Avon Valley Endurance ride was one of the most cheerful, lovely atmospheres I think I’ve ever felt at a venue. Literally, every single volunteer was so helpful and smiley. The vets were accommodating and chatty and everything just had a really nice vibe. So great work from the Avon Valley team as I feel there’s always a bit of frantic paddling beneath the surface to pull these things off but above water all felt calm, smooth and welcoming.

At the start of the season I had planned to try and get the required 3 40km Novice rides to upgrade to Open done before June, in previous years this is when we’ve had super hard ground and I hoped that I could beat the weather and get our goals done early, but I also had an option every month up until September if for any/many reasons we didn’t complete/get to a ride. We were a little behind due to not getting to our first scheduled ride but we are now mission complete on upgrading Estrid to open.

She finished her 3rd 40km at 13.1kph in fairly muggy, hot weather, and although the ground was quite hard in places, there was enough grass coverage and loose dirt to make the going at Avon Valley pretty good. She’s been placed top 3 in the Performance Formula for every event too! So although her heart rates are high, her natural speed makes up for it.

I was very impressed with her. Throughout the year she has been excellent on course, super up for it and forward going but we’ve struggled to stay calm at the venue. At the end of her first ride we couldn’t wash her down because she just freaked out about it so we just waited before vetting but this time not only did she have a full wash down with a sponge, she also tolerated an endurance style cool down with buckets poured over her. Not only that but she had slosh bottles out on course too! A huge step in the right direction.

She also didn’t shake at the final vetting at all. She was still pretty wired, but she stood stock still for her heart rates and did a lovely trot up. Our first trot up of the season was across 2 lanes as she made a beeline for another horse but this time it was straight and quite enthusiastic….we definitely looked like we might run over the vet at one point.

Estrid even chilled out enough at the venue to stand still and have a little snooze, even with lots of horses and vehicles coming past. She wasn’t tired, she pulled me all the way back to the field once we got home and hooned around with Tissy so she was genuinely just chilling, which was lovely to see.

She’s been under saddle a year now with light but consistent work so she’s going to have some time off to let her brain process, mooch around being a horse and let everything rest before re-assessing what to do with the remainder of the season. Depending on the ground, weather, my finances, etc. I will either just continue to take her to social and pleasure rides, and as many new venues and experiences as possible or I will aim for a two-day 80km at the end of the year.

I don’t remember the last time both my horses achieved their goals for the season but it is a great feeling to have them ticked off, with so much time to spare too!

After the many pros and cons lists of tow vehicles, a van reigned supreme. Not only was the tow capacity fairly decent but also the mpg was comparable to a car, the storage space huge and the ability to customise endless and it would make a very versatile vehicle for all our other hobbies rather than be solely for the horses, I could fit as many mountain bikes and surf boards in it as I want.

So after finding a van, which was a fairly stressful process due to them flying out of dealers between me calling and being able to visit and then some logistical difficulties we finally had a Ford Transit custom 2014 plate. Dan literally fit a tow bar on our drive that evening and I was out towing the trailer the next day.

I have towed with various vehicles over the years, Mitsubishi shogun, Land Rover discovery, Nissan Patrol, etc. and I must say a van is so stable that the towing experience is the nicest I’ve ever had.

Once a tow bar was on we needed a few other upgrades, firstly decent tyres that would be able to cope with going into fields and distant crew points, some side bars to stop any rouge rocks or verges banging the underside and a roof rack for extra adventure storage capacity. Wind deflectors so I could leave the windows slightly open to let out the horsey sweat smell and waterproof seats for those soggy crew days!

Another advantage to buying a van was that if we did the foundations of converting it into a camper it should hold its worth fairly well. So we set out to clean it up, sound proof, insulate and carpet the inside, as well as running cabling for future electrics.

Then the fun part could start of designing the inside. It is still a work in progress but we built two sets of shelves, we’ve only installed one at the moment to see if we prefer having the open space or if we want the second shelving. Alongside a bench seat with storage and a slot for the mountain bikes to secure into. My favourite part is having hooks for my coats and never needing to worry about how many feed bags I can take in one go!

I get teary every time I try to write this, think about it, watch videos back or see photos of the day. Happy tears, tears of pure appreciation for the horse that Tissy is, grateful for the life experiences she has given me, tears of gratitude for the people in my life and what they do for me, just pure emotion leaks out my face!

What an event! It really does live up to the hype. There were hundreds of spectators cheering everyone on and the atmosphere and community were exceptional. Firstly let me say thank you to the organisers, sponsors, volunteers and everyone who makes this event happen.

So let’s start at the beginning shall we, Kate and I were taking this event as seriously as we would a championship 160km. We planned to ride as a team and then after the first vet gate re-assess to see if Kate would push on to win or if Tissy was still up for it and we’d carry on together. I planned not to dictate anything to Tissy, just let her set her pace and go with the flow, she was in full race mode and just wanted to fly so I let her do what she does best.

The pace car was a little slower than we are used to traveling so there were moments where I thought we might end up in the boot but we’d placed ourselves up front to avoid as much chance of being kicked or caught up in any drama amidst the big group of riders. Tissy did spook a little at the chip timers across the floor, but otherwise we had a great start, nice and controlled, out of the fray and easy on up the first hill.

Tissy and Nessie went so well together, sharing the leads and Kate and I kept eachother in the right headspace to make good decisions, letting people charge on past uphills, going faster on the downhills, slowing down when we were exposed to the sun and speeding up when we were under the cover of shade, all to preserve our horses energy and keep a nice even effort throughout the course. This is where our past endurance experience really helped us out, as we knew that it’s not all about going as fast as you can but about how you cover the terrain. We did the first 18km in 15.7kph, taking it easy down the hill into the vet gate.

The heat played a huge part in our day and I have never seen Tissy’s respiratory rate take so long to come down. I think we lay around 4/5th place coming into the vet gate. We presented in around 6 minutes and 18 seconds. Usually, I present to vet with a heart rate 5 beats higher than required as it normally drops but alas it was 63 so we were turned away and waited until it was 58bpm before we presented again and the same happened to Kate, and most the other riders I think. Whilst I tacked up Tissy was given sugar beet water, electrolytes and feed and we were back out together with Kate and Nessie now in the lead with the next rider 5 minutes behind us.

We were confident that we could maintain the same strategy and speed as our first half, and as it was already much hotter we decided that we wouldn’t push on for speed but keep consistent, we did the second half at 15.6kph (A consistency of speed I’m very proud of). We met so many lovely runners, I am in awe of their human capacity and grit to complete this course. It’s the second toughest course I’ve ever ridden in terms of technicality and elevation, and the runners still had a smile and a cheer as we came past.

Nessie & Tissy were cruising, Kate and I were loving it and it was an amazing feeling to have Tissy so effortlessly cover the course. About 4 miles out from the finish Nessie lost a shoe, for the second time, the first she’d had put back on in the vet gate. She wanted to stop to vet wrap the foot to get back to the finish and as she did she told me to go ahead, we knew we had another rider just 5 minutes behind us, but that’s just not good sportsmanship, if I had left Nessie would never have stood still for Kate to wrap his foot, she’d have struggled to hold on, maybe even struggled to get back on again and would leave a horse with a sore foot. We had covered most of this course together and I wasn’t leaving now. So we stopped, Kate wrapped Nessie’s hoof, got back on and we headed off onto the next hill together.

Kate then spent the next 4 miles saying sorry but I would not have had it any other way. The rider in 3rd caught us up about 1.5 miles from the finish but was making no attempt to pass so we carried on at the same pace. All throughout the race we communicated which side we were overtaking eachother on, which line we were taking for a corner, what speed was right for both of us, so as we approached the bend to the finish I yelled to Kate that I’d be on her inside, Nessie is the quicker horse in a racing finish and as Tissy has never done one I wasn’t convinced she’d care enough to go for it and not let another horse pass her, she’s normally indifferent to other horses, preferring to do her own thing, so as Kate stretched her arm out to hold my hand over the line I yelled ‘just go’ so that hopefully we wouldn’t let our first and second places slip away (I love the photos of this moment, Kate’s arm outstretched towards me even though the finish line is meters in front of her with another horse hot on our heels, that’s friendship and camaraderie right there). Nessie and Kate didn’t disappoint and actually neither did Tissy, racing ahead to take first and second horses with 3rd mere strides behind us.

There is no denying that the horses were hot, it took 10 minutes for Tissy’s heart rate to get under 50bpm and another 10mins before she was happily munching grass and mooching around, at which point we decided to go to vet. Always the most nerve-wracking moment when the race is behind you and the adrenalines been high. I was confident as Tissy’s heart rate was 42bpm before we went in and I knew she wasn’t lame but you just never know. Thankfully all top 3 horses passed the vetting and we kept our placings, which were incidentally also the placings we were in leaving the vet gate, it just goes to show the importance of crew and vet gate strategy for races like these. It’s where I think we lost it to the runners too as two had crossed the finish line before us, the winner being 10 minutes ahead putting us in 3rd and 4th overall. We just weren’t fast enough through the vet check to catch them up!

It was so lovely to meet Dan, the winning runner and overall winner of the day. His humility, genuine interest in our horses and all round friendliness was so heartwarming. What an incredible athlete! You should have seen the size of his quads! We had so many well-wishers come to see Tissy and take pictures that I felt swept up and barely able to take it all in. Riding it with Kate and Nessie made it all the more fun and I wouldn’t change a single element of our day. It is a memory I will treasure forever, Tissy even got an award for being the oldest horse to complete the course!

I have had to train Tissy very differently for this race than any other we have ever entered. For a start it’s a sprint not an endurance event, at just under 36km. Secondly, Tissy is 25, so she takes longer to recover from training sessions and fuelling her is more difficult. She doesn’t keep weight on easily anymore and it’s a balance between training, nutrition and keeping her healthy.

I have been training her to what I deemed top 10 standard according to the past stats I had collated, which was quite a wide spread of 12-15kph average speed across the course, add in that the clock is still ticking for the vet gate, which meant that I predicted that to be a podium finisher you’d have to ride at 15-18kph depending on conditions. The course is hilly and technical, but terrain I’d grown up with so I knew exactly what to expect and what strategy to use for this type of route. Couple all this with the fact I have a formula one pit team for crew and we know Tissy inside out after 21 years together, I felt that my preparation and decision making on the day would be sound.

But saying all this I was also going into the race knowing that I wasn’t going to ask anything of Tissy, if she wanted to trot the whole thing or walk the whole thing then I would let her, I may have trained her to be a contender but ultimately it would be up to her on the day. If she felt like going for it great, if she felt like having a pootle great. I could have come first or 60th and I would have felt the same, proud of everything Tissy has achieved and happy to take her home healthy and safe. I was going to compete but I wasn’t set on winning.

I knew that she would be fast by most people’s standards, she is just a natural athlete, but I didn’t know that her drive and love of the race was still as fierce as it was. But more on that in the next blog.

Training has consisted of 3x sessions a week. One longer, hillier, more technical ride of around 20km, one fast hilly 10km interval session and one lunge session in the pessoa building her topline and getting that bum underneath her. I must say a big thank you to Jocelyn and Squidge who we trained with over Cannock chase for our longer sessions, and who was a fount of Man V Horse knowledge for me to learn from. In total Tissy was training for 12 weeks, a total of 33 training sessions, we did a 32km pleasure ride at 12kph three weeks out then gave her the week before the race completely off other than hand walking and mooching around the field 24/7. The tapering, nutrition and recovery pre-race is so important and often overlooked.

Logistically I found the concept of Man V Horse difficult as it was such a different lay out and set up to what us Endurance riders are used to but also so similar. The trailer park was a mile from the vetting and tack up area, the vet gate was out on course with no access to water, the finish was a different venue to the start and car park and the crews would have to carry all the kit between all these places. The vet gate has no stop clock so the ride time is still ticking and you don’t have a hold time so it’s just straight back out on course when you’re ready. It kind of all plays into the fun of it all though, working out the best logistics and strategy.

I divided my crew kit into 3 sections, start, middle and finish so that they had a fresh set for every stage and didn’t need to worry about re-filling or conserving anything. We discussed our plan the night before and everyone had their own jobs. I like everyone to say out loud what they are doing and if it is complete (just like you would in an emergency situation if you are medically trained). So I would say saddle off and Dad would know I was ready for him to take it and repeat ‘saddle off’ back so that everyone knows he has heard, understood and carried out the action, while Mum is saying ‘boots off’ so we all know that it’s being done, etc. This may sound super anal, but it works and it makes for a super sleek and efficient crew. I also think it’s nicer for the horse if people are just doing their jobs around them rather than flapping and getting in each other’s way.

We were as prepared as we could be, ready to take on the challenge in whatever way Tissy felt happy to do. All we needed to do was get there and start.

I’ve been to Field Farm equestrian once before, last year. So I was super excited to see what Estrid thought of the beach (Tissy has been plenty of times before). This was Estrid’s first ever ‘stay away’ since I bought her and she was pretty nervous. Shaking like a leaf, dripping with sweat, eyes out on stalks and absolutely wired. She did settle over the next 3 days but stayed pretty on edge, what I Iove about Estrid is that no matter how stressed she is, she tries so hard to keep it all together and do what you ask of her.

We went straight to the beach with 4 other horses, including Tissy, for our first ride and it blew her brain. She was prancing, rocking, jogging, going sideways before we even started cantering. Being in a big open space with a group once they started going faster was just not safe for her, I didn’t want her going flat out fast and I wanted to be able to steer and pull up if needed so I asked the others to slow down and decided that we wouldn’t go out in the group again, for Estrid but also so that everyone else could go for a blast without being held back by the baby of the group.

The next day we went to the beach with just Tissy and it was an amazing magical morning. I loved being able to watch Tissy enjoy herself and Estrid was so brave with the water. It was really one of those moments you cherish forever.

Next up was Estrid’s first ever cross-country jumping. She went over everything I pointed her at, I only asked her to go over jumps that she could step over if required so she had a good first experience and we kept it nice and steady, she was great at steps and did start actually jumping some rather than using them as trotting poles. Most impressively she cantered into and out of the water jump, I couldn’t have been prouder. I’m quite excited to work a bit more on our jumping and I hope that next year I can have some proper coaching.

Before we left I had another beach ride with Izzy and Fluffy this time. We got some great controlled canters in and although Estrid was still quite hot-headed she was getting much more manageable and safe with every trip to the beach.

All in all an excellent learning experience for Estrid, a nice little trip for Tissy and both traveled well in the trailer back home.

Tissy LOVES an outing so I was more than happy to accompany Izzy and Fluffy on their first ever Pleasure ride. They’ve done lots of social rides but of course a Pleasure ride comes with the addition of a trot up and a maximum speed to think about.

The Foremark ride was lovely, thank you to the organisers, helpers and volunteers for a great day, made even lovelier with the sunshine. The route rode well and in such contrast to two weeks ago where everything was boggy, the ground was already hardening up.

Foremark is a mixture of woods, headland, quiet lanes, track and grass which makes for an interesting ride with lots of variation. Izzy and Fluffy did great and we had fun enjoying the countryside….as a seasoned endurance rider I probably should have tempered our speed a little across the whole course, but Tissy was having fun so we did have to walk the final 4km to keep us under the 12kph maximum speed.

I am so grateful to the effort of the Shuckburgh Hall endurance ride organisers that it was able to go ahead. The weather made what is normally a tough job even tougher, with marking and choosing a safe route but they pulled it off when so many equestrian events had to cancel and I would like to thank them and everyone that made the ride happen for their hard work.

Shuckburgh was more of an old school endurance ride, we’re very spoilt sometimes with excellent going on non-technical terrain and although I love those rides sometimes it’s fun to mix it up. It had a very varied mix of tracks, set aside, bridleway and quiet lanes, I think it may have been less technical if the ground hadn’t been so wet and soft but the conditions called for more care and a slower pace. It did have a fair few gates but most of them were manned with lovely volunteers and there wasn’t one that I would have had to get off for.

Estrid was brilliant! She was much better at the venue, not perfect but definitely an improvement on the first 40km she did with lower starting and finishing heart rates. Best of all our trot up was straight this time! Out on course she was on fire! She rode in a pack, in a pair, by herself, in front, at the back, in the middle, side by side. I coulnd’t have been prouder. She was more patient at the crew points, even if she did throw sugar beet over Dan, and she even managed her first slosh without any drama.x

She is naturally fast, and although as a novice I would prefer to be going between 10-12kph it just doesn’t work for her. She did an average speed of 13kph, made possible by doing a fair bit of walk, for this ride and she didn’t even puff once, she never felt tired and she certainly didn’t look tired when we were back at the venue. I really enjoyed the fact she seemed to be enjoying herself and I had a lovely ride, albeit a tad spooky, there were several occasions where I surprised myself with my staying on abilities.

Her personal performance was enough to make me grin from ear to ear but when I heard we had also won the Performance Formula I genuinely couldn’t have been happier. I really love that EGB have used the Performance formula throughout all levels of endurance now, it means that although you don’t have to be competitive you can be and it really adds a bit of icing to the cake with the sense of pride and achievement. Thanks to Baileys Horse Feeds for my wonderful prizes and Lucy for getting them to me as I had to dash off to an 80th Birthday party!

I knew the bit I had was too big for Estrid and I could have just bought a smaller one but I really wanted to get an expert opinion on her mouth and what bits would suit her. I had seen Expert bits on YouTube and I really liked their ethos, the bit designs and how much they seemed to cater for each individual horse.

I have used Myler bits for decades, I like that they don’t have that nutcracker action that so many bits have and they offer lots of options. I’ve prefered the hanging cheek because I like that it holds it’s own weight off the tounge so when Lisa from expert bits also recommended I try a smaller hanging cheek I was a little bit pleased with myself that I’d been making the right choice.

We also tried an eggbutt and a loose ring. Estrid didn’t like the loose ring and she made that quite obvious, she was better with the eggbutt but seemed a little unsure, potentially because of the slight increase in weight on her tounge. Lisa also said that I didn’t need a port, my current bit had a low level port to allow for extra tounge room, but because Estrid’s mouth is so small and her roof fairly low and hard it would be better to have a straight bit for maximum comfort.

It’s funny how, even though I was on the right track and I knew what I needed to change with my current bit, having someone who knows what their doing gives you that extra bit of validation and confidence in your choices. I feel like when Estrid starts schooling properly in the autumn that I’ve now got the right bit for her and we can confidently start asking for more contact and communication.

After Estrid’s first 40km I noticed that the neoprene gaiters had rubbed her skin. The day of the ride there were no marks and she had no tenderness but the day after she had dry flaky skin. Her feet were completely fine but I did notice that she was much happier on the soft ground than on the road. So I made the decision that I would do the same as Tissy and shoe her to compete and boot her the rest of the year. We went for shoeing her with the Ibex frog support pads to try and maximise the hoofs performance by loading through the frog and she was a very good girl for her first shoeing.

Transport: I have made so many lists over these past few weeks! Pros and cons, costs, reliability, efficiency, usefulness. I am definitely suffering from choice fatigue (Although choice is a lovely thing to have). I have visited horsebox manufacturers, I have looked at 4×4’s, pickup trucks and vans.

Hunter horseboxes based near Lymm, came out on top for a new build horsebox, the quality, honesty, straight forwardness, emergency exits, communication and the beautifully tidy workshop had me salivating over my next lorry. But to get what I really wanted on a young-ish chassis was 6k out of budget. So I decided I’d rather wait, save more money and get what I really wanted than compromise on design or an older chassis.

Que the tow vehicle option research. Ideally I would want to just have one vehicle, so my tow vehicle would also be my day to day car. I wanted a minimum 2.5t tow capacity, 30mpg and under 100,000miles on the clock.

After a lot of thought it came down to this – what would be the smallest financial burden with the most versatility that would allow the storage of a horsebox.

When you have someone who is a Man Vs Horse fountain of knowledge offer to take you for a ride it would be silly to refuse. Jocelyn kindly agreed to take Tissy and I on a guided training ride around Cannock chase, which is incidentally the closest thing to the Welsh terrain we have near us. This was exciting x2, one we get to explore the Chase with someone who knows it much better than we do and two, I can ask all my Man Vs Horse questions and queries while we do it!

Tissy and Squidge actually got on very well and paced together nicely, making easy work of an undulating and rocky 22km. I thoroughly enjoyed what was a lovely evening in good company, chatting strategy and tips and I feel much more in the know about the challenges ahead.

So thank you to Jocelyn and Squidge! We’ll definitely be back for some more joint training if you’ll have us!