Tissy has had a little impromptu holiday over summer due to a crack in her hoof, but now that’s all sorted it’s time to get her back in her routine before she escaped the confines of the field and goes on an adventure of her own accord.

Every time I bring a headcollar to the field Tissy thinks it’s her turn and she’s got increasingly miffed with not going out, even trying to sneak through the gate when I’m taking Estrid out, so she was quite enthusiastic when we went out on our first hack in 10 weeks.

Why she thinks that jogging sideways and stopping and rearing is appropriate at her age I’ll never know but this pony just loves to go and I’m excited to give her some adventures this autumn.

Fingers crossed we’re going to finish our season with an attempt at 80km. Estrid had 2 weeks off after her 64km and that gave us 4 weeks of training before needing to taper for the next competition. Unfortunately of those 4 weeks I have been away every single weekend, either working or seeing family so our usual training schedule has been a little disrupted.

However, Estrid didn’t seem to struggle at her 64km and we had a very decent riding speed so I figured she only needed to maintain her current fitness level. We could potentially reduce our speed if need be to allow for more miles in the tank but if Avon Valley was anything to go by, she had plenty left anyway.

Maintenance training is actually pretty different to trying to improve. You don’t need as high a frequency and you can take slightly longer rest periods between sessions. Estrid has been on a 6 week block of 2 days on 1 day off most the season with a switch of training focus every 6 weeks and one week off between blocks. So we switched it up so that she had 2 days on, one day off, 2 days on, 2 days off over August, there have been a couple of occasions where she’s had to have 3 days off or just one day of training. This has also meant that the training sessions have had a slightly higher intensity to make up for the reduction in frequency. Overall it’s been ok and I’m confident she’s more than fit enough for an 80km and it just shows that there are so many ways of achieving the same outcome.

An unexpected perk of doing 64km, that in my mind I had previously seen as a pointless distance as it didn’t get you your FEI qualifiers, is that I felt no pressure. This was purely a stepping stone for Esrtid’s education and experience. It sounds silly, as surely this is the mindset I should have had all along right? Get experience and have fun? But I have been so goal orientated, so performance and results focused that I had forgotten to just do it for the sake of it, for enjoyment and experience and the memories.

So there I was enjoying camping with my pony, ready to see what the day would bring but with no expectations, actually just enjoying myself. Yet Estrid gave me the feeling as if I had just won a race or qualified for a Championship, she was incredible all day and I couldn’t be more proud of her.

We started off very well, first she was still in her corral when I woke up. Second she had eaten and drunk. Third, we got our lowest starting heart rate ever of 40bpm. We rode the majority of the ride by ourselves, both loops around the 16kph mark. A little faster than I had planned but I was going off how Estrid felt and the speed she was happy at.

Our presentation into the vet gate was around the 8minute mark but I was pretty happy with that as it was the first time she’d ever been in a vet gate hold area and there was a lot going on. She hasn’t quite got used to lots of water being poured on so it is a bit of a waiting game rather than rapid cooling game at the moment, but we’re working on it.

In the vet gate she ate and drank, stayed pretty relaxed and was generally oblivious of the horses being crewed around her. She seems to be much better in a busier environment than back at the trailer by herself.

She went out on the next loop ears pricked, after getting past the banners she didn’t like the look of, and off she went like she was fresh as a daisy another loop at 16kph. We did our first trotting sloshes, she started drinking on course. We even passed lots of ponies and she did it without hesitation and without stopping dead in front of them (her past favourite party trick). She just kept on giving and she didn’t even seem tired.

We came back to the venue for our final vetting between two big groups of horses and I wasn’t sure if this would overstimulate her and we’d struggle to get her heart rate down but she seemed happier than ever. We even got our lowest finishing heart rate of 48bpm.

She was exceptionally behaved, a joy to ride, lovely to crew and she made us all so proud of her. She even won her class! Thanks must go to Dan, Mum & Dad for crewing. A big thank you to the Avon Valley team for putting on a great event and to the Sponsors Zilco for my lovely goody bag. I think I will cherish the memory of that 64km ride forever as I don’t think it gets more feel good than that.

Of course we have things to work on, we have learnt new things about Estrid and we’ll have new challenges ahead, but for now I will bask in the glow of a sweet success.

The Avon Valley ride is just over an hour from me so there wasn’t really any logistical need for me to travel the night before, however, Estrid hasn’t done any stay away competitions yet and I’m aware that as we up the distance we’ll also have to stay at venues. So I wanted her to start getting some practice in.

She is an anxious horse that loves the company of others, whenever we’ve been away she’s had Tissy as her comfort blanket. I wanted her to be corralled so that she could see lots of other horses but I also didn’t want her to get attached to any one in particular. So I positioned us so that half the corral was obscured by vehicles and the other she could see about 6 other horses.

I fully expected her to pace all night, be too on edge to eat or drink and generally be quite stressy. Well, she made me eat my words. She had moments of pacing and much to my embarrassment at 5am whinnied at anything that moved. But she ate, she drank and she stayed in her corral.

I love staying away with my horses, I think it really builds your bond and I’d forgotten how lovely it is to go to sleep and wake up with them nearby. I think it really improved Estrid’s trust and dependence on us too, she wanted to be in our company and she wanted our attention. Furthermore, our attention actually comforted her and she would relax without other horses around, which is a huge step for her.

Now I fell off the flatwork bandwagon in March when Estrid and I roly-poly’d our way to injury whilst schooling. I had been working hard over winter and even enjoying it, but sub-consciously I think I was associating schooling with increased injury risk so I wasn’t doing it. In my head straight lines were safer and I was justifying not doing it by saying I needed to do fittening work and focus on ‘endurance training’.

We all know I was wrong, being balanced and responsive, able to maintain a rhythm, maintain impulsion from behind in a nice self-carriage is essential to an endurance horse. You can do those things without going in a school, but for me, being in an arena focuses my mind on the task at hand. So I scheduled our weekly flatwork session back into the planner.

Our main focus at the moment is getting length through the back and neck and being able to maintain a relaxed and lengthened posture through the transitions. We’re getting there, it’s not perfect but it’s definitely improved. We’re a bit on the forehand, we sometimes lack impulsion, we lose a bit of direction every now and again (it’s like I can only focus on maintaining one thing at a time, the stretch or the steering) but overall I am starting to get a relaxed horse and rider. Dare I say, I’m even looking forward to putting the focus back on flatwork this winter!

As we edge closer to Estrid’s first 64km I thought I’d share her last training sessions. The two weeks before a competition is all about tapering for me. Sessions are purely educational and/or time in the saddle as the fitness and strength should already be there and it’s essential that there’s time for recovery before competition.

I’m really looking forward to upping her distance as she’s not physically been tired yet. I still feel a little daunted about managing her anxiety in the vet gate but our last one went surprisingly well and I should take comfort in that.

I’m not taking getting to the start line for granted either. Every morning as she trots to me for breakfast I breath a sigh of relief that all her limbs are intact! I appreciate my transport getting from A to B and that my body hasn’t fallen apart yet!

Estrid enjoyed our nice quiet, slow last 16km training ride. As usual she’s wonderful to ride if you ignore the random spooks at irrelevant objects, which you can forgive as she’s so good with actual scary things.

It’s that time of year when the Swallows are starting to spend less time in their nests so less time pooping over everything and I can finally give my stable a bit of a spruce up! They are still popping in and out so there will be further poop clean ups to do but I thought it best to take advantage of the warm weather while we have it and pressure wash the winter/spring dust away before it’s too late!

To add to my sort out excitement the yard has also re-instated the feed room, which has been a pony stable for the last couple of years but said pony now has a big grown up stable and we can move the feed bins from the barn back into the feed room. I’m extra lucky here as I now have my stable in between the feed room and tack room for super easy access to everything!

It has made me unbelievably happy to find this gem of a place! It’s got long grassy canters, gentle uphills, tiwsts and turns, tracks through wood and little log jumps to give a go (or avoid if you want). The whole course is about 8km long and it only costs £12 to park and ride for 3 hours. To me it is the perfect endurance training loop.

You can book through this link: Tong Parm Farm – Park & Ride

I made the hour journey from our yard with Estrid and she loved it! We did 3 laps, mostly walk but 11.7km of trot and 6.3km of canter thrown in too. I would love to get a group of endurance riders together to train there as Estrid definitely needs the practice of riding in a group and it’s the perfect set up for vet gate practice.

Estrid’s canter is starting to settle down now it’s not so much of a novelty and we’re now at a 20kph average speed which is much more acceptable than the 26kph from our gallops trip. Eventually I’d like to have a few gears in every gait that I can ask for and she’ll stick to but for now we’re just working on relaxing.

I can honestly say I’ve never been more wet before even starting a ride. The Wirral has been on my wishlist of rides to try for a while so when it opened for entries I had alarms set and was poised ready to click enter as it fills up so quick. Luckily Tissy and I bagged a space and so did Izzy and Fluffy!

It’s a bit further than I’d usually travel for a pleasure ride but I’m trying to make the most of my time with Tissy and she’s worth the extra miles. I’ve been thinking more than ever about her future and when would be the right time to implement an end of life plan, there have been a few factors playing on my mind so it makes me appreciate our little outings all the more.

The ride looks like it would ordinarily have fabulous going along the purpose made horse path to the beach, unfortunately the weather gods made the ground very wet and boggy, not a problem for us as we could take our time until heading onto the beach for a nice canter. Tissy was keen as ever and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride despite the rain. Thank you to all the ride officials and helpers who braved the weather to give us a good day out!

I absolutely love summer yard jobs, they may be never ending but there’s something so nice about bimbling around getting jobs done. Summer always feels slower to me than winter. In winter I want to be efficient and done to get out the cold and dark but in summer I like to take it slow and spend as much time outside as possible.

Having horses is 80% jobs and 20% riding so I really appreciate it when that time is warm, dry and sunny! I think I’ve reached a new level of adult horse ownership with how excited I was to buy my new strimmer and the dry weather meant it was the perfect time to take it for it’s first outing of tackling the dreaded docks!

As well as getting lots of jobs done. Estrid saw the farrier, Physio and Saddler to make sure everything is good before we start increasing her training. I’m holding out for Reactor Panel to launch their new panel system before I buy a new saddle as I want the stirrup bars slightly further back for longer distances, so fingers crossed for next year.

Amongst all the tasks I did also get out to a new location for us, a straight gallops only 20mins away, for Estrid to start introducing a bit more canter into her training. She doesn’t need to do specific canter work until next year but I’m keen to add more into our normal training. She much prefers to canter and I’ve been trying to keep her mainly in trot until now so she was definitely a little over exuberant when I said yes you can go, so we’ll need to work on a nice steady easy canter but I’m sure that’ll come when the excitement wears off.