On Saturday we were all excitedly off to do our first open competitive ride for the season. We had entered to do 32km at the South Downs Festival, which was a 2-day ride held over the lovely South Down hills.
The weather turned out ok, sunny, windy but no rain. Unfortunately the wind caused us a few problems. It was very windy at the venue and Shah is not good with flappy things, or too much wind noise in trees. The vetting area had been set up right next to a woody area and the signs were flapping about, so by the time we got to the pre-ride vetting Shah was more in the air than on the ground! The farrier check was all fine, he even commented on Shah having nice big feet for being an Arab. We vetted in with heart rate 42 which wasn’t bad considering we’d just had a few minutes in the air. The trotting up was funny though. We trotted fine down to the cone, then there was a white flappy bag in the trees that caught Shah’s eyes and that was it – we piaffed/passaged back to the vet who was in stitches, laughing at us. Hey, at least we passed and he wasn’t showing any of his age!!
At this time I was getting rather concerned that I might not be able to get a saddle on him, or even get on him for that sake. But he decided to behave so on the tack went and we set off at a nice steady trot.
The route was lovely with some magnificient views from on top of the Downs and we had a great ride. Shah proved that he had learned the endurance rope from last year and kept a nice steady pace throughout. We trotted and cantered everywhere apart from two steep downhills that were a bit muddy and slippery. And one of those we jogged down as Shah really can’t understand why on earth we should walk anywhere when going fast is so much more fun.
I was very pleased with his going. He felt strong throughout the ride, he pulled for the first 20km as usual but then settled and we could trot more relaxed on a long rein. One of his good points is that although he pulls and is quite strong I never feel out of control. We had to stop our horses from breaking into a gallop at one point as the going was very good and they were quite excited by that time, but they both settled into a nice fast trot after half way and kept up the good speed without getting tired.
We finished the ride on an average speed of 10.91km/h, which is the fastest we’ve gone so far so I’m really pleased. The one thing that loses us time is the amount of gates we had to go through. There must have been in excess of 15 gates and it takes us probably 1-2 minutes per gate. My friend who I rode with is better at it, and we’re learning too, so I think we’ll improve this season. But it does take time away from your total, so something to work on.
Now for the vetting. And here I got it a bit wrong, but we’re still learning the ropes so I’ll put it down to inexpereince. In my eagerness to lower his heart rate after the ride (it was 50 after a tad of sloshing off his sweat) I sloshed a bit too much so he got chilled in the wind. I then didn’t put his rug on quick enough so by the time we got to the vet he was shaking because he was cold and the vet struggled to hear his heart rate as he was bracing himself against the wind. Also, I noticed that he needed to wee but as he was so cold he couldn’t go and he was holding it in. This all meant that we ended up on heart rate 54, a tad high, but I know it was because I got the cooling down/keeping warm routine all wrong. At least it was a completion as we passed the trot up after another bit of piaffe.
Once I had double rugged him and put him in the trailer, out of the wind, he relaxed and wee’d within a few minutes, lowering his heart rate himself. So, lesson learned: if it’s chilly he might not need as much cooling down as usual, and if it’s really windy he might be better inside the trailer before vetting, or vet early as the heart rate will not go down anyway.
Lots of good points to take home however. His speed was good, he didn’t tire at all during the ride, he could probably have gone faster if I asked him to but I was happy keeping him steady. And he feels ready for upping the mileage. We’re now entered for our first 65km in three weeks time so back to the training programme for this week, then slower work for the next two weeks to make sure he’s all ready. We will be riding with some very experienced riders and we feel ready so I’m looking forward to it!
The only snag is my own fitness… I’m aching much more today, two days after the ride, than yesterday. It’s not too bad, I can still go down the stairs but it takes some effort… But it’s worth it!!
