spookypony
Well-Known Member
On Saturday afternoon, we set out, after the pony refused to load and we both got very stressed. Thankfully, he eventually gave in (I think his reluctance may also be related to tyre pressure?), and we were on our way only about 45 minutes after planned. The journey was quick, and he was soon in a big corral full of green grass (probably thinking Christmas had arrived early), and I got some help setting up my tent. The evening was much more relaxed than I had worried, possibly because of my cider and my tent-neighbours' cava...
Sunday began early. I was full of nerves, so woke up at a silly hour. Nevertheless, the time soon passed, with the filling of insane numbers of buckets with speedibeet tea, water with apple juice, plain water, and the big buckets for washing off the pony. I hadn't found a different ride partner, so set off with the two I had asked, on the understanding that we could all split up if there were problems. My slosh bottles and one bucket of speedibeet tea, as well as the container of pears, were given to the crew of the one person.
My goal was to do our first Silver Thistle Qualifier, for which we had to do a ride of 60km (61, in this case), at a minimum speed of 11kph. I had been waffling about asking too much of the pony for several weeks now, and was fully prepared to withdraw at the vet gate at 40km, if necessary.
The first loop, before the vet gate, was 40km. The first 38km passed at blistering speed, with the pony mostly cantering to keep up with the two faster horses in the front. He was quite puffy! So at 38km, realising that we were going to be coming in at about 16kph, I dropped back to walk, hopped off, and simply led the pony most of the rest of the way.
Vet gates are different from vet halts: at a vet halt, you have 20 minutes to present the horse with a HR under 64bpm, and then 30mins (40mins at 60km and above) to rest. The clock is stopped when you cross the finish line, and starts again 50mins later. At a vet gate, the clock keeps ticking until you present to the vet. If you fail on HR, you can try again once 10 minutes later. After the vet, you have 40 minutes until your new start time, when the clock starts ticking again. This year, they changed the rules so that all rides of 60km and above have vet gates, even if they are regular competitive rides rather than race rides.
All this means that there is lots of strategy involved, and you have to know your horse and how his HR behaves in different circumstances. If you come in too fast and the HR takes too long to come down, you risk losing the time that you have gained through your speed. You can also try to be sneaky and present to the vet when there is a queue: the clock stops when you flap your arm in the air and shout, "ready to present", so if there is a queue, you can gain a few minutes to rest waiting in line.
Either way, apparently the moment you cross the line, you whip off the saddle and take a heart rate, to see what you're dealing with. My lorry was half-way between the finish and the vet gate, so I didn't have to try to set up a crewing area (you don't want to waste time wandering around the venue). I went straight to the lorry, whipped the saddle off, and set to work, knowing that I didn't know what I was doing! I'd been told to present to the vet the second the HR went to 60 or below. This small margin might be risky with the pony, as he can get stressy with some vets, which might cause his HR to shoot up again. The HR was close to 60, so I was trying to decide what to do, when the Scottish chef d'equipe (whom I didn't know at the time, so it might as well have been some completely random person with a stethoscope) showed up, and competently helped me cool the pony, and get him to the vet in only a very few minutes! I was hugely grateful!
He sailed through on a 52/50 (before and after trot-up), and I could then calmly leave him watched by the chef while I hurried off to the loo, ate something, and tried to secure a new ride partner for the second loop. Fortunately, there was a lady with a start time only 1 minute after mine, who was very happy to pal up with someone.
After flapping about at the wrong end of the field for a bit because I was confused about whom I had to give my start card to, we set off. I was reasonably relaxed by now, because my borrowed Garmin had us at 13.7kph (I had stopped it when we presented to the vet), which meant that I had plenty of time for riding the last 21km quite slowly. Both horses and riders were quite tired, but we set out confidently. There was a long area of enforced walking due to mud in the middle, but we were able to make up for it with long canters and fast trots on lovely soft tracks later. About 5km out, there was a stretch of very rocky track, which showed how tired both horses were. Neither wanted to trot over this, when earlier, they would have bombed even over this terrain. So we walked, and I did my best to encourage my partner, doing some quick maths to demonstrate that she was still well within time.
We got to the finish in (for the pony and me) a total time of 5:04, which meant a speed of 12.04kph over the 61km. The final vetting was a bit worrying. I had his HR down to 58 after about 10 minutes, but then it simply kept sticking at about 60. Various people, including a vet that was crewing for someone else, another rider that had finished already, and the husband of my partner for the last loop, helped me out enormously with cooling and taking heart rates. Finally, just about at my time limit for presenting, I had to go to the vet. Fortunately, it was the nice, not very tall, very quiet lady that we'd had for the other two vettings. Despite an 80km race horse being sprayed with a pressure sprayer close by, the pony's HR abruptly dropped to 48! I got nervous again when they made me repeat the trot-up because of a slight stiffness at the beginning of the trot, so I made sure we trotted extra-energetically the second time. They decided to pass him, and his HR stayed at 48, which meant that not only did he manage to pass the ride and get his Silver Thistle Qualifier; he did so with a Gold award!
After placing him back in his corral, I wearily waddled about breaking my camp site, and loading the enormous amounts of gear more-or-less haphazardly back into the lorry. I was one of the last people to leave the site (thankfully, someone was still there to assist with loading), and at 8pm, finally got back to my place, where I then had to do at least the most essential pony-care chores. By 9:30, I was finally showered and in the pub for a G&T and a nice dinner.
I can barely walk today. I will have to investigate a seat saver, and start using those riding tights instead of breeches, I think!
Hopefully more pics to follow:
Sunday began early. I was full of nerves, so woke up at a silly hour. Nevertheless, the time soon passed, with the filling of insane numbers of buckets with speedibeet tea, water with apple juice, plain water, and the big buckets for washing off the pony. I hadn't found a different ride partner, so set off with the two I had asked, on the understanding that we could all split up if there were problems. My slosh bottles and one bucket of speedibeet tea, as well as the container of pears, were given to the crew of the one person.
My goal was to do our first Silver Thistle Qualifier, for which we had to do a ride of 60km (61, in this case), at a minimum speed of 11kph. I had been waffling about asking too much of the pony for several weeks now, and was fully prepared to withdraw at the vet gate at 40km, if necessary.
The first loop, before the vet gate, was 40km. The first 38km passed at blistering speed, with the pony mostly cantering to keep up with the two faster horses in the front. He was quite puffy! So at 38km, realising that we were going to be coming in at about 16kph, I dropped back to walk, hopped off, and simply led the pony most of the rest of the way.
Vet gates are different from vet halts: at a vet halt, you have 20 minutes to present the horse with a HR under 64bpm, and then 30mins (40mins at 60km and above) to rest. The clock is stopped when you cross the finish line, and starts again 50mins later. At a vet gate, the clock keeps ticking until you present to the vet. If you fail on HR, you can try again once 10 minutes later. After the vet, you have 40 minutes until your new start time, when the clock starts ticking again. This year, they changed the rules so that all rides of 60km and above have vet gates, even if they are regular competitive rides rather than race rides.
All this means that there is lots of strategy involved, and you have to know your horse and how his HR behaves in different circumstances. If you come in too fast and the HR takes too long to come down, you risk losing the time that you have gained through your speed. You can also try to be sneaky and present to the vet when there is a queue: the clock stops when you flap your arm in the air and shout, "ready to present", so if there is a queue, you can gain a few minutes to rest waiting in line.
Either way, apparently the moment you cross the line, you whip off the saddle and take a heart rate, to see what you're dealing with. My lorry was half-way between the finish and the vet gate, so I didn't have to try to set up a crewing area (you don't want to waste time wandering around the venue). I went straight to the lorry, whipped the saddle off, and set to work, knowing that I didn't know what I was doing! I'd been told to present to the vet the second the HR went to 60 or below. This small margin might be risky with the pony, as he can get stressy with some vets, which might cause his HR to shoot up again. The HR was close to 60, so I was trying to decide what to do, when the Scottish chef d'equipe (whom I didn't know at the time, so it might as well have been some completely random person with a stethoscope) showed up, and competently helped me cool the pony, and get him to the vet in only a very few minutes! I was hugely grateful!
He sailed through on a 52/50 (before and after trot-up), and I could then calmly leave him watched by the chef while I hurried off to the loo, ate something, and tried to secure a new ride partner for the second loop. Fortunately, there was a lady with a start time only 1 minute after mine, who was very happy to pal up with someone.
After flapping about at the wrong end of the field for a bit because I was confused about whom I had to give my start card to, we set off. I was reasonably relaxed by now, because my borrowed Garmin had us at 13.7kph (I had stopped it when we presented to the vet), which meant that I had plenty of time for riding the last 21km quite slowly. Both horses and riders were quite tired, but we set out confidently. There was a long area of enforced walking due to mud in the middle, but we were able to make up for it with long canters and fast trots on lovely soft tracks later. About 5km out, there was a stretch of very rocky track, which showed how tired both horses were. Neither wanted to trot over this, when earlier, they would have bombed even over this terrain. So we walked, and I did my best to encourage my partner, doing some quick maths to demonstrate that she was still well within time.
We got to the finish in (for the pony and me) a total time of 5:04, which meant a speed of 12.04kph over the 61km. The final vetting was a bit worrying. I had his HR down to 58 after about 10 minutes, but then it simply kept sticking at about 60. Various people, including a vet that was crewing for someone else, another rider that had finished already, and the husband of my partner for the last loop, helped me out enormously with cooling and taking heart rates. Finally, just about at my time limit for presenting, I had to go to the vet. Fortunately, it was the nice, not very tall, very quiet lady that we'd had for the other two vettings. Despite an 80km race horse being sprayed with a pressure sprayer close by, the pony's HR abruptly dropped to 48! I got nervous again when they made me repeat the trot-up because of a slight stiffness at the beginning of the trot, so I made sure we trotted extra-energetically the second time. They decided to pass him, and his HR stayed at 48, which meant that not only did he manage to pass the ride and get his Silver Thistle Qualifier; he did so with a Gold award!
After placing him back in his corral, I wearily waddled about breaking my camp site, and loading the enormous amounts of gear more-or-less haphazardly back into the lorry. I was one of the last people to leave the site (thankfully, someone was still there to assist with loading), and at 8pm, finally got back to my place, where I then had to do at least the most essential pony-care chores. By 9:30, I was finally showered and in the pub for a G&T and a nice dinner.
I can barely walk today. I will have to investigate a seat saver, and start using those riding tights instead of breeches, I think!
Hopefully more pics to follow:
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