spookypony
Well-Known Member
So two weekends ago, the Spooky Pony went to an endurance training weekend, run as a "Camp Ride". This means that you do routes of minimum 20k for at least two days, with generally sort of rustic accommodation, if not actual camping, overnight (they do tend to turn into "Glamp Rides"...), and there's no minimum speed, so you often go over terrain that you wouldn't normally encounter on an endurance ride. And you're in groups with a leader.
The camp was held at the place of a very prominent Scottish endurance person, who also happens to have self-catering cottages, so no tents were required (thankfully!). Rather than moving in a more-or-less linear fashion, we overnighted at this place each night, which meant the horses were stabled, we had essential prosecco and showers, and the rides were arranged as petals!
I was a little worried coming into it, because the pony has been rather under-muscled for the work he's in, and just doesn't seem to be picking up much condition. But he's had good heart-rates and energy, so I thought we'd give it a go, and could always W/D from further days if it seemed too much!
As it turned out, there were only two horses that did all three days---and he was one of them! We rode in two groups, one that did longer distances (nearly 120k over the three days) and one that did shorter (nearly 70k). I was in the short group.
The first day, we got up to find a rather heavy snow-fall covering everything in a beautiful fluffy white blanket. By the time we set out at about 10am, most of it was gone already, but two riders decided to stay home and mess about in the indoor arena instead, so our group set out as a trio (ride leader, SP, and a palomino Welshie). The first day had lots of roadwork, and then some great canter tracks, taking us high into the hills above Loch Ness. The SP, far from finding it too much, got so keen that I had to take him in front for some very fast trotting, at about 19kph: only two or three years ago, he would have broken into canter long before then, but instead, he flung his legs about like a (small, round) Standardbred and forged ahead! We actually had to hold back and hide several times to avoid catching up with the "fast" group ahead of us. It's a good thing we hid, too: apparently, they wanted to offload an accompanying American tourist on us, who was having some trouble with the pace and the unaccustomed riding style. But alas, our ride leader's mobile wasn't getting great signal, so we never got that message. We needn't have fessed up that he had a satellite phone on him the whole time...
The weather really improved, but shortly before getting home, we were caught in a proper fall of small hail, which meant wet pants all round, and grumpy faces on the horses! Once at home, I was gratified that the pony's HR was already down once I had untacked.
First day:
The second day, the two work-shy riders from the first day joined us. That day, we did a loop that took us along the side of Loch Ness for a short bit, before climbing up the side very steeply on a track aptly named, "The Zig-Zags". The beginning of the day was a little fraught, as one of the two skiving Arabs decided that spinning in endless circles was a good way to release excess energy. I decided to hang back and stay out of the way! At the top, having recovered, we made a loop along tracks through heathery hills, before returning down via the same steep track. Our leader, a highly-experienced member of the long-distance trekking community, used this as an opportunity to teach us about how to lead a horse down a steep path. If you must walk beside your horse, you need to stay uphill of it (so that if it falls, it doesn't take you with it). But ideally, you want to be able to walk in front of the horse, with it following on a loose lead a safe distance behind. I'd been introduced to this idea before, when I did the Coast-to-Coast Challenge, and I'd heard that Le Trec people do this too. The SP is very good at this sort of thing, and I was very proud of how he showed the nutty Arabs how it's done!
At the bottom of the Zig-Zags, we stopped for lunch in a cosy mossy treed bit that was a bit flatter than most of the surroundings, and then we finished with a slightly different route home, which involved another sharp climb. By this point, the day was quite warm; when I finished untacking, the pony's HR was still in the high 50s. After a few minute's cooling by sponging in the sunny yard, it was back to low 40s, however. I was reminded of his very first competitive ride, in 2012, at this very same venue, when we cooled him for the full 30 minutes available and he still vetted on 56 HR... 
The second day:
The third day saw another change in groups. Our leader wasn't there that day (some sort of interfering family commitment), so we were led by a friend who had ridden with the "long" (50k) group the previous day (she was meant to lead her own group all along, but there had been several cancellations due to weather and broken lorries). Her lovely mare (whom the SP often hacks with, and rather fancies) had had a short yet scary colic the previous evening, and was out of action, so she borrowed a horse from the venue owner. The other leader's horse (the venue owner) had a bit of a cut on one leg, so she switched horses too. And the palomino Welshie rider, who suffers from some pretty severe health issues, decided to stay back, having already accomplished more that weekend than she had thought she might. Thus, only two horses did all 3 days: the SP, and a tiny 22yo Arab mare that was in the long, fast group. Our group that day was four: the ride leader on the borrowed horse, the two mad Arabs, and the SP. After some initial boot faff and a period when I thought the ride leader's head was going to explode because the mad Arab riders were serially eating sandwiches less than an hour after setting out, we had a super ride with loads of fast canters. This ride retraced much of the route of the SP's first competitive ride, beginning with going along the side of Loch Ness for a long stretch, in the direction of Inverness. When we got back and untacked, his HR was at about 54 and falling, so I took another one straight away which was at 48, and then I tried to find the others for a trot-up, which wasn't where it had been previously. I eventually found everyone after another few minutes, by which point he was at 44. So he's clearly reasonably cardio-fit, even though his muscles leave something to be desired!
Leaving to go home led to more excitement: first, immediately after loading, the SP made a great loud carrying-on in the trailer, with lots of banging and kicking: the ride leader's mare (the one that had colicked) was now out of sight! I was encouraged to drive off immediately, but thankfully (as it turned out) I couldn't, as I had a flat tyre on the trailer. So I opened it to unload, to discover that the SP had managed to kick the back partition off its hinges and was standing on it, trembling!
Thankfully, after changing the tyre, fixing the slightly-bent partition in place with penguin-print duct tape, and hiding the mare, the SP loaded happily enough, and we managed to get home (3.5 hours) with no further incidents. He was very happy to see his own mares again, and set up a great racket of neighing!
So I'm very happy with how he did---but we're now formally investigating him for Cushing's. Will report on that later, when the bloods get back!
The camp was held at the place of a very prominent Scottish endurance person, who also happens to have self-catering cottages, so no tents were required (thankfully!). Rather than moving in a more-or-less linear fashion, we overnighted at this place each night, which meant the horses were stabled, we had essential prosecco and showers, and the rides were arranged as petals!
I was a little worried coming into it, because the pony has been rather under-muscled for the work he's in, and just doesn't seem to be picking up much condition. But he's had good heart-rates and energy, so I thought we'd give it a go, and could always W/D from further days if it seemed too much!
As it turned out, there were only two horses that did all three days---and he was one of them! We rode in two groups, one that did longer distances (nearly 120k over the three days) and one that did shorter (nearly 70k). I was in the short group.
The first day, we got up to find a rather heavy snow-fall covering everything in a beautiful fluffy white blanket. By the time we set out at about 10am, most of it was gone already, but two riders decided to stay home and mess about in the indoor arena instead, so our group set out as a trio (ride leader, SP, and a palomino Welshie). The first day had lots of roadwork, and then some great canter tracks, taking us high into the hills above Loch Ness. The SP, far from finding it too much, got so keen that I had to take him in front for some very fast trotting, at about 19kph: only two or three years ago, he would have broken into canter long before then, but instead, he flung his legs about like a (small, round) Standardbred and forged ahead! We actually had to hold back and hide several times to avoid catching up with the "fast" group ahead of us. It's a good thing we hid, too: apparently, they wanted to offload an accompanying American tourist on us, who was having some trouble with the pace and the unaccustomed riding style. But alas, our ride leader's mobile wasn't getting great signal, so we never got that message. We needn't have fessed up that he had a satellite phone on him the whole time...
The weather really improved, but shortly before getting home, we were caught in a proper fall of small hail, which meant wet pants all round, and grumpy faces on the horses! Once at home, I was gratified that the pony's HR was already down once I had untacked.First day:
The second day, the two work-shy riders from the first day joined us. That day, we did a loop that took us along the side of Loch Ness for a short bit, before climbing up the side very steeply on a track aptly named, "The Zig-Zags". The beginning of the day was a little fraught, as one of the two skiving Arabs decided that spinning in endless circles was a good way to release excess energy. I decided to hang back and stay out of the way! At the top, having recovered, we made a loop along tracks through heathery hills, before returning down via the same steep track. Our leader, a highly-experienced member of the long-distance trekking community, used this as an opportunity to teach us about how to lead a horse down a steep path. If you must walk beside your horse, you need to stay uphill of it (so that if it falls, it doesn't take you with it). But ideally, you want to be able to walk in front of the horse, with it following on a loose lead a safe distance behind. I'd been introduced to this idea before, when I did the Coast-to-Coast Challenge, and I'd heard that Le Trec people do this too. The SP is very good at this sort of thing, and I was very proud of how he showed the nutty Arabs how it's done!
At the bottom of the Zig-Zags, we stopped for lunch in a cosy mossy treed bit that was a bit flatter than most of the surroundings, and then we finished with a slightly different route home, which involved another sharp climb. By this point, the day was quite warm; when I finished untacking, the pony's HR was still in the high 50s. After a few minute's cooling by sponging in the sunny yard, it was back to low 40s, however. I was reminded of his very first competitive ride, in 2012, at this very same venue, when we cooled him for the full 30 minutes available and he still vetted on 56 HR... The second day:
The third day saw another change in groups. Our leader wasn't there that day (some sort of interfering family commitment), so we were led by a friend who had ridden with the "long" (50k) group the previous day (she was meant to lead her own group all along, but there had been several cancellations due to weather and broken lorries). Her lovely mare (whom the SP often hacks with, and rather fancies) had had a short yet scary colic the previous evening, and was out of action, so she borrowed a horse from the venue owner. The other leader's horse (the venue owner) had a bit of a cut on one leg, so she switched horses too. And the palomino Welshie rider, who suffers from some pretty severe health issues, decided to stay back, having already accomplished more that weekend than she had thought she might. Thus, only two horses did all 3 days: the SP, and a tiny 22yo Arab mare that was in the long, fast group. Our group that day was four: the ride leader on the borrowed horse, the two mad Arabs, and the SP. After some initial boot faff and a period when I thought the ride leader's head was going to explode because the mad Arab riders were serially eating sandwiches less than an hour after setting out, we had a super ride with loads of fast canters. This ride retraced much of the route of the SP's first competitive ride, beginning with going along the side of Loch Ness for a long stretch, in the direction of Inverness. When we got back and untacked, his HR was at about 54 and falling, so I took another one straight away which was at 48, and then I tried to find the others for a trot-up, which wasn't where it had been previously. I eventually found everyone after another few minutes, by which point he was at 44. So he's clearly reasonably cardio-fit, even though his muscles leave something to be desired!
Leaving to go home led to more excitement: first, immediately after loading, the SP made a great loud carrying-on in the trailer, with lots of banging and kicking: the ride leader's mare (the one that had colicked) was now out of sight! I was encouraged to drive off immediately, but thankfully (as it turned out) I couldn't, as I had a flat tyre on the trailer. So I opened it to unload, to discover that the SP had managed to kick the back partition off its hinges and was standing on it, trembling!
Thankfully, after changing the tyre, fixing the slightly-bent partition in place with penguin-print duct tape, and hiding the mare, the SP loaded happily enough, and we managed to get home (3.5 hours) with no further incidents. He was very happy to see his own mares again, and set up a great racket of neighing! So I'm very happy with how he did---but we're now formally investigating him for Cushing's. Will report on that later, when the bloods get back!
