This is one of my favourite training routes from my parents house because it really does have a bit of everything. It’s about 17km long with some big climbs, around 400m elevation.

It starts off on quiet country B-roads for the first few km’s with a steady climb from the valley floor up to the local Forestry, there are some lovely off road grass/stone track sections which pass some old stone wales and run down stone cottages.

The first forestry track is all up hill and I choose to canter or trot most of it as the middle section is mostly walk. I then turn off the forestry onto open moor land at the top of the first mountain, this bit is great to teach them where to put their feet and flex at the hocks as it’s very undulating and soft in places, this grassy track meanders through forest along the mountain ridge so even in horrendous weather it’s always sheltered.

This then opens out into more forestry which is flatish (as flat as you can get in Mid Wales) and we have a good canter along here, it then turns onto the mountain road which gives you a great view down the valley with two majestic mountains flanking you on either side.

When I deem my horses balanced enough I trot down this road but Azid isn’t ready for that yet to we slowly walked back down to the valley floor. The last section turns off down stony track, through a wood, we cross the river and then come back down the lane to my parents house. I love that it’s a loop and you don’t repeat any sections.

The whole thing took Azid and I about an hour and 45mins in total with almost an hour of walk, 12minutes of canter and the rest at trot, it’s also great gate practice as we had 11 gates to open, and I’m pleased to say he hasn’t forgotten his training and we did them all mounted without any drama, apart from the odd temper tantrum about wanting to get on with it while I struggled with the clasp!

This was the longest ride I’ve done on Azid since his most recent accident (and since the two before that actually), it was so wonderful to ride him, spend the time with him and share one of my favourite routes through his little bay ears, I particularly love the little black border and tips he has around his tiny ears, they make an extra lovely frame for some pretty spectacular views.

Having endurance tack is particularly handy during winter. If it gets covered in mud I can just dunk it in a bucket. I always say to people that aren’t endurance riders that the main reason for having our biothane tack is ease of rapid removal and the safety of never having to have that moment when you switch between bridle to headcollar, which makes vet gates faster and safer. Also that you can clean it with water during an event so you go out on every loop with clean tack. My tack is all made bespoke by Pioneer Endurance.

But I have never actually put my endurance tack up against leather tack to see the difference in time for tacking up and un-tacking so I thought I’d give it a go. Now I don’t use leather tack often so it’s probably not a fair trial as I’m not as used to the process but still it’s pretty interesting to see how much quicker endurance tack really is. I can’t imagine trying to undo buckles and thread the girth through a loop with leather tack being particularly efficient or easy on the move so I didn’t try it (Azid gets himself into enough trouble without my giving him any excuses).

I know I was extremely lucky to grow up where I did, it’s a little bit like living in ‘The Lord of Rings – The Shire’. Rolling mountains, a river to play in, waterfalls to jump off, the sea an hour away, hundreds of miles of hacking where you don’t see a soul.

So every time I go back it feels like it makes my very bones happy, I love the views, the familiar hacking routes and best of all having my horses on the doorstep so I can literally roll out of bed and look out the window to see them.

So here’s a little tour of my childhood home and one of my favourite hacking routes! (*NOTE: I went to Wales prior to the recent restrictions and current lockdown announcement*)

I’ve been umming and arring about writing and sharing this. I think it probably opens me up to much judgement and criticism. BUT, for me anyway, money is a huge part of managing my mental health and a huge part of managing life with horses. So I thought the more openely we can talk about it, maybe, the more people will be comfortable sharing and helping eachother when it comes to horses and money. Plus it feels like everyone on the internet is #gifted or #ad so I think a dose of normal may be good for us!

Now my childhood was extremely lucky, my parents had land, built stables, I had my own ponies, went to competitions and not once thought about the financial implications, well at least not until I started representing Team GBR and knew that my Mum would set up a savings account every year (kudos Mum for believing in our ability to be selected so strongly) to pay for the trip to a Championship, which is a whole different budgeting story and in all honesty I would not be able to afford myself without a good couple of years saving.

I am so grateful for the support of my family, their money, time and patience and there has been more than one occasion where I have had a Mum and Dad bail out as a ‘grown-up’. More occasions actually than I would be willing to admit and for which I am so so lucky and thankful for, but also feel a bit guilty for not being a good enough adult. As I know many people do not have that financial and emotional safety net like I do.

However I have worked quite hard to get myself the wage I earn and an embarrassing amount of that I spend on the horses. Horses, I always say, are a lifestyle choice, I don’t eat out much, don’t shop for clothes or makeup much, I get excited about the haylage order and trips to the feed store when others would go on a night out out. So I have a monthly budget and a separate bank account that I have a standing order straight into which is purely for ‘horse stuff’. I’ve done this based on one horse as I thought it would be less complicated and I am well aware you can spend much more or much less…..but this is my budget, within my means (just) and the way I have chosen to do it and I’m sharing it as an insight not a guide!

During the second lockdown I made a new hacking friend. Stuart who lives at the farm across from my livery hunts, missing the lack of fun through the countryside I invited him along for a hack. Little did I know how fast hunters are! In all my time living at the livery I’ve always ridden a bit slower, more conservatively to go hacking with anyone else, the arabs are just so fast over varied terrain in comparison. Stuart and his lovely boy Taurmore can give Tissy a run for her money, he is also substantially bigger than my horses…..so when I’m behind on 14hh Tissy I am the optimum height for being splattered in the mud flying off Taurmores back hooves……try telling Tissy to stay back another 20m though, I swear she grits her teeth, puts her ears back, closes her eyes and hopes for the best rather than be seen as too slow!

It has turned out that we are actually ideal hacking partners (when I say hacking it sounds less like training, but for me hacking is training, we concentrate on changing leads, being on the correct diagonal for corners, managing pace and terrain, getting the distance in). So after a few weeks of going out with Stuart on Tissy, returning back having received the full mud spa treatment, tack and all (you may have seen that vlog), it was now turn to take Azid.

It was the end of his trot only training phase, I wanted to get a slightly longer hack in and add about 5 minutes canter. Now Azid, back before he was injured, wasn’t well know for his good behavior so cue Stuart and Taurmore as the ‘sensible’ influence. I needn’t have worried, Azid was exemplary. Unfortunately I made quite a rookie error in the filming and turned my helmet cam off for the good bits……and on for the ‘boring’ bits, so you don’t get to witness Azid expertly opening and closing 5 gates, made all the more impressive by cantering ON THE BUCKLE through open fields before hand and calming down enough to listen, slowly and carefully to open gates.

I LOVE MY HORSE! There are some moments between all the injuries, stress, bad days, monotonous days, days you wished you could just go home after work and not trudge through cold dark fields, days where you seem to have spent every last penny on a horse that does not appreciate the fact….you get my gist…..there are moments where it is worth it and this hack was one of them, nothing overly impressive about it, 14km of road and bridleway but Azid was everything I had trained him to be, he enjoyed it and so did I. ( Also Azid is 15.2hh so we were no longer in the hunter mud flinging firing line).

And on that note MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!

What is everyone’s favourite grooming implement? Does anyone else find their grooming kit covered in mud, dust and soggy even after a week during winter? My three live out in the fields 24/7 and on our livery the ground is clay, you’ve never seen mud stick like it, it dries SO SLOWLY, the fields get so deep, slippy and sticky and my brushes take a beating.

I only really use a hoof pick, rubber curry comb and dandy brush regularly, I find that’s enough to get the mud off, flick the dust and make sure they’re at least clean enough for tack. Am I missing a trick? Should I body brush more often? I rarely brush their manes and tails, unless they’re looking super tangley or they need a clean. I do end up washing their legs down quite often, not if we’re hacking but if we use the school I don’t want to make some sort of muddy sandy gloop on their feathers.

This creates the ideal conditions for mud fever, sigh! Wet clay mud, wet washed down legs and a super sensitive chestnut, who so far only gets mud fever on his two white socks (Small blessing). So does anyone have any tips for this. I usually towel dry their legs, and use a sudocrem/pink protection balm mix on their sensitive bits, I’m considering that Qantas may also need his legs clipped, which I’ve never had to do for Tissy, who also has super sensitive skin.

Anyway back to the grooming kit, it was gross so I gave it a clean and seeing as I love watching makeup cleaning/yard sorting/what’s in my bag videos I thought I’d do the same with my grooming kit.

It would be great to hear stories, top tips and comments from other riders to add to what we went over in this Webinar. What would be your top tip for performing well and preparing for a big event?

Firstly I appologise for the rookie error of letting my mic rub on the zip of my top making an awful sound throughout the presentation, doh!!!! However I hope that it is still a vaguely watchable video.

I was recently asked to do a webinar to the Endurance GB Young riders on getting onto Team GBR so I decided to go through goal setting, training, preparing, performing and analysing rides, what it’s like at a Championship and the things I’ve learnt along the way.

Now as some will know, I have been having some difficulty with Qantas recently. If anyone has any helpful tips or ideas then I’m all ears. I’ve been trying my best but Q went from the sweetest, most laid back, lovely horse to have around in Spring and Summer to a whirling demon this Autumn. When I went to view Q at his old home he was very relaxed but when he arrived with us he was a weaving stress head (this was also in autumn last year) by spring we’d got him to relax and he was truly a pleasure to have around. Now it feels like we’ve gone backwards and then some and, although I’m sure I shouldn’t admit this, I have been angry with him, fed up with him, run out of ideas, been stressed and upset and everything in between.

I have read the Parelli books, watched the Warwick Schiller videos, scrolled through the TRT method, read the mounted police training, followed the stunt riders on social media to try and become a better horse trainer and to try and find a solution to Qantas.

I’m a firm believer in not following any method religiously, as in my job as a Physio, I will go to a course, learn stuff, take the bits I like and apply it to my own principles and way of working. I think the training needs to suit the human just as much as it needs to help the horse. I need to know what I believe in, what I am capable of and where my limitations lie in terms of skill, patience and understanding. I am not perfect, I do not know everything and I make mistakes, but the hope is that I’m helping my horse understand what I want from him and that we evolve together along the way.

Que the dinosaurs!!! My very funny and very supportive aunt sent me some little dinosaurs as we never got to see the one at the Concrete cows ride, that we failed to even vet for due to Qantas’ stressing. (Yes there is an endurance ride with a statue of a dino on route). Joking aside Q was getting stressed about anything and everything so introducing new things into our training would be key in teaching him that change is safe.

I started with working him on the ground in the sand school without any obstacles, just working on our aids, then each session I’d add an obstacle, be it something to walk over, a flag, a noise, an object to walk around etc. Then finally we decided to add a giant flappy dinosaur costume! My aim was to have the dino stood by the gate (as this is where he thinks his place of rest is, so more likely be comfortable in that space) and that Qantas would continue with his obstacles and ignore the dinosaur. We’d then eventually work up to the dinosaur (human inside the costume) wandering around the school, jumping over poles, lying down or whatever and Qantas would just carry on concentrating on the thing we were up to.

We’re still working on it and bringing him down from a panic is still really tricky for me but when he’s good he’s really good, it’s just that doesn’t seem to be very often at the moment.

So it’s been 3 months and 2 weeks since my riders Birthday when I gave her the best present of watching a vet stitch me up whilst blood spurted everywhere…..she loves anatomy and has always said ‘I wish I could just see inside you to figure out what’s going on’ so who was I to deny her her wishes, especially on her Birthday!

After spending a long time in a big bandage, a longer time in a small bandage, a long time in a stable and a longer time in a tiny paddock I was relieved to hear I was healed and sound enough to go back in the big field. It was quite the self sacrifice letting my rider look at my anatomy and in hindsight she didn’t seem all that pleased so I have learnt that humans don’t always want what they wish for!

Over the months I’ve been trotted up and down and around around again in all directions on soft ground, hard ground, medium soft, moderate hard, wet ground, dry ground, big circles, smaller circles……I tell you they have been OSESSED! But I have been getting lots of hugs afterwards so I’ve upped my circle game and I now go round on the right rein without stopping and twirling around, which has pleased everyone, especially the vet that usually runs beside me while the other vet watches me, I’m not sure why he’s so pleased, I quite liked playing a bit of catch, dodge, chase with him.

Anyway onto the last 6 weeks, it’s happened, the day is finally here, I am the King, the conqueror, the supreme master…I got tacked up again!! Woop woop. I’ve been trying to get my nose in any headcollar when my human comes to the field for quite some time now but she just keeps telling me if I wasn’t such a fool I wouldn’t have to stay behind, quite ungrateful really as I did it all for her.

I have done the dullest 4 weeks of just walking, walking with two really long reins behind me, walking in circles with one long rein beside me, walking with a short rein up and down a big hill, you name it, I’ve walked it! In circles, straight lines, bending poles, over poles….I’m surprised she didn’t make me go under poles! Everytime I’d get tacked up I would hope this is the day she’ll get on and we’ll feel the wind in our manes and go for a gallop but no.

After 4 weeks of the dullest walking around ever I finally got a saddle back on and my human finally jumped on board, it turns out I’ve got a new saddle, actually an old saddle because that upstart Qantas has stolen my brand new lovely blue saddle that was bought especially for me. The saddle is comfy though and although not blue it will do for now, but I will be having words!

I shouldn’t have bothered getting excited, ANOTHER two weeks of the dullest walking but now with a human on board instead of attached by various lengths of rope. At least now I get to go out on adventures, I’ve been out with three different ponies from the yard, through fields and along roads, I remember roads being quite scary because these monsters with lights and wheels and big roars go past so fast but I’m over that now, I’ve been through a lot and I’m mature and sensible and brave and strong……apart from the pheasants, they come out of nowhere right under your nose, screaming and flapping and you just can’t be too sure it’s not something that might eat us, I’m saving us from an unknown harm, I have to rear and strike out to protect my human, she’s pretty ungrateful for my chivalry too….’Azid you dim-witted arab, a pheasant  won’t kill you’ is about as much thanks as I get. But I have seen the humans in their tweed outfits with their doggie friends shooting these birds, herding them into the sky to rid the world of them so they must be pretty dangerous for humans to need guns to be around them. I’m going to carry on protecting us.

After an excruciating 6 whole weeks of walking I finally got to trot, wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped it would be….so I got straight to the cantering, tucked my nose into my chest to avoid the bit and had a good hooley around the school. My human told me that if I continued to behave in such an irresponsible manner I’d be back at square one, not sure where that is but by the tone of her voice it didn’t sound great, I haven’t cantered a stride since. Trotting consisted very much of similar drills to walking…….I’ve trotted up hills, around in circles, over poles (again not under but I’m waiting for it), done these things called serpentines, which quite frankly is just a fancy name for squeezing in as many turns as you can before you hit the other end. I’ve trotted fast, slow, with my nose in the air (my favourite) with my nose ‘in a lovely carriage’ according to one of the other humans I see around and with my nose sniffing the floor, my human thinks I’m stretching…..I’m just getting the reins back so I can regain control of the pace, ha!

Anyway I’ve got 4 weeks of trot and then we get to actually canter for real! I can’t wait! Apparently there are no plans after that because and I quote ‘You are a doughnut and there’s no point making plans with you as you’ll throw yourself in a ditch or something equally ridiculous’…….I’ll show her, 2021 is going to be my year to shine, I will be back out competing and everyone will love me again.

As with many areas, endurance riders like to be a little alternative with their clipping style. Instead of the traditional english clip ‘templates’ you see in other disciplines endurance horses have taken a more functional route to their haircuts! It would be interesting to know what everyone’s favourite clip is and the top tips you have to get the perfect clip.

I think I first saw the clip I now prefer for my horses in winter on Georgina Hirst’s (a GBR FEI Endurance rider and Vet) horse at an early ride in the British season called Haywood oaks. The concept is simple, keep the big muscles warm, get rid of the rest. We see much more variation in clips in the UK from Winter to Summer. In the winter it’s all about minimising sweat but not getting too chilly, in summer it’s all about keeping as cool as possible and getting those big blood vessels free of fluff for optimum cooling down.

My top tips for clipping (although I’m by no way a professional or even a skilled amature) would be:

• Practice first! Clippers are loud, they feel funny and it takes a while to do a whole clip. So in the weeks running up to when I want to clip my horses I like to switch the clippers on so they get used to the sound and just make sure they’re totally comfortable with the sensation before I go and chop any hair off.
• Make sure the horse is super clean. A clean pony makes clipping so much easier, the blades just glide through. I also like to use some conditioning spray and groom it in just before I start.
• Oil the clippers ALL.THE.TIME. Literally every few minutes, it keeps them cooler and it keeps the blades cutting smoothly.
• Wear slippy clothes that hair won’t stick to and cover as much of your body as possible. I even go one geeky step further and wear goggles.
• Don’t moisturise your face or apply lip balm before clipping….. you will regret it!
• I like to make my edge outline first and then clip off the hair in the middle so that I don’t accidentally take too much off or go the wrong way.
• If I get clip lines then going over the line again or going across the line makes them disappear or at least they’re less obvious.
• Make sure the clip is level from the bum and from the front view but don’t stress too much about the sides, no one can see both sides at the same time. But a wonky clip from the back or front can sometimes make a horse look uneven.
• Hot cloth your horse after so get all the little hairs off and soothe their skin, it also makes the clipped hair really shine.