Petplan Equine
Sponsored Rider - Lorna

July to September Update

The three months of July, August and September generally went positively with fitness levels being tested and increasing as time passed. I felt we were back on track and had started some planning again and getting excited for the future ahead, but things ended with a bit of bump at the end of September, quite literally! More on that later!

I’ve been on winning form for the past few months, not in riding competitions but horse related all the same! I won the following:

1. Two tickets to Equitrek Blair Castle International Horse Trials from a Facebook competition. Dawn, her mum and myself all took a day trip down, watched some dressage, a friend ride her young Connemara in a showing class, did some shopping and walked the cross country course, with a particular look at the 1* course for Dawn as she is aiming for this with her mare next year. It was exciting to walk it with that in mind and for it to look do-able!
2. A supplement of our choice for myself and a friend, from Pro-Equine in a Facebook competition. Pro-Equine are a local company who have brilliant products for many things.
3. £20 in Dengie vouchers from a prize draw at a talk at a very interesting evening at Norvite, a local feed store. There were three speakers for ‘Let’s Talk Golden Oldies’. Speakers at the evening were Tracey Hammond, Dengie Nutritionist talking on “Fibre and the Veteran Horse”, Natalia Davis, Norvite’s own Equine Nutritionist talking on “Nutritional Considerations for Older Horses” and Lorna Grier from Ardene House Vet Practices (my vet practice) on “Preventative Health Care for the Older Horse”. All talks were very informative and gave food for thought (no pun intended!).

Spangle and I have had a few enjoyable and successful outings to Endurance events and Spangle has been going well and felt chirpy and cheery. We have had a slight change to our feeding and supplements which I think has helped. Spangle was being fussy regarding feeds, particularly at or after rides. This has improved with the supplements and electrolyte products change. We are now using products from Hack Up Ltd and am happy with the early indications.

The most notable event we attended was a 40km ride in Hexhamshire. It was a seven hour journey from home but well worth it. It is a ride I have never done before and seeing different countryside is one of the main attractions of the sport for me. As we stayed overnight on the Saturday night, a few of us headed into Hexham for an evening meal. What a beautiful place!

Attending this ride also allowed me to test long travel and overnight stays with Spangle again, without the worry of doing a strenuous event on top of it. 40km should be well within her capabilities so it made sense to do it like this to check the travel and overnighting was not knocking her system out of kilter. The route was lovely and we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and she finished feeling very fresh. I was delighted as this really felt like we were back on track.

Circumstances then dictated that we had a few weeks of no competitions again but enjoyed some lovely training at home as time allowed. We have had some super weather and lovely sunsets.

I continued my evenings helping at RDA when I was required – generally every second Thursday evening and I also had been called upon to help on a Monday evening after the summer holidays were over – I think initially the intention was this would be short term but I felt I formed a good partnership with the rider and pony I was allocated too and very quickly saw some very positive changes in her. Due to this I offered to continue to attend the Monday evening sessions as I was really enjoying them.

My work on the Findon Riding Club Committee has been continuing but will shortly be coming to an official end, in my capacity as Secretary. I will however remain a member and help them with events and offer ideas and suggestions (if they wish).

I’ve helped out at two endurance events, one at Tahuna where I assisted with the admin and results and another at Knock where I assessed the pleasure ride horses for soundness and heart rates. I also assisted during our quiet spells with the results and anything else that I could. A common theme in both Endurance and Riding Club is that we really struggle for helpers – I don’t really understand why this is as in the main I really enjoy my days dedicated to it. Generally you are around like minded folk, get to know people better, learn a huge amount and generally have fun. Please if you want to know more about the sport or other people doing it, offer to go along and help. You are most likely to be welcomed with open arms.

Our next event was local, on ground that we mostly know very well as we have trained there a lot over the years. I haven’t been in a while so the ride was welcome as the hill work is very good for the horses and it is a pretty special place although the riding is not fast, it can be tiring on horse and rider. We rode it with a couple of friends and the three horses worked well together and we all had a great day. We completed the ride and vetted successfully. Nice preparation for our next outing – a two day 80km ride at Eddleston, near Peebles in the Scottish Borders. Another ride we had not done before (in fact it was a new ride on the calendar). The area around there is varied and stunning so I was looking forward to the ride.

There was an exceptionally strong wind blowing at the start of the ride and it was really strong as we rode along. The tracks were indeed varied, some rough grazing fields, some grassy disused railway line, stoney tracks, livestock grazing, moorland and a number of gates. It was testing and it certainly gave me plenty of practice at opening and closing gates from both on board and getting off for the more tricky ones. I have had issues in the past with getting back on an excited Spangle so the multiple on and offs were useful. It would have been nice though to have had someone to share some of the gates with, although we were very lucky to have as many volunteers at gates as there were – I did feel exceptionally sorry for them with the way the weather was and was not surprised they were not still on duty on our second loop as there were only a few of us back out on course for a second loop. Of course though we were a bit more tired by now and the route was very similar to the previous one. All was going well, albeit relatively slowly, until I fell off half a kilometer from the finish of 53km on day one of the two day 80km ride! I broke a rib but managed to finish day one of the ride! Lovely event helpers helped me untack and get Spangle vetted, successfully. They helped me load everything up, Spangle included and I headed back to the overnight field – I found that actually driving was not as painful as many other things and made the decision that it would be more sensible to head home than to spend the night in a tent! It was not late so if I headed off. I called ahead so I would have help at the stables when I got back and friends and others helped me take my tent, and Spangle’s coral, down. We got home safely and when I tried to get into and out of bed later that night I was very glad I had not tried to stay in a tent as I fear I may still have been there!