I think for someone who has had horses all her life, and now is the proud owner of three, I actually don’t have that much stuff. They have a saddle each, I have one pair of riding boots for training and one pair for competitions, I have two spare bridles….the list goes on. Still it was nice to go through every single item I own at the livery yard and sort through the bits and bobs.

I LOVE a good list. So I made one with all the things I would need for if Qantas or Azid ever make it to a vet gatted ride and went through all the kit I have, ticking off as I went along. I had a little pile of things to sell at the end, popped them on the Endurance Riders UK classfields page on Facebook and within hours had sent them all off to new loving homes, where they will get some proper use.

I know some things I’ve sold in the past I wish I then had but really I think I’m good at streamlining what I really need and getting rid of the rest. I can always pick something else up later on if I really needed it. Being at a livery with limited storage space you kind of have to make sure you don’t have too much stuff. As an Endurance rider, with lots of crew gear, I already have more stuff than most.

I am pretty lucky that we have a 4km grass farm ride a 20minute box out from our livery, it’s got some awesome steep hill sections, lots of twists and turns and best of all a water feature jump, that’s also used for carriage drivers that’s big enough to use as a good area for some hydro work and cooling down their legs.

I use the track for training in a few different ways. Firstly for youngsters it’s a good first outing, all enclosed but a good practice of loading up and going somewhere new, experiencing scary jumps, other horses and water.

The I use it for training in 4 different ways:

• Interval Training: The natural layout of the course allows for sections of faster work and slower work and this is what I normally start with. Walk some bits, then trot and canter short sections.
• Speed work uphill: I canter the uphills and trot the downhills.
• Constant speed: If you focus on control and balance it is possible to do the whole 4km at a nice even pace. Using the corners to change canter leads or diagonals and trying to maintain the horses heart rate in a set zone.
• Competition riding: I don’t canter uphill at a competition (unless on the last loop and it’s for a position) but I do a lot of faster hill work in training. So occasionally I like to ride the 4km loop like I would a competitive ride, which means cantering the downhills and flat and then a steady trot on the uphills, it’s all about practising riding to effort for me, making the pace as efficient as possible.

For this outing however it was just all about letting Tissy choose the pace and having a bit of fun together. She loves to fly around this course and when in full training I would usually do anything between 4 to 6 laps. We did 3 this time and getting faster every loop, she’s an opinionated horse at the best of times and when she want’s to go she will throw quite the strop if she’s not allowed, but seeing as we’re not training for anything I thought I’d let her have her way…..which was gallop at every opportunity.

I absolutely adore this horse, I love riding her, I love how she loves to go out, I love how well we know each other and how after all these years she’s never boring. She’s the horse of a lifetime and I miss competing her so much, the feeling of being out on a last loop, the pride of 12 weeks of hard graft getting to a competition, but I didn’t think I’d love her retirement quite so much. But I do, I love riding just for fun, I love exploring new rides on the calendar just to see what they’re like, I hope that I have many more years of getting to fly on Tissy’s back to come.

It’s never a dull moment with horses is it…..from patching up a small cut on Qantas to scything all the docks in the field, to finding the right tack, there is always something to do. But to tell you the truth that’s half the fun of having horses.

I love being outside doing proper jobs, manual, satisfying jobs in the fresh air. I’m too lazy to do anything without a purpose so having to do something because the horses or the land needs it makes me super happy.

Lately I have been trawling the local tack stores for chestnut shampoo, to complete me extensive coloured horse shampoo collection and I was so excited when we found some. I feel a herd bath time coming on!

On another note do you ever watch videos back of your riding and want to yell at yourself?! I do, like in this video ‘BEND YOUR ELBOWS!!’, ‘SOFTEN YOUR PELVIS’, ‘KEEP YOUR HANDS LEVEL’. It’s actually a really useful tool I find, I quite often film myself in the school, half way through my session have a little look through so I can change anything there and then.

I’m so hoping that we’ve got Q’s tack all set up perfectly for him now, please cross your fingers! Otherwise I think I might be forking out for a new saddle, doh! I’m really tempted by the Reactor Panel ones, they look lovely, I love a panel/adjustable saddle and it’s what he was backed in without any issues. Ideally I’d buy second hand, although there doesn’t seem to be many out there at the moment but another less logical, more whimsical part of me would love a custom made one. A girl can dream.

The short answer here is any breed can do Endurance. The thing I love about the sport is that there is no wrong breed, no wrong tack, no wrong background, no wrong outfit, it is such an inclusive and diverse sport that really opens its arms wide to all sort of people and ponies. For an excellent example of this have a look at this Endurance Riders UK Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/386148148131348/permalink/3198998893512912/

Now at the top FEI level you’ll be hard pushed to find anything but an Arab. This is because they are born and bred for the job. Excellent stamina, speed, suspension and cardiovascular capacity. They have the determination, grit and fire in their souls needed for the longer distances.

However this doesn’t mean that native or other breeds don’t make it to the ultimate 160km distance, because they do. Especially with the mindset of one horse, one rider, one day, 160k, not focusing on speed or placings but the partnership of achieving that kind of feat. The natives statistically might not be as fast, might not have as quick heart rate recoveries but they can go all day at a fair pace. In my experience natives need more training, more vigorous crewing and longer to recover but boy did I learn a lot from them.

So no matter what kind of horse you have as long as they are sound and fairly fit you can give Endurance a go. Because it is one of the best ways to learn how to keep your horse fit, happy and healthy over any type of terrain, and its something all equestrian disciplines would benefit from.

When you think of beginner suitable horses I don’t think a common response would be my 160km fit arab. Despite Tissy’s need for speed and running off with Dan at full on canter a couple of times, the insistent jogging and occasional head throwing she wasn’t actually too bad.

And who can blame her for wanting to have a blast, especially as we were riding on the track we usually do our canter training on. Despite this Dan learnt a lot, she’s not a push button pony, but I know she’s safe, she will always slow for corners, she even plans for them by changing her canter lead before the corner. Dan had to be firm with his aids to get her to walk and transition down from canter and trot. She’s forward going and requires very little encouragement to pick up the pace so Dan really had to ‘ride’ her rather than be the passenger.

By the end they were doing short sections of canter and coming back down to trot and walk with ease and minimal tail swishing. Qantas as usual was very well behaved especially with walking around in the pond at the end of the session. I was also really impressed that, although he wanted to blast off after Tissy, he stayed with me and wasn’t too difficult to handle and keep back. An excellent skill in an endurance horse.

I’ll take Tissy here again soon and ride her myself, that way she can go as fast as she likes and have a bit of fun!

The Arabs temporary grazing field is all set up for the next 3 weeks while their field grows some grass. I actually find that the long grass like in this field seems to disrupt their digestion less than the shorter, greener stuff and they don’t get as fat. I wonder if there’s some science behind that, with the differences in sugar content maybe. I’ll go look up some research papers.

I have also, thanks to a fellow endurance rider posting on Facebook, discovered the wonder of grooming your sheepswool to regain it’s former poofy fluffiness glory. I am now obsessed and no wool item is safe from my re-fluffing clutches.

Azid has been ridden 3 times in the last year and has now done his 3 weeks of in hand work, I have had the opportunity to send him away to do 3 weeks of rehab at Readwood Rehabilitation Livery before I jump back on board and I couldn’t be happier, they are very knowledgeable horse people, I trust and respect their opinions so it will be great to get a second set of eyes on Azid.

I’m living in a constant roller coaster of hope with him. My vets think he’ll compete just fine, some research papers agree, some papers say he’ll never compete at all, my common sense says at best he’ll have a shorter career, at worst we’ll injure him so badly it’s irreparable, is it worth taking the risk of aiming high with him or should he live a lower level just for fun kind of life.

For now we’ll take it one step at a time and slowly increase what he’s doing, monitor him carefully and I can assure you I’ll try to make the best decisions for his welfare and not based on my dreams and aspirations of competing at FEI level again. I miss racing so much but my horses will always come before a competition.

We’re so lucky at our livery not only to have separate winter and summer turnout but also ‘relief’ turnout to give our own paddocks a break when the grass is running low. It’s such a good system and one that I thoroughly appreciate, the owner of our livery keeps numbers down, when really they could double the amount of horses and limit the grazing, like many other places do, but I love the fact that happy horses come before making money.

I love doing the little bits of work in the field, making sure the hedges are kept back, cleaning the troughs, just generally making sure whichever field I pop my horses is we’ve done our best to make it safe and comfortable. It’s always so nice watching them enjoy some fresh grass, although Qantas is getting a bit on the chubby side so we’ve altered his feed to compensate. If we ever change feed type, rates etc then we do it slowly over a number of days. I also change the amount i feed depending on the workload that day. So they have a baseline feed amount and then they have moderate and hard work feed amounts.

Dan’s riding is really coming along and it is so nice to be able to go on quiet hacks with him. I’m not sure what he’ll think of open trotting and cantering, and I’m not sure Tissy is the best pony to show him the ropes, she has two gears…..slow walk and fast everything else. Due to her size and exuberance she’s also quite a bumpy ride compared to a smoother moving larger horse. Nevertheless I can’t wait for the day we can go for a hack in the mountains of my home in Wales, canter through the forests and enjoy the ride!

Over the past few weeks Azid has started to be more himself. Messing around in the field and choosing to trot more, whereas before he would either walk or canter , it’s so lovely to have our herd joker back, he’s always playing the fool.

He’ll be going off for 3 weeks water treadmill walk next before I start riding him again. Thankfully NFU support rehab as part of his lameness insurance claim. So he’ll be packed off to boot camp.

He’s taken to lunging (although it’s only at walk) pretty well too. As part of his rehab we’ve been using the Pessoa training aid for walks out and to lunge, using the makeshift Procore trainer and doing lots of pole work, all from the ground and now I’m so excited for when I can finally ride him again.

Who know’s how far we’ll get, but for now I’m just enjoying the fact he’s moving so much better.

There’s something very satisfying about filling a bin with new feed, don’t you think? I love my feed bin, it was my 27th Birthday present (I’m so rock’n’roll). Before, I had individual metal bins that annoyingly only fit a bag and a half in, but this bad boy, it fits 3 bags in each compartment and it has 4, and it takes up less room than 4 individual bins, and can you tell I’m in love with it! Ha!

Then onto the point of choosing not to ride. This is something only two years ago I would struggle with. I plan my training in blocks of 6 weeks, each block has a core focus e.g. schooling, long work, balance work, speed work and the 6 week blocks make up the larger 3 month cycle of peaking for a competition and ultimately an end goal. Be it that season or in 5 years time. For instance my novice horse won’t have any speed blocks and if I was prepping for a Championship I wouldn’t have any schooling blocks (Although I do still school, it’s not the main focus).

This was meticulously planned out in a training diary and recorded as I went along. Failure to do a training session resulted in everything having to be re-scheduled and I felt like a failure. I hadn’t given myself any room for manoeuvre. Now though I’ve learnt from this mistake. I still have training blocks with a main focus but I only plan the actual day to day training a week ahead. If I need to move a session that’s fine, If I don’t want to do a session I ask myself 3 key questions:

1. Do I have a genuine reason for me or my horse not to do this?
2. Will I be able to give it 100%, would I do this better another day?
3. Is the environment safe to train in?

If I’m just being lazy and want to go watch tv on the sofa, I don’t let myself bunk off. If I’m ill or feel angry and distracted then those would be genuine reasons. If I think the horse hasn’t recovered from the last session as well as they should then I postpone. If windy weather means that branches may fall and I’ll spend what should be a good training session spooking then I can do better another day. I’m kinder to myself, more realistic and softer in my approach to training.

It hasn’t meant I don’t have that edge, it’s quite the opposite. I know people say the difference between failure and success is discipline, turning up, repeating to the best of your ability over and over until you get it right, suffer now, sweat and sacrifice = success etc. and it does but I now believe in training smart as well as hard.

With training sessions, social rides and pleasure rides soon to open back up for entries on the Endurance GB website we thought now would be a good time to run through what you can enter as a newbie to the sport of Endurance.

In the video we explain the three types of ride any beginner can enter and the difference between each category. We cover:

• Social Rides
• Pleasure Rides
• Graded Endurance Rides

Here is a link to the main Endurance GB website to get you started: https://egb.myclubhouse.co.uk/ and we hope to see you out on the trail. Please be sure to check the current rules, prices etc yourself.