Me and Mush

Taken by Radfoto (these are the ones I bought as I like them):

Coming up the hill – Shah just noticing the photographer…

Me trying to smile for the camera while keeping it together…

All 4 hooves in the air – yipppiiiee!

With Windsor last week cancelled (due to the foot and mouth zones) we’re now on for Firle this weekend…

I haven’t been writing a lot here lately – sorry! We’ve been training hard to be able to start our new endurance career and i’m delighted to say that we completed our very first endurance ride this Saturday. I’m very very pleased and those who know us and know what journey we’re on will agree that this is a HUGE step forwards for us.

It was a beautiful day for it too. The sun was shining, it was just nicely hot, and the ground conditions good. The ride was in the Ashdown Forest (Winnie the Pooh country – but I didn’t see him and we didn’t have time to stop and play Poosticks) and the scenery was great. Much more hilly than I had imagined, but the heather was in full bloom everywhere and the hills offered some spectacular views. This is definitely one of the reasons for why this sport is so pleasant. You get to see the countrywide at the same time as spending time with your horse – life can hardly get better!

Our goal was to finish the 32km (that’s 20 miles if you’re a Brit) in around 3 hours, averaging about 10 km/hr. I wasn’t interested in a grade (if you want to know more about the rules, gradings etc. visit www.endurancegb.co.uk) but I just wanted to complete the ride within the time and vetting parameters. And we did. 3.16 hours, 9.8 km/hr speed, starting with a heart rate of 42, finishing on 55, which was perfectly fine for us.

Shah loved every minute of it. He was very excited, especially to start with, and he was convinced that this was a race and that he had to go full speed everywhere. This meant that the first ten minutes were interesting, well, quite scary actually as he was jumping up and down wanting to gallop. But we hooked onto a mum and daughter with nicely behaved horses and rode after them for a little while until I could confidently let him go and we then settled into a fast trot. After not so long we caught up with a lovely lady on a nice bay TB cross who we ended up riding together with for the rest of the ride. The horses went well together, it was her first ride too, and we were both happy about each other’s company, so much so that we’ve decided to ride again together for the next two rides. Shah led nearly the whole time, apart from those occasions when something scary came along and he needed to hide behind Sidney’s bottom! And Sidney knew which grey bottom to follow, at one point another horse came in between and he got most upset!

All in all a very fun experience. I’ve been told that they will settle once they’ve done a few rides and know what’s going on. I also think we need the longer distances for Shah to settle better, which means I’m aiming to fast track through novice this year and then go into open competitions next year. He was loony for about 10km, pulled for about 20km and didn’t tire until 28km, which was nearly home.

With the first ride under our belt I also now know what we need to practice:

• Fitness – he needs to get fitter so that we can bring the heart rate down, and so that we can keep a higher speed going for a longer time.
• Standing still outside the trailer – he seems to have to eat grass all the time while not riding, I might have to experiment with the feeding, plus train him to stand still while tied up outside the trailer.
• No galloping to start with – we need to be able to warm up properly and trot slowly to start with, I don’t want any injuries. Doing more rides I think will be the only way here.

We’re now looking forward to another two competitive rides this year – at least – and the goal is still just to finish within the time parameters, nothing else.

I’ve bought some lovely pictures from the ride and will post them here once I receive the soft copies.

Roll on Windsor and Firle!