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!

Well first of all, we made it to the venue!!!! I was disproportionately nervous for this ride which I think you can really tell in the video. I’m usually quite a positive human being but after the last couple of years I think I’ve started to expect things to go wrong rather than right. Something I need to shake off before it becomes learnt negativity.

Anyway, I was nervous about getting there, I was nervous that Estrid would be nervous and her HR would be too high to vet, I was nervous about doing my first 40km barefoot and booted, I was nervous about getting the HR at the final vetting. Basically at every tiny step I was just waiting for something to go wrong. Spoiler alert, IT DIDN’T!

First of all thank you to the Cromwell EGB group for putting on a fantastic ride, to all the helpers and to the sponsors that supported it. It was a great route, well marked with excellent field margins that went on for miles.

Dan did an excellent job crewing all by himself, dealing with a nervous rider and a nervous horse. It’s one thing crewing a horse you know well, that basically has a crewing handbook that comes along with it, it’s an entirely different skill to crew a horse that we don’t know very well yet and we don’t know what it’s going to want, when or how it’s going to react.

Estrid was incredible out on course. She was forward, she was keen and she was asking to go faster, but not running through the bridle out of control faster, she wanted to power from behind lift up and have fun faster. It was a dream 3 hours, she passed horses, left horses at route splits, lead out in front and followed from behind. She was balanced and responsive and I couldn’t have been prouder of her.

She was much better than expected at the venue, we had a HR of 48 to start and 60 to finish. We had a HR of 57 in under 5 mins at the end but every horse that went past, or thing that moved, or gust of wind, basically anything had it shooting back up. So we used the ‘do nothing at all but wait’ crewing method and grazed for 20mins before heading to vet. She was also very cold without her rug, so although her HR was in the 40’s when we presented to vet as soon as the rug came off she started shivering and her eyes were out on stalks. I wasn’t even sure that her HR would be under 64 but thankfully it was and she stood pretty well for it too. Our trot ups were entertaining…the last one using all lanes and chasing after the horse trotting up in the next door lane, but at least she was keen and sound if not in a straight line.

We finished on a speed of 13.5kph and came 3rd in the Performance formula, thank you to Enduro Equine for our prize! It was an excellent day, with exactly the result I hoped for: a fun 40km on a horse that seemed to love the job and a 40km novice qualifier in the bag. Hopefully with all the positive steps of our first ride I won’t be so nervous for the next one!

Estrid has never been on a trailer, so with only 1 week to practice before she did a 1.5hr journey to her first competition I was keen to do as many load, unloads and short journeys as possible. She travels well in terms of she stays still, doesn’t kick and has good balance but she is a nervous traveller, she has her eyes out on stalks, she’s always looking everywhere and she sweats up. So I set up the trailer with the full intention that it may take a little while for her to get used to it.

With a trailer being louder, slightly less stable and smaller I was a little nervous that she really wouldn’t enjoy the experience and what is already stressful for her would be made much worse. But Estrid being Estrid she just copes, she may not like it but she doesn’t make a fuss and she does what’s asked of her with minimal questioning. She took to loading, standing and coming off well and she even loaded straight back on after a little trip out, phew!

While Connie the lorry is at the garage, the crew have rallied to get my ponies and I out and about. Dan has fitted a tow bar to his van, traveled to Wales and driven many hours to pick up the trailer that my parents had cleaned up ready for me to use while I wait for my lorry to be fixed.

First world problems, but, I know have to decide do I sell the lorry once it’s been fixed up while it’s still worth quite a bit and is mechanically sound, do I buy another second hand box or get one built or do I buy a tow car and continue to use a trailer. All with pro’s and con’s and varying degrees of financial input.

The second big change is Tissy’s hooves, after a fairly normal 20km, her hind hooves were so worn laterally that it was rolling her fetlock. In hindsight, I should maybe have been training her in hind boots as well as fronts and that’s something I’m going to explore in the future. But for now she needing shoeing pronto. She’s always worn the outside of all of her feet laterally her whole life, she just doesn’t land flat so that’s inevitable. She’s worn her front boots in the same way. She is actually more forward going now she has shoes back on and I’m happy that we’re doing what’s best for her to get the job I want her to do done.