As some may know I’ve been transitioning Tissy to barefoot for a few reasons. One because she’s not being ridden as much, shoes turn out to be expensive for cost per use. Secondly living on clay fields over winter means shoes get sucked off an disappear on a regular basis and three because I am genuinely interested in the management and conditioning of a barefoot horse.

I’ve had lots of tips, such as asking my farrier to show me how to rasp rough edges and little chips in between professional trims. Using a specific supplement such as the Kevin Bacon Hoof formula. Taking things slowly and letting her hooves adapt to life without shoes, although it’s not new to her really, as she ordinarily spends three months a year without them and does her walk work barefoot.

Tissy has been doing really well but is a little ‘footy’ on stonier surfaces, and as we ride on a lot of them I felt she needed something to help. Now in my head I kind of thought if I’m going to use boots then I might as well just use shoes but seeing as one of my reasons was pulled shoes in winter, it actually didn’t seem like a bad idea.

So I messaged The hoof boot shop, who I’d seen were doing a run past us, and asked for them to come out to advise on what type of boots would suit our needs and to fit them properly. I’d done some research on boots and I wasn’t confident that I’d be able to order the right size and which boots were most suited so professional help seemed like a good idea.

Rachael was great and guessed Tissy’s size before even lifting a hoof. We tried three brands, equine fusion, Scoot boots and the Flex boots. We ended up going with the flex boots as I found the equine fusions a bit clumpy and didn’t like the structure around the heel of the scoot boots. It’s early days but I’m super happy with the fit and how easy they are to put on so I’ll keep you updated with how they ride.

I’m pretty lucky that my livery has a floodlit arena. So when those winter nights draw in and it’s dark by the time I finish work at least I have that option. But I don’t really want to spend three nights a week going around in circles so when daylight means my training routine has to change I like to switch between four different training sessions I can do when it’s dark.

Now if I lived somewhere without so much traffic or with more off road riding I would still hack in the dark with lights but the training around our livery just isn’t safe for night riding. So instead I have two types of schooling sessions I do in the school. I either school in the normal sense of the word, set a goal for our session and work on a specific area or I do laps. I usually do 5 laps each way of walk then 10 each way of trot then 10 each way of canter and repeat, I work on keeping a good rhythm, getting my horse to maintain the same pace and carry themselves without too much input from me. I actually find it makes a great substitute for hacking in terms of cardio fitness.

The the other two sessions I can do is either lunge which I’ll do a maximum of once a week or hill walks. There’s a hill just outside our livery about 300m long and I cover myself and the horse in hi-viz and lights and just walk or trot up and down the hill a few times, the uphill is great for their glutes and down works the thoracic sling.

Then on the weekend I’ll go for a hack in the day. I go much easier on myself in winter too, so if we miss a session it really doesn’t matter, my goal isn’t fitness it’s more education, improving the relationship with my horse, strength, balance and proprioception. It’s much more laid back and I really enjoy spending a bit more ‘ground time’ with the horses too, just grooming or sitting with them. What does everyone else do during winter? Do you keep the same routine or mix it up?

About two weeks ago we asked everyone on our YouTube and Instagram if they had any questions they’d would like me to answer. So many of you sent some really good questions and here are the answers…

I’ve really enjoyed my time riding different horses this year. I think it’s improved my riding, made me appreciate time in the saddle more and I’ve had lots of fun along the way. This year is the first time I’ve ever been Hounding, where you take the Bloodhounds out for exercise over a set course rather than following a scent trail, and I’ve really enjoyed it.

Thanks to Stuart and the loan of his lovely Norman I’ve now been out with the Four Shires Bloodhounds a few times and I even got myself a tweed jacket so I at least look the part! It’s actually one of my favourite bits, getting all dressed up and smart.

It’s lovely to ride a horse that’s been there and done that, Norman absolutely loves going out with the hounds, he actually shakes with excitement as soon as he hears them. The high speed in a big group took me by suprise at first, even though I’m used to big mass starts in Endurance the pace is much steadier and even, whereas out with the hunt it’s more like intervals of high speed and then slower sections in between. But once I got used to knowing where everyone was around me and started to get used to riding Norman I absolutely loved the carefree blasts through the countryside.

Everyone at the Four Shires have been so Welcoming and I can’t wait to go out on more adventures with Norman and Stuart over winter.

The start of autumn and spring always bring about big changes in the horses routine. It’s a natural shift with it being the end of the season and also they move to their winter grazing. I quite like the feeling of prepping for winter and planning some easier months of training or months off entirely.

This year Qantas will be spending winter in Wales, because of his injury he just won’t cope on the slippy, sticky, slopy clay winter field at my livery. So he’ll be much better off on the sandy only slightly muddy fields of Wales. I could stable him over Winter but he just doesn’t like the stable at my livery, he stresses, he rears and he does tiny laps creating some kind of shavings velodrome. Plus I truly believe that he’ll be better off moving and using his shoulder. In my head we stopped doing bed rest for human patients long ago and yes it’s much easier to tell a human to take it easy but I avoid box rest if I can.

Tissy is going to give being barefoot a go over winter. She always has a few months off without shoes every year but normally that’s because I’m not riding her. This year I’m keeping her ticking over so she doesn’t loose too much muscle or fitness but as the fields like to steal horseshoes on a weekly basis over winter and she won’t be doing that much, coupled with the fact her feet are really good, I thought I’d give barefoot a go. So any tips are greatly appreciated. Kevin Bacons horse products have kindly sent me their Hoof formula to ensure her feet stay in tip top condition and I’m excited to try something different.

I love having crew. You don’t need crew in Endurance until you make it up to 80km races but if possible I like to have them there from day one of a horses career for many reasons. Firstly it’s just nice to have a team around you, people to help, a smiling face if you’ve had a tough section, someone to cheer you when you finish and snacks are always much appreciated!

But mainly for my horses welfare and education. Now I am NOT saying that doing Endurance without crew is poor for horse welfare, not at all and actually quite the contrary, I think riders without crew ride slower, pay more attention to natural water sources out on course and ride to the terrain and their horses energy levels more than a rider who knows they can re-fuel at the next stop. But at the higher levels of endurance crewing is an enormous part of success.

A good crew will get a tired horse and rider around a competition where others wouldn’t by carefully managing their horse and rider throughout. But when the horse and rider are on form and the crew are experienced they can mean the difference between winning and losing. If they are drilled and efficient and know the horse well, you can overtake people and make up so much time in a vet gate. If they know the horse inside out they know if they need to slow it up and give it extra hydration or let it run through and just take sloshes to keep the pace up.

They know when a rider has lost their logic and veered from the ride plan and can put them right in a crew point or give a good pep talk to put them in the right mindset for the next loop. At a race a horse will have four crew buzzing around it and be expected to relax so I feel the sooner crew are involved in a horses career the better they will take that intensive care when they get racing.

If you can take sloshes without breaking your rhythm, you know which type of water your horse prefers at each distance, you know how their heart sounds and how the heart rate reacts to certain things, if your crew know the horse and the horse knows the crew long before you do your first race you’re setting yourself up for success.

You know when people tell you ‘everything happens for a reason’ and it’s usually when something bad has happened or something has gone wrong, at the time I feel a tiny urge to punch them and say there’s no reason for my horse being injured again, it’s just cr*p and can we leave it at that……but it’s funny how the ups and downs of life, the big decisions and the small all add up to get us where we are right now.

Without Azid’s injuries I’d have never had the opportunity to ride Roo, without Qantas injuring himself I’d have never taken Roo to Red Dragon and without taking Roo to Red Dragon I’d have never fully appreciated how amazing Tissy was. I’ll explain….

I entered Roo into the 42km Novice at Red Dragon and I had no idea how it would go. Roo hasn’t had that much training with me yet and although he aced his 25km pleasure ride it was flat and at a laid back small venue. From home Roo isn’t the most forward going little pony (unless you box him out, Tissy was the exact same at his age) and in training and at his pleasure ride whenever a horse comes up behind he just stops. So I had visions of having to ride him across the start line, hop off and lead him out the venue.

Red Dragon is a fairly tough course but I’d only ever ridden it on Tissy so I don’t think I appreciated how tough it actually is as Tissy just aced the terrain, flew over the hills and sped back down them with ease. It’s not until I’d experienced it on a different horse did I realise how special Tissy was, how lucky I was to have her. But also it’s really taught me to appreciate the little things about my other horses too, to really be happy about completing a 40km.

Roo arrived at the venue on Friday a little tired from the journey. He went in the stable without fuss, settled beautifully, lay down and proceeded to snore…..actually snore, he didn’t even twitch an ear! It was so cute.

The next morning I took him for a walk around the venue and he just munched grass had a little look around but no drama, no pulling, no freaking out, just chilled. Qantas has really made me appreciate just a well behaved chilled out horse! He vetted nicely, not minding the atmosphere of the barn, he stood still to be tacked up and bimbled off to the start without a care in the world.

And then he TROTTED out the venue, ears pricked and forward going, not bothered with any other horses, I was so pleased he was up for it, I was having the best time just in the first 100m! I made him walk up the big hill, our plan to get a ride speed of 10kph, but in my head between 8-10kph was realistic and we may need all our available ride time due to the tricky terrain and Roo not being that fit and balanced yet.

Roo rode in company, by himself, in front, at the back and even for a short moment side by side, he doesn’t seem to like this and usually gives the other horse a funny look and tries to stop. He rode in a group, then let them go without too much protest when I asked him to maintain his own pace and not go at theirs. He listened to my legs to move from side to side of the undulating rutted tracks, I rode every metre picking the course out for him, left to his own devices he doesn’t make the best route decisions. Whereas Tissy seems to pick out the best track for herself and actually would probably do just fine without a rider, Roo would most certainly end up in a bog, tripping up and landing on his face or crashing into a tree….

He did on the move sloshes, stood still at the crew points, he drank water when offered later in the ride. When he was tired and I asked for him to keep going he put his head down and showed a true grit I didn’t know he had, he gave his all, absolutely everything I asked of him, he did without question. *I’m definitely not feeling emotional typing this, nope, not me, I’m fine, not overwhelmed with pride and admiration at all*

When we got back to the venue he just burst into a canter, like he knew we were home, he cantered over the finish line as if to say ‘look everyone, I’m doing it’. Sadly my crew missed Roo finishing so it’s not on camera but I was bursting with pride.

His heart rate was 54bpm in under 2 minutes, despite being tired, so his natural recovery is pretty good. We gave him another 10minutes as he was very hot, before going down to the vetting. Roo was undoubtedly tired, he’d tried so hard for me and it was a tough course for a first 40km, his heart rate was 42. Our trot up away was a bit dodgy, he kind of stumbled into it/wasn’t keen to trot, maybe I needed to circle him away and walk a bit before asking him to trot, because it was like he’d switched off during the heart rate and having to move was a bit of a shock. But once we got to the bottom cone and had woken back up his trot back was lovely. The vet very fairly gave him a B for gait due to our less than graceful start but he was sound and we had passed!!!

We took him back to the stable and I swear you’ve never seen a more snoozy pony. He had lots of food, lots of cuddles a couple of hours rest and then we boxed him up and took him home. The next day he was feeling the effects, a little stiff and a little muscle sore over the shoulders, back and hamstrings but he was sound and full of energy. I couldn’t have been happier. I’m so excited to get Roo strong and fit over winter and see what next season brings.

Am I the only one who loves packing?? *hides face in embarrassment* but really, I do love packing. I love the ritual of preparing everything for competition, I love the feeling of being organised and just the whole process in general.

I have some packing lists you can find over on this blog post.

But today I thought I’d talk more about the little rituals we all do, we all do them right? Please tell me it’s not just me!! So for me I like to clean all my tack and wash all that needs washing the day before packing.

I then start by getting everything ready in it’s separate sections so crew kit, horse feed, tack, rider kit etc and then once everything is ready I’ll start packing it all into the lorry. Everything has a place, I fill my crew kit in the same order every time, out of efficiency rather than superstition or need. I find that it helps me get into competition mode, calms my usually racing brain and gives a sense of control and order.

The last thing to go in is always my grooming box and horse bathing stuff because I do that just before we leave, inevitably Tissy still poo’s down her back legs and tail and I might as well have not bothered, but I try.

I always make sure I have a bottle of easily accessibly water and some snacks whilst driving, plan my route and have some notes of key roads/turns in case I loose my satnav and off I go.

Well I think so! Roo did his last ‘test’ in training to see whether I thought he was ready for 40km and *spoiler alert* he breezed it.

I decided to do my usual training test ride at Cannock chase on the hillier side to give me more of a feel of whether he was ready to tackle his first 40km at Red Dragon. There will be no prizes for speed, but Roo isn’t strong enough and he doesn’t have good enough proprioception for speed yet so we won’t judge him there. However, what he did do was go at a nice steady pace, listened and had a good recovery at the end so in my book, that’s an all clear for making the step up.

We did 12km and in total our training ride consisted of only 4 minutes canter, it’s hard not to let them enjoy themselves on the nice grassy strips. And the rest of our hour and a half session was in walk and trot at an average speed of 7.4kph. Now I know this is slower and shorter than what I would usually like to train at but we were out with a friend from the yard, who’s horse can’t go as fast, and it was more important to me that Roo enjoyed and had some company than to try and hit 12kph or do 16km.

Our last PR was a 22km at 11.8kph so I know he’s more than capable of maintaining the required Novice speed parameters so rather than stick hard and fast to my usual training regime I decided to bend my own rules so that we could have some fun…..I know….who am I!!!!

Roo is definitely getting stronger, my instructor has really helped us with this and it’s starting to show in his attitude out and about, his spooks come with more oomph, his downward transitions are much more balanced and his movement is starting to become more effortless. I’m really excited for a winter of working on his strength and balance and can’t wait to see how he progresses over the next few months.

It’s that time of year again for the ‘big day’ where I usually get the Farrier, Vets, Equine Dentist and Physio all in at the same time. This year however we didn’t have the Physio but we still had a lot going on.

Qantas has had his re-scan and the fibres in his bicep are healing nicely, he’s moving much better and seems to be on the right path to making a full recovery so fingers crossed for him!

Roo had some new shoes with pins in ready for Red Dragon and Tissy and Qantas have now gone barefoot for their autumn holidays.

Poor Tissy had another tooth extracted but hopefully this will mean less food will get compacted in the gaps, making her overall mouth health much better. We’ve actually finally managed to get a decent amount of weight on her by reducing her training so hopefully she’s all ready for wintering well.

Vaccinations are all done and up to date and my little herd of three are all in all doing ok.