Scropton RDA are raising funds to buy a new horse for their riding centre and as such had advertised a pole work clinic with the proceeds going towards the new pony fund. I seized the opportunity to get Estrid out and about doing something different. I especially don’t want her to think everytime we go in the trailer it’s for long training sessions or long endurance competitions.
Our goal this autumn is to work on our canter so that we can enter a clear round jumping competition. It needs a lot of work from our transition to our rhythm. My positioning is especially poor in canter as I’m so used to standing in the stirrups I really struggle with sitting canter and staying nice and sat up.
Overall Estrid made some excellent progress, her trot has really improved this year and I left with lots of ideas of how to improve our canter transitions and to work on altering our pace and stride length. I love having an objective over winter as it keeps my motivation high.
The time is upon us for the switch up of routine and preparing for Winter. We have summer and winter fields so I always check the fence line, tidy up any hedges and trees before moving the horses to a new field. This year will be our first year since we’ve been on livery that we’re in a different winter field, which is very exciting.
Although technically it is further away from the barn for haynets, turnout and feeding I won’t have to carry anything up muddy slippy hills as it’s more or less flat and on hard standing all the way to the hay feeders.
There is a beautiful new wooden post and rail fence complete with new automatic trough on hard standing which the next door farm put in. My only concern is that Tissy, the wood muncher, may chew it but it’s going to have a run of electric along the top and it’s creosoted so hopefully she thinks better of it, otherwise I’m going to have to fence off the fencing!
The best bit about moving fields is watching the horses have their first run around, explore and get straight onto munching fresh grass!
After the unfortunate cancellation of Oakover’s original date and then it’s back-up date due to a waterlogged venue, I thought I’d take Tissy out in the trailer for a bit of exploring anyway. Oakover is one of my favourite social rides near me and it was such a shame that the hard work of the organisers didn’t pay off, especially as the day it was meant to run was absolutely beautiful.
Instead I took her to Dunstall estate, which has some lovely bridleways not too far from me. Tissy as usual was super keen and excited to be out and about. We had a lovely morning just enjoying each others company and it reminded me that I should go out exploring just for the sake of it more often rather than waiting for an organised event.
I’ve had quite a few requests over the years to do a video on what to do in a vet gate. Basically I haven’t been doing any vet gates until this year to film it, so now we’re back to doing them I thought it was time I put together a video showing what we do.
Now everyone does it slightly differently, horses and riders have different needs and how I do it might not necessarily work for anyone else. But my hope is that this will help for anyone doing their first vet gate and that you can go into it with an idea of how it could go and develop your own style from there.
I am extremely lucky to have crew so my routine and experience is from that perspective. It can be done without crew you just need to be a little more prepared and have your routine absolutely down.
This is my vet gate check list:
Collect time card from timekeeper (this will show you when you arrived so you know when your time runs out to vet and you need to present it to the vet in the vet gate. Always keep it in the same place so you don’t lose it)
Untack the bit and saddle
Offer horse a drink (I do this before we start cooling as I don’t want to put them off drinking, the more experienced they get then you can start doing multiple things at once)
Begin wash down (at the moment I know Estrid’s heart rate will be quite high so I don’t take the heart rate straight away, I wash her down to get the sweat and dirt off and then see how much more water we’ll need to cool her)
Boots off and pick out feet (I do this before the heart rate as I can’t vet until it’s done so there’s no point checking if we can go in yet)
Take heart rate (Above 70bpm and I continue to pour water, below 70bpm and dropping then I present to the vet as by the time we get there and stand still it’s usually dropped below 64. This is where a stethoscope can be super handy as it’s easier to tell if the heart rate is dropping, steady or a bit erratic but you can tell with a heart rate monitor too)
If I’m ever unsure then I will walk a 20m circle and then take the heart rate again, if it’s shot up were not ready, if it’s remained the same or dropped we’re good to go.
Present to the vet with your time card and remember you need to pick it back up as it will have your hold time and time out on it. (Always check it, everyone is only human and sometimes it might be incorrect so best to double check it).
I then wrap Estrid up in rugs to keep her muscles warm during the hold, sometimes we may do a light massage if any areas are of concern but mostly we just let her walk, graze and eat from her buffet.
We then set timers for 10minutes before our time out to start tacking up. (Tacking up takes me less than 5minutes which allows time for a hand walk to warm up again or a ridden warm up before we’re back out on course).
Now is the time for rider toilet stops, if you don’t desperately need to pee at this point you’re probably not drinking enough on course.
I have electrolytes and Y food in the vet gate, alongside a banana and flapjack if I want it. (Y food has 500cals and is a complete meal drink so I’m confident I’m fuelling well).
I then check the next loop so I know what distance/colour/letters I’m going to next.
When the timer goes off we start tacking up and head towards the timekeeper for a warm up.
I always hand in my time card a couple of minutes before so they know I have arrived and am waiting to go back out.
Just before we head out we’ll offer a last drink and do a quick slosh and off we go.
I’d love to know what other people routines and tips are and if you’ve yet to do a vet gate what are your thoughts?
Everyone always shows the packing, and I love a good packing list and putting everything neatly in the trailer and van but very few people show the aftermath of an event. So I thought I’d take you along for the unpack, wash and put away, which actually takes longer than the packing in the first place!
I do try and put everything back where it should be as this makes the process much easier, but sometimes with multiple people helping out and the excitement of the day everything ends up everywhere, as was the case after Lions Tail. Thankfully I have a van and it basically serves as a giant box but nothing makes me happier than well organised, clean tidy and ready to go kit.
So everything needs to come out, be washed down, dried off and packed away in it’s place ready for next time! If anyone has any hacks, tips or tricks on how to make this process better then please share your wisdom, we all need it!
We attended another Leicestershire & Rutland ride, this time the Lion’s tail, they didn’t disappoint with another great venue and route. Estrid’s prep for 80km was less conventional than my usual schedule but I was confident that she was fit enough and the comfort of knowing we had two vet gates for a re-fuel and to decide to elevate if need be was an extra confidence boost that we had every opportunity to make good decisions.
We travelled the day before, despite being just over an hour away, but Estrid needs the stay away practice and she was certainly more confident this time. I was even surprised that when I took her for a walk around the venue to scope out the vetting area that she didn’t mind being taken away from all the other horses.
Initial vetting went really well and I was pleased to see 9 other horses vetting for the 80km, it was not only good to see a nice size class but it meant that hopefully Estrid would always have company at the venue to make out vettings that bit easier.
Estrid seemed really excited to be going out and I set out hoping to go between 14-16kph depending on what the terrain threw at us. The going was perfect, the set aside around the estate rode beautifully and Estrid was having a blast, she could see a horse in the distance and she loves to chase them down so we had a bit of negotiating to do for the first 10km. We caught up with Kate & Luna but then Estrid’s trot is so big the gap widened between us and we were back on our own, averaging 14.7kph for the loop.
The vet gate was deserted when we came in and I wondered what she’d be like, we had our fastest presentation yet, no shakes and she vetted beautifully all by herself. I could have gone home happy on that vet gate alone. She then proceeded to stomp Dan around the venue (which is very reminiscent of Tissy) for the whole 30minute hold time.
Back out on loop two of 23km and we didn’t see a single horse until 19km in, Estrid wasn’t lacking in enthusiasm, she was still super forward and setting an excellent pace and averaging the exact same as our first loop, which I was super pleased at our consistency. But I did feel that she was a bit bored by herself, or maybe I was too.
The second vet gate went even better and I think we’re starting to understand what works for her, no sponging down or going anywhere near her back legs but just buckets poured over her shoulders. I’d like to get all the mud and sweat off but it just winds her up so we’ll keep working on it and hopefully one day she’ll just settle into it. This hold was 40mins and she ate and drank like a pro, favouring the electrolyte and sugar beet water and of course her favourite fibre cubes.
Our last loop was 17km, I wanted to really make sure we completed our first 80km so I had decided to purposefully back off the pace, not something I’m that comfortable with doing as I hate to see speed creeping down as the distance goes up. It usually signals to me that it wasn’t a well managed horse or ride plan by the rider but also this ride meant so much to me that I didn’t want to blow it. On the plus side dropping down to 12.7kph meant that Kate and Luna caught us up and we got to ride the last 10km with them. Estrid was still full of running and on the sections we let them canter she covered the ground effortlessly.
Estrid settled for the final vetting really quickly but I wanted to be extra sure so waited for a sub 55 heart rate before presenting. She wasn’t even fussed when Luna left her to go vet which I was super impressed with. When we went to vet Kate very kindly delayed her trot up while our heart rate was taken and I was delighted to get another heart rate in the 40’s. I could not be prouder of Estrid, she has learnt so much and made so much progress this year. It meant the world to me that she is now an advanced endurance horse and even more importantly that we had fun doing it.
Thank you to everyone who helped run Lion’s tail, a shout out to the man on D who even moved his car to make sure none of us went wrong on the third loop, everyone was lovely and we had an absolute blast.
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.
Beth Endurance 