Surrey Hills Ride today - did anyone go?

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Scarlett

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Went to the Surrey Hills Sponsored ride at Stilemans today for the first time - and it was awful. The route planning was terrible, constantly up steep hills and then down steep inclines, no signs of where to go on the roads - plus no stewards on the road crossings/roadwork sections which was great when you had no idea where to go, plus there was a local cycle race on so kept having run in's with cyclists - the gallop was shut
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and worst of all they didn't plan a way around the horrible narrow high banked sections which caused so many problems last year. My boy fell at one point of this, it was a steep hill, the path was about 18" wide and the banks were almost the height of my stirrups, he lost his footing and went head over tail, taking me with him and scaring the sh!t out of us both. He ended up facing the wrong way and I couldn't turn him or get past him and had to reverse him in hand the rest of the way down, before attempting to turn him and get back on. Not amused as they said last year they would try to take that section out, plus it wasnt to only bit like that, some of it was down right dangerous, and not just because of the rain and ground conditions, one section was a steep uphill on what looked like stone steps cut out the side of the hill, hell I wouldnt have walked up them on my two feet, luckily clever Darcy got us to the top but it was disgraceful.

Anyone else go and have issues? I heard back at the finish I wasn't the only one.

Thankfully Darcy has nothing but a cut under his brushing boot, and I've got a mildly mangled arm and ankle.
 
Hi

I went and I really enjoyed it, I have done this ride many times before, so I knew about the hills (clue is in the name
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They did re route this year as in previous years you have had to go up a much worse high banked section, I thought it was sign posted well and had no prblem, thankfuly I met with no cyclists.

It was a shame about the gallop being closed but I expected that as it was last year as well, the only thing I will say is they were not so many jumps and would have been nice to have some more.

Do you think you could have taken a wrong turn anywhere, as the nasty bit from last year definately was not in it this year.??

Hope you and your horse are ok, at least you have done the ride now so you know its not for you and you can avoid it in future.
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I agree with tedster

I did it and thouroughly enjoyed it and so did my horse, just wished there were a few jumps towards the end as I wasn't feeling brave enough at the start but think I would of been ok with them towards the end.
 
I'm sorry to hear about your mishap on the ride Scarlett and hope that arm, ankle and horse are all recovering. But what a shame you didn't report any of this to the organisers. With the exception of one other comment about road crossings, all the feedback we got was of the kind tedster and hotdog have given: lovely country, great fun, well marked, well organised etc., etc.

If we do have feedback we can do something - you are quite right tedster that we avoided a section that had been troublesome last year and that was precisely because we were told about it.

We concede that two crossings on quiet roads were unstewarded but all road approaches had warnings and good sight lines and were double arrowed because we know how easily people can be distracted. Stewarding is a long, lonely and thankless task but we'll try and muster some more for next year.

As tedster said, The Surrey Hills Sponsored Ride takes place in the hills so inclines should be no surprise. You might be interested to know that our path finder party completed the 10 miles in 1 hr 10 mins, an average of over 8 m.p.h., so the terrain is not that impossible!

As for the grass gallop being closed, we had hoped that access to a longer gallop on the all weather track would be just as much fun. Evidently not.

Hotdog, we rather agree with you about the lack of jumps at the end and I suspect there are others like you who gain confidence after a few miles. We have thought about it but haven't yet come up with a solution. Any suggestions?

Seem to have written an essay but just want to finally say thank you to everyone who took part for their generous sponsorship for which I know Vauxhall City Farm Riding Therapy Centre will be extremely grateful Thank you too to the many people who wrote to say what an enjoyable day they'd had.
 
Sorry for hijacking -

Willj, i wanted to reply to the other thread re:photographer; I saw a board for www.ttlsportsimages.co.uk, but can't see that they have put pics up yet.....or were they the official photographer who dropped out? Whoever it was, they probably have nice pics of the group I was with, so I am keen to find out. Do post on here if you solve the mystery!

I had a lovely time with my group, thanks :)
 
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