monkeybum13
Well-Known Member
Sunday was Laceys (and mine) second endurance ride. Wed entered the 28km non-competitive ride having had a ball at Cirencester Park 30km no-competitive ride last year. I knew something would go wrong seeing as it was April Fools day but more about that later.
Ill try and keep this short as I do have a tendency to waffle! Tresham is our closest endurance ride and an area I know very well as my friend has horses that way so Id ridden a lot of the route over the years. Arrived at the venue to a field of relaxed horses (endurance horses are so chilled!) and lots of colour, you dressage riders aint got s**t on endurance when it comes to matchy matchy! Bit of a queue for the farrier but passed both farrier and vet checks. Took our time to tack up and headed to the start, no-one was waiting so I headed off on my own almost immediately.
Lacey started off really well on her own with a good mix of trotting and canter (and locking on to several hunt jumps, silly pony ) and a few short periods of walk. Had a good splosh down with water and the first crew point and carried on with some good, long canters. Our track then met up with the 80kms so things started to get busy and Lacey got bouncier and bouncier! Lots more canters through fields and over the point to point course where madam eyed up the p2p jumps and then I buddied up with someone else doing the 28km ride. Lacey calmed down once she had a friend, even if he did have a very fast trot! Madam could keep up in the trot but decided than a steady canter was easier, try telling her canter is easy when it comes to flat work! The rest of the ride went well despite quite a few slippy roads and compulsory walk sections.
Back at the venue you have 30minutes once you have finished before you present to the vet so we had lots of walking and washing off to cool her down. Lacey doesnt normally drink away from home but we tried some horse quencher and she did drink some Passed the vetting and we slowly got her ready to travel. Loaded her in the trailer, picked up our rosette and headed home.
Washed her off again at home and then put her in her stable to have some food and more water. She drank quite a bit but wouldnt eat and then started shaking all over. I got her out to walk around again and mum phoned the vets, he thought it might just be that her muscles werent expelling the heat as they should do so we had cycles of completely covering her with water, walking for 10 minutes and repeat. After 4 or 5 cycles she looked a lot better and the shaking had stopped so she went back in her stable, we sat around just watching her and then another livery kept an eye on her whilst we popped home for a short while and then back up the yard to rug her for the night. Luckily it was nothing serious but she looked in such a bad way it was really upsetting. She was a lot brighter this morning and happy munching her grass in the field, I checked her on my way back from university and she looked fine. Shes got a couple of days off and much to her disappointed shes back on dressage boot camp.
I said I wouldnt waffle but I have,oops! Heres a few pictures!
Setting off through the start:
Ambling along to a crew point:
Typically there were huge piles of gravel in a lay by on the A46, a lay by that was meant for crewing
All ready for bed with her rosette
Ill try and keep this short as I do have a tendency to waffle! Tresham is our closest endurance ride and an area I know very well as my friend has horses that way so Id ridden a lot of the route over the years. Arrived at the venue to a field of relaxed horses (endurance horses are so chilled!) and lots of colour, you dressage riders aint got s**t on endurance when it comes to matchy matchy! Bit of a queue for the farrier but passed both farrier and vet checks. Took our time to tack up and headed to the start, no-one was waiting so I headed off on my own almost immediately.
Lacey started off really well on her own with a good mix of trotting and canter (and locking on to several hunt jumps, silly pony ) and a few short periods of walk. Had a good splosh down with water and the first crew point and carried on with some good, long canters. Our track then met up with the 80kms so things started to get busy and Lacey got bouncier and bouncier! Lots more canters through fields and over the point to point course where madam eyed up the p2p jumps and then I buddied up with someone else doing the 28km ride. Lacey calmed down once she had a friend, even if he did have a very fast trot! Madam could keep up in the trot but decided than a steady canter was easier, try telling her canter is easy when it comes to flat work! The rest of the ride went well despite quite a few slippy roads and compulsory walk sections.
Back at the venue you have 30minutes once you have finished before you present to the vet so we had lots of walking and washing off to cool her down. Lacey doesnt normally drink away from home but we tried some horse quencher and she did drink some Passed the vetting and we slowly got her ready to travel. Loaded her in the trailer, picked up our rosette and headed home.
Washed her off again at home and then put her in her stable to have some food and more water. She drank quite a bit but wouldnt eat and then started shaking all over. I got her out to walk around again and mum phoned the vets, he thought it might just be that her muscles werent expelling the heat as they should do so we had cycles of completely covering her with water, walking for 10 minutes and repeat. After 4 or 5 cycles she looked a lot better and the shaking had stopped so she went back in her stable, we sat around just watching her and then another livery kept an eye on her whilst we popped home for a short while and then back up the yard to rug her for the night. Luckily it was nothing serious but she looked in such a bad way it was really upsetting. She was a lot brighter this morning and happy munching her grass in the field, I checked her on my way back from university and she looked fine. Shes got a couple of days off and much to her disappointed shes back on dressage boot camp.
I said I wouldnt waffle but I have,oops! Heres a few pictures!
Setting off through the start:
Ambling along to a crew point:
Typically there were huge piles of gravel in a lay by on the A46, a lay by that was meant for crewing
All ready for bed with her rosette