Our Pleasure Ride

Kenzo

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This weekend me Miraed had a dabble at endurance….*coughs* well a pleasure ride, however I think she’s found a new talent, look out Golden Horse Shoe here we come! :D

The ride was organised by the British Horse Society and the funding goes to the bridleways department

It was a 12 mile ride on sections of the Trans Pennine Route (though it was 11 bit actually it was 12), country lanes, roads and off beaten tracks, we had to negotiate a few canal bridges (not your average ones), the steal swing bridges that have the scary gaps where they join the road and make a lovely clattering noise when you ride over them :D, specially when you have shoes on.....nice!

We were given maps (great fun in the wind by the way) which I managed to stuff down the front of my body protector into my no exsistant clevage :D

Miraed power walked like a woman possessed and seemed to know exactly where she was going….even though she didn’t and we ended up passing groups that had set off before we even arrived at the venue! She also did a fantastic impression of a French Trotter and paced along the tracks while Dob the cob cantered behind trying to keep up....yeah cobs and TB's don't really mix :D

We stopped half way round at a friends house, for a few minutes to say hello and she decided she didn’t have time to hang around gassing and had other horses to catch up, started pawing the ground and did a few mini playful rears, the little madam:rolleyes:

However we actually did a 17- 18 mile ride because we had to hack 3 miles to the place where the ride went from and of course ride back again once we’d finished but before we set off back we untacked and let them have a rest while we stuffed our faces with bacon butties, I found out that Miraed is rather partial to a few fingers of KitKat.

Anyway she was really good (all be it a few spooks) and we had a great time, I could really get into endurance actually, although we might need to work on getting a trailer!

Everyone got a lovely posh rosette too for completing it, in fact the rosettes were nicer than the ones you get at these horse shows!

The organisers were very friendly and helpful and a few photos of everyone and everyone else seemed to have a good time too, it was also great to see some chaps riding some Icelantic ponys too, lots of lovely coloured cobs, some little ponys and I beleive some ex racers too which from what I could see behaved wonderfully.

The weird thing is, I thought I’d be a tad saddle sore or at least have a few sore muscles somewhere, but I honestly can say I can’t even tell, I rode Sh*tbag yesterday and didn’t feel a thing, maybe I have the Thorowgood saddle to thank for that one....not good for jumping by god there alright for long hours in the saddle.

Here are a few photos, although I'm not sure why Miraeds head was chopped off in the second, maybe she was pulling her usual camara shy face, then the moment its taken, she pricks her ears forward and looks interested...or at least alive!

Miraed-1.jpg


Miraed2-1.jpg


Ps I did have my BP on by the way!, just was under my new hi-vix which my OH stole...*coughs* I mean borrowed, from work :o I had to doctor it with a pair of scissors though as it was a bit large!

Bite of my Twirl for getting this far.
 
Sounds like a really fun day, great photos, and see what you mean about the rosettes, they are fab. :D

Me and Bodey did our first endurance ride a month or so back, I went on my own with absolutely no clue what I was doing (map reading is not my forte), so I just spotted some Arabs and followed them. It was the quickest 15 miles of mine and Bodey’s life! Great fun though!

So is this going to be your thing then?
 
Sounds like you and Miraed both enjoyed yourselves, glad to hear it! Both horses are lovely, Miraed's face in the first one seems as if she's looking around suspiciously. Beautiful cobby too!

Also, you look sickeningly wonderful for someone wearing a BP and high vis!
 
Sounds like you and Miraed both enjoyed yourselves, glad to hear it! Both horses are lovely, Miraed's face in the first one seems as if she's looking around suspiciously. Beautiful cobby too!

Also, you look sickeningly wonderful for someone wearing a BP and high vis!

lol she one of them that just looks peaved when she's stood around, however we had waited god knows how long for friend to return back from toilet/tea/buying nibbles duties :D which I did point out that I couldnt fit any of them in my tiny pockets which I couldnt get to for my BP, so I had a nicely melted kitkat when we got back :D

Had to laugh though, friend also got her hi-viz from work and wrote her name on the back in small writing at the top, little did she know one of the yard lads had written beneith it, so when she got home and dug it out that morning it said LISA Smells on it PMSL :D:D, so before we set off, she asked YO to look for some gaffa tape to tape of the bit that said Smells...it was so funny :D
 
Sounds like a really fun day, great photos, and see what you mean about the rosettes, they are fab. :D

Me and Bodey did our first endurance ride a month or so back, I went on my own with absolutely no clue what I was doing (map reading is not my forte), so I just spotted some Arabs and followed them. It was the quickest 15 miles of mine and Bodey’s life! Great fun though!

So is this going to be your thing then?

Well as I said we got map but like you, my map reading skills are not great (OH will agree with that when I was driving back from Badders!)

Anyway we decided to follow the rest, exept what do you do when you pass them....follow the hoof prints on the tarmac and the piles of poo....and pray your going the correct way!:D
 
Sounds like you had great fun. I wish one of my lads would have been fit enough. Mind you from our place it would have been more like 25 miles!

What was the route Kenzo. (I'm a bit of an OS map geek).
 
Sounds like you had great fun. I wish one of my lads would have been fit enough. Mind you from our place it would have been more like 25 miles!

What was the route Kenzo. (I'm a bit of an OS map geek).

Well it wasnt what I expected put it that way, I was thinking it would be straight down through Sykehouse, towards the river (near Thorne Road), past the sailing club and onto the tracks towards Tablers Wood, back over the tracks into Pollington then back on to TPT route past Crowcroft and back towards Topham into Sykehouse again....but it was actually down past the Sykehouse Show Field over the diddy canal bridge, in a loop back to main road through Sykehouse, over the over larger swing bridge, turning right on the back tracks, to Topham, to Pollington, around the village, back up to Sykehouse, to be fair it wasnt really that exciting becuase its all places I've ridden before but still its lovely to go as part of something though, its a shame you couldnt come but when you ready, you know where I am!
 
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