that hair won’t stick to and cover as much of your body as possible. I even go one geeky step further and wear goggles.
• Don’t moisturise your face or apply lip balm before clipping….. you will regret it!
• I like to make my edge outline first and then clip off the hair in the middle so that I don’t accidentally take too much off or go the wrong way.
• If I get clip lines then going over the line again or going across the line makes them disappear or at least they’re less obvious.
• Make sure the clip is level from the bum and from the front view but don’t stress too much about the sides, no one can see both sides at the same time. But a wonky clip from the back or front can sometimes make a horse look uneven.
• Hot cloth your horse after so get all the little hairs off and soothe their skin, it also makes the clipped hair really shine.

When I agreed to go riding with a hunter I didn’t realise that we’d get quite so splattered in mud. Despite that, hunters are super fit this time of year, pretty speedy and can cover loads of terrain so actually make a great training partner for an Endurance horse. The only problem is Tissy is the ideal height to be in the firing line of their spray when cantering along!! Thank goodness I can just hose most my tack down!

This weekend also consisted of a few running repairs, I went into the tackroom one evening after work to find the shelf and all its contents had fallen down on my saddles……luckily I put a towel over them to keep them from getting dusty and another towel between the saddle and the girth so they were well padded and fortunately undamaged. We have very little storage space in the tack room so I took this opportunity to offer the yard owner our DIY skills to not only repair the broken shelf but also put some additional ones in above all the saddles to make some extra space for everyone.

Lastly it was time to switch over a bit of the winter grazing to give the ponies some new grass, hopefully this section will last them until December after which it will be time to crack the haylage out and commence lugging big haynets up into the field, lose my wellies in the mud and fumble around tying them in the dark with cold hands, haha!

When Esme announced that she was doing the Challenge Esme series I knew I had to contact her and ask her to try out endurance. It’s a little known sport in the UK but much bigger in Europe, the Middle East, America and Australia. I knew that if Esme gave it a go, Endurance would reach a wider audience and hopefully would inspire some viewers to give it a go too.

I offered her the ride on Tissy, my 14hh 22year old arabian mare, who has represented Team GBR 5 times. The original plan was that Esme would come for a training weekend and then a week later we would do a Novice 40km competition. However due to COVID the competition was cancelled but we took the decision to go ahead with the training anyway, if Esme enjoyed then we could get together for a part two and go to a real competition next year.

On the day we went through the endurance vettings, as endurance horses are vetted before they’re allowed to start and at the end, the longer rides also have pit stops at them where the horses are seen by the vets and allowed to continue or are eliminated if they don’t reach the required parameters.

We then went through the tack as it’s definitely a bit different from traditional leather tack. All of my tack is from Pioneer Endurance, where you get to pick any colour combination and it’s made to measure for your horse.

After that it was time to rock and roll. We had a 20km training ride planned, 8km’s of warm up and 12 km’s of intervals, with walk, trot and canter. We always do our canter intervals faster than we would at a competition to try and increase their fitness levels. If we’d been doing continuous canter work it would have been a much slower pace. It’s all about mixing up the training so that you increase their cardiovascular fitness and improve their muscle strength and stamina.

Unfortunately as Qantas is still only learning he did get a bit over excited about the intervals and on a few occasions went faster than I would have liked, we lost our breaks a little bit and he did throw in a few spooks. But all in all he did a good job of keeping up with Tissy and his heart rate was in the 40’s within minutes of getting back to the lorry.

By the grin on Esme’s face I reckon she might have enjoyed riding Tissy so hopefully a 40km Novice competition will be on the cards for 2021.

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.