Fluffy is one of the other ponies at the livery, ridden by Izzy. Tissy and Fluffy are basically adventure buddies now. With Tissy not competing but still loving going out and about and has an insatiable need for speed, Tissy and Fluffy go to all the local social and pleasure rides together. We have a good laugh, have a good gallop, enjoy the countryside and have a nice picnic at the end.

It’s quite novel for me to be riding for fun…..I know that sounds weird. But I have never had a ‘pleasure’ horse, I’ve always had competition horses, my focus has been performance, I’ve had goals and targets. Now Tissy is retired, though I’m not sure she’d want to be called a pleasure horse, I ride her just because I enjoy it and she loves it. Don’t get me wrong if I didn’t love and enjoy competing I wouldn’t do it, you can’t put that many hours into something, be that dedicated if it’s not out of passion and love. But when you’re riding to compete, to perform, it’s just slightly more stressful, everything is sharper, more perfected, more intense.

I have found great pleasure in well, pleasure riding.

With Qantas starting to do more ridden work and of course aiming to do his Novice endurance season riding out with someone else is the perfect opportunity to train him for horses passing, leading, going at the back (he HATES going at the back). So who better to accompany him on his first little adventure out with a buddy than Izzy and Fluffy! To be fair I don’t think anyone else would come with me anyway, these Arabs are just too speedy for most!

Here are the official Endurance GB Crewing rules https://egb.myclubhouse.co.uk/Cms/Spaces/RULES/02+Riding+Rules#Crews. The FEI, I am led to believe, have recently changed the maximum number of crew from 5 to 4 but please do check the current rules yourself.

This is meant as an introduction to crew car kit for beginners but you don’t have to have crew to start out in endurance. You can carry water bottles and a sponge with you and use the natural water sources as often as possible. But I would highly recommend having a crew to make your experience in endurance riding as enjoyable and safe for your horse as possible.

It’s a really good way of including the whole family, not to be sexist but, a lot of father and son combos can be seen with a map and a 4×4 driving around the countryside after the Mum. Equally I thoroughly enjoyed learning to map read and navigate when I was a kid to crew my Mum all over the UK. Crewing has opened opportunities for my brother that he would never have had otherwise.

He has learnt to map read, work as a team, lead a team, work out complex logistics, tactics, speed averages, deal with stressed athletes in high octane situations, traveld all over Europe to places you would never think of holidaying, made new friends and gained so many experiences that have helped him throughout his life, it’s on his CV and he has been asked on numerous occasions about the skills he acquired as a crew member for Team GBR during job interviews.

My hardest days of Endurance have been as crew member, the rider may be in the spotlight and the horse the shining star but it’s the crew who get them through, care for them, tutor them and support them, a good crew can get an average horse and rider through most things and are worth their weight in gold.

It’s my opinion I have been lucky enough to have one of the best crews going in the UK, but of course I would say that, their my family.

With lockdown restrictions easing I thought it was about time I took the Q-Ball out and about for a decent hack. Travelling, tacking up in new places and exploring different routes is all part of an endurance horses education, it’s not just about getting them physically fit but also mentally capable of coping with lots of stuff and new surroundings.

I try to emulate the competition routine by preparing, tacking up, washing down and treating the horses as I would at an event so that they get used to the routine and find comfort in it when they’re away from their normal environment. I know if I’m nervous going through the motions of setting up the crew space, tacking up the way I always do, just following a routine get’s me into a calmer headspace and helps me find my flow.

Qantas hasn’t been out much and he hasn’t even been to a social ride yet, he’s very much still in the education phase rather than the fitness phase of his training. I don’t know what happened as I was the other side of the lorry putting my stuff on when Q decided to take exception to being tied up and pulled the tie ring off the side of the lorry. I had the camera in my hand as he did it so you caught a glimpse of actually how chilled he was despite his escapade. I was worried he’d panic, trip on the rope, run out to the road or crash into one of the parked cars, but no he just went for the grass then casually walked back to me, such a good boy.

We’ll be doing lots of little outings like this over the next few weeks to get him better at travelling, calmer in new places and show him lots of interesting things. I may have to tack up in the lorry until I get the tie ring fixed though!

Dan has fitted into my life with the horses like he’s always been there. You wouldn’t know that he hasn’t even been near a horse his whole adult life to watch him. He went from crewing me at a 40km in Spring 2019, to crewing Kate at a European Championship at the end of summer, and he performed like a pro. I am so grateful that he takes an interest and helps me out, I know I’m lucky to have a boyfriend who’s so involved.

I bought him riding lessons at the local riding school for Christmas as he’d been riding Tissy off and on over the Autumn months, but she’s not a great teacher and a little bit short for Dan, even though he’s not too heavy for her, his legs are definitely a bit long. But with Lockdown he hasn’t been able to have his lessons so we started up on Tissy again.

I can’t believe how much he’s improved, his lower leg is so still! There’s still lots to learn and Tissy certainly takes no prisoners but for a beginner he’s doing really well, he even got an outline during the session. Maybe when Qantas and Azid are in consistent work he might get to come out for a walk on one of them as they’re much bigger than little Tissy.

Azid is looking really good coming back into work this time. It’s been a long journey, he went lame on my birthday in 2019 and due to compensating for the original injury, a nasty hoof abscess and a tough winter on some very muddy fields we’ve never quite made it back to full training so fingers crossed for this time around.

He’s starting to get that hang of lunging, I don’t like lunging youngsters, I just don’t want them doing so many small circles of young growing joints and they’re usually too unbalanced to really carry themselves around the lunge line. But now Azid is a bit more mature it will become an essential part of our training.

We’ve also been able to go back out mountain biking around Cannock chase, I’m really enjoying learning a new skill, enjoying exercise and getting the thrill of doing something right for the first time. Even though I spend a lot of time in the dirt…..bikes definitely do spook, I’m telling you!!!

I took Qantas on a really lovely hack out from the yard, he’s finally comfortable in his saddle so we did our longest hack together yet. Qantas is so well behaved and excellent in traffic. It was very busy out and about due to the England lockdown restrictions being lifted but everyone was very polite and gave us plenty of room. Qantas got many compliments on his handsome face and wonderful behaviour.

I had a bit of a hi-viz rant. I know it doesn’t stop people being idiots and speeding past too close but if I ever had an accident without hi-viz on I’d feel so guilty for not giving my horse every chance of being seen and being safe in my care.

I’ve started adding more elements of endurance competition into his everyday life and this time we tried ice boots for the first time. He was really good, many horses don’t like the wet dripping initially but he really didn’t bother. Next up is learning to slosh, let’s hope that goes just as smoothly.

With Azid coming back into work and Qantas needing to increase his muscle bulk training them together seems like a good way to get everything done. Professional yards would have an incline treadmill to pop horses on but we’ve got a big hill just outside the yard so we pop a training aid on and walk up and down a few times.

Dan took Azid and I lead Qantas. With training two its also a great opportunity to hold one back and teach them to sensibly walk after the other, leapfrogging the pair so one is always taking the lead and the other has to wait patiently until he’s allowed to follow. It means that when we’re out on course they’re less likely to want to take off with passing horses and will understand the concept of slowly catching a horse in front up rather than galloping off after them.

We’re lucky that Azid & Qantas get on so well, they always want what the other haves and are often seen grazing muzzle to muzzle. They share watch duty when one is sleeping and whicker at eachother when one comes back to the field.

Azid’s sweet itch is doing really well, he’s had no new rubs since using the Killitch (http://www.carrdaymartin.co.uk/product/killitch-sweet-itch-solution/ ) and NAF Deet products (https://www.naf-equine.eu/uk/care/naf-off-deet-power-performance). So fingers crossed it remains that way.

We’re now bathing him twice a week. Using Killitch 2-3 times a week on his itchy spots. Using Deet spray everyday and the Deet gel every other day on his affected areas. He also has two citronella tags on his fly rug. We stuck with a normal full neck fly rug rather than a special sweet itch one.

I’m considering the injections next year and maybe buying a more sweet itch specific rug but if he stays this good then I don’t think it’ll be needed.

Sloshing : In Endurance terms is when your crew hand up water to be poured over the horse whilst mounted out on course. It can be on the move or standing still at a crew point. Crew points are designated areas out on an Endurance circuit where your crew (a team of mobile grooms) can meet you to cool, feed and water the horse and rider. The crew can carry spares so if you lose a shoe or break a bit of tack they are allowed to help you when you are away from the venue but only at the designated points.

Sloshing is an important aspect of training the endurance horse because the more relaxed your horse can be about being cooled the better the recoveries will be, the less hectic your crew points will be and the more efficient you can become as a team. The way you train your horses to slosh and how you do it at competition will vary, dependent upon your personal preference, the amount of crew you have, what your horse is willing to tolerate and of course weather conditions.

It took quite a while for Tissy to be comfortable with a slosh, my crew used to have to bucket and sponge her instead at a crew point but we practiced hard because I knew I wanted to race at FEI level, and if you’re fighting for a placing, stopping on the last loop is out of the question and not being able to cool her would put us at a disadvantage.

Just remember that although this is how I like to train my horses to slosh, everyone will be different and I’m sure there are many other ways and loads of tips and tricks you can learn from other riders. So be sure to do everything safely with your goals in mind and good luck with the slosh training.

We finally got somewhere with getting the right fit for Qantas’s saddle. I’m now going to give him a week for any soreness to settle down and then get back into ridden work. It took longer than usual for me to figure out exactly the right fit for him but I feel like we’re definitely on the right track now.

I had a bit of spring clean in the stable. I use it mainly as a tack up area in the summer months as my horses live out 24/7. I haven’t had a stable for long so I was figuring out what I needed in there and how best to store it. I think I’ve now cracked it. Yay!