Other interesting stories and articles

GOING THE EXTRA MILE

By Jen Green

This is not about RIDING that extra mile, it is about putting in that little bit of extra effort to make your endurance experiences more rewarding and fulfilling.

Everyone admires a fit, well trained horse but often the picture is tarnished by a less than clean hair coat, mane and tail. It isn’t just cosmetic! Clean skin and a clean hair coat allows the horse to sweat more efficiently and is less likely to matt under girths, breastplates and saddle blankets, which can cause rubs or galls.

A regularly brushed horse will have little or no ‘scurfy’ build up which can cause hair loss and matting.

Dirty, matted manes lie heavily against the neck and trap heat where silky, combed manes are light and ‘fluffy’ and allow the air to pass through them and cool the sweating neck area.

Braiding or plaiting can further aid cooling and comfort levels for your horse. (Not to mention less likelihood of your hands being tangled up in the reins and the mane!)

Tails that are tangled and dirty can slap over and over against the hind legs and if they are heavy with mud and grit from the trail they can actually abrade the skin to the point of bleeding.  Consider trimming the tail to a manageable length and combing through between legs to avoid the gritty build up. It is also much easier to remove manure from a neat, combed tail than a tangled or matted one.

Tack and equipment that is old, dirty or in poor repair can be downright dangerous!

Leaving a wet, sweaty leather bridle hanging in the float until the next endurance ride is just asking for the leather to rot and break at an inopportune moment.

Dirty saddle blankets encourage fungal skin conditions or worse still could cause rubs or pain to your horse. Stirrups that are thick with mud can make a foot slip or get caught. Dirty girths are a recipe for galls.

Cleaning and maintaining tack in good condition means more comfort and safety for you and your horse.

PVC/Biothane tack and synthetic girths can be safely washed in the washing machine with a saddle blanket or towels or just scrubbed in a bucket of water.

Needless to say, girth points and stirrup leathers, whether leather or synthetic, should ALWAYS be inspected for wear.

Having clean and tidy gear in camp isn’t just being house proud!

Knowing where everything is and having it neatly hanging or folded where you need to get to it saves valuable time before vetting. Having labeled or matching equipment like buckets, towels and scrapers can be very helpful in a crowded vet gate strapping area.

Presenting your horse and camp in a clean and orderly fashion is not just being precious, there are practical reasons behind cleanliness and order. Take pride in your endurance horse and your costly endurance gear. Safety, comfort and less stress are the positive outcomes.

Clare South Australia ,FEI and AERA 

by Tony Thorneycroft

Well this is what happened, a phone call from Marcia,(Sandine Arabians ) 'I heard you are short of a ride in the Quilty (Vic) .I have a horse here that will suit you and carry you all day, a true H/W horse'. So up to Pomonal we drive Camille and I, to meet Dolly. Highland View Dolly had come into my life.

You know the way they look at you and you know straight away you have a rapport? Yep we had one.

On I jump with a gentle word from Marcia, “she has a few issues ,”oops to late I’m already on!! We’ll sort them out I say as we HOP out the gate, up the mountain.  Three hours later we have HOPPED back down the mountain, a few issues half sorted, so off to the Vic Quilty we go.

Seeing this is about Clare S/A. we will leave the Vic Quilty for another time and head to Clare,

Marcia asked if I could ride at Clare I said casually ,yes ,yess ,yessss! On Dolly, okayyy. In an FEI ride, alrightttt, are you an FEI member, ,nnnooooooo.

So a Quick email to our  charming president, an email straight back with the forms I required,and the promise of help if needed. I filled the forms out sent off $20.00. and two days later Bobs your uncle,(sorry Bob), and I’m an FEI member. Not that scary after all. 

Off to the ride. The trip went without a hitch, if you think doing the Adelaide hills with no brakes is cool. With masterful driving, and a little help from Marcia, we arrived in one piece.

Linda and Chris Tanian were there, Linda congratulated me on becoming FEI. The reason I did this is to find out as much as  can, to help both FEI and AERA/VERA to be able to work closely, without hurting each others rule, regulations, and our family sport, I am sure this can be done.

BACK to the ride,  Chris came over and said Marcia had mentioned  about the brakes, and he would have a squizz.

He did ,and after a while said 'you’ll be right now'.  Alittle joke about its up hill going home made me feel muchhh better.

ABOUT CHRIS.................Have you ever known someone who seems to be in the right place at the right time, never put out, always has time to matter, gets the job done with a minimal of fuss, some people are like this its not til later you realize what they have done, then its too late to really thank them.   Chris, is this sort of bloke, does heaps and is never really thanked, so thank you Chris from Camille and Myself, for the little and big things you do. This is often the sort of person you will meet at endurance, what a nice sport to be in.

Back to CLARE ......What a remarkable venue, the place is set up like an old ,old Town, a must to see. The course while a little rocky, in places, was a very good ride, and mostly good under foot.  The Vet ring  ran smooth and the in out gate was speedy, professional, and pleasant, with our own Bevvy helping I expected no less. We presented very early at each check, and the only bad gait and high H/R was mine. Dolly continue to 'HOP' out at each leg, and only half hopped the last leg so some more issues, a bit more sorted!

    We completed the course, in a fair time , and I do need to thank, SANDINE  ARABIANS, and  DOLLYfor not only

my first FEI ride, also my VIC QUILTY buckle. Marcia and Sandy, Thank you.  and Bob (Brieema Arabians) cause without him many of us wouldn’t be riding. This is how great our endurance family can be, even without a 4 legged friend you can enjoy a fabulous ride, awesome country, the fun and laughs of the event from so many persepectives.

   Regards  Tony ,Camille and Lily. (its really Lil’s buckle, bugga!!!)  ssshhh do a gear check, and hoof check.ssshhhhh

The 100 miler - Rachael Saunders and Big Charles

 

Well I always had this feeling that I had a pretty good horse for endurance riding, despite the ups and downs. As I felt the gears notch up and his pace extend toward home 157km so into our first 100miler together, I truly knew, without doubt, I have my hundred mile horse! I did it, I did it all, every km, every step of the training, every preparation of feed, all the homework, took on all the heart breaks, healed all the wounds – I did it – just little me! (oh and my lovely strappers hubby and Greg!!)   

 (below right : a helping hand from Greg to make sure those well worked muscles dont get cold, and hugs all around for horse and rider)

That feeling, I can only hope all of you reading this will get from your horse some day. Even if it’s only for a moment in time, no one can take that smile, that pride and joy away from you – no matter your goals – when you feel that YOU ARE A WINNER!

Charles and I met 9 years ago, a green broke knackery pick up, abandoned at the breakers. Despite the fact he didn’t ‘hump up’ on me as the breaker said that first day, whatever that means – he has sure found his body capable of many such manoeuvres since – rearing, kicking, cat leaping, cantering on the spot – you name it he will give it a go – but what I admire and enjoy most is the athleticism that has come along with all that ‘hard’ work and how he showed me Easter Saturday early morning just how he had finally found his place of comfort in a huge 25+kph trot.

We have taken our time with endurance, now 14years young; I think Charles is in his prime. He is becoming of sound mind, with strength, power and determination that he no longer finds ‘hard work’. As we set off for Toongabbie, I felt a calm from him immediately, that let me know, now is our time to shine. Despite backing off his new angle load float ---- oops WRONG!!! He settled into camp nicely, enjoying the added attention of his very own strapper! We vetted in, with an alarming HR of 24....and yet I still had that small feeling that he was waiting to explode on me - trust, I must trust!! So off we jogged for our usual 5km bonding session pre-ride, we chatted, he snacked on lush grass and made ourselves a game plan – we will ride our own ride every single step!

So, not much zzzzzzz but ready at ten to midnight, took a slow walk up the lane and then 11.59pm, turned around to head out – ahhhhh a relax and give, a sigh -  ‘we must just be going back into camp’ thinks Charles, ‘easy’. Well, not so of course, but my goodness, did that get his mind in a nice place to start! After 2km or so, his body started to fire and I knew, if we were to not get exhausted, I had to let him get away from the crowd and do his own thing. So off we went, the most amazing trot, like his feet never touched the ground , neck outstretched and back relaxed, through that dusty darkness. WOW! Now coming from a rider that felt sick at the thought of trotting faster than a snail a few years ago – to think this now is the most fabulous feeling is more of an achievement than I could imagine – and I say to all of you nervous folk – you can do it!

Crossing the Rainbow Creek, I decided to stick with the game plan, and pulled him back from the powerful wee mare John Olbodstone rides. ‘Our ride Charles’ I whispered. And so we continued, making time on each leg just as we had planned for and feeling easy all the way. A few twinges of pain here and there for me, Deep Heat and Nurofen ROCK!!!! Lovely company of course helps, and I do admire anyone who does this sort of ride totally alone. Nicole Robinson and her steady Quarab mare, helped motivate us both and we exchanged good stories and allowed the horses to work together to make their travel easier. Nearly losing her on the 4^th leg, and hoping we didn’t lose power as a result, when we faced that nice steep hill I had to make a decision – get off and walk him or let him do his hardest – so I asked him, “what do you reckon big guy, can you take this hill full pelt” and without hesitation or time for me to gather position, he was at the top! And so with a horse in sight his engines continued to fire on all cylinders. Giving him breaks on the downhill I felt glad of the little bit of running too to stretch the legs.

Apart from the enticing green grass that kept having him stop dead at whatever pace he was going, and the strange horse head looking tree that in fact was a horse – that nearly unseated both Nic and I, oh and the exceptionally scary overhead boom sprays, freaky water containers, cows, lone sheep, imaginary scary bush creatures and the like – we really had a cruisy ride with a lot of laughs regardless.

To top it off, every leg, found him relaxed and easy to vet through – sometimes a little too relaxed grrrr – gotta work on being scarier to make horsey trot with more impulsion in the vet ring....and of course work on canter not huge massive trot in the BC workout! LOL

And to boot, the most proud I am, is that he travelled 4hrs  home, hopped off the float with ears pricked (front ways!!) and looked just like he would do it all again in a flash.

2 weeks on and I am gagging to get on and ride him, and he too is not impressed that I am out on the wee QH instead. But, rest is imperative to our schedule and so I save those legs and that mind for another week and look forward to it.

If I can give any piece of advice to anyone reading – put the work in, feed him well, be kind to your friend, listen really hard, and you will get more, so much more than you ever hoped for. And that’s just your husband!!!

Thanks to all of you who have helped me, trained with me, motivated me, kicked my ass along the way – can’t wait to set the next challenge!

Photo Album:

Presentations: Presentations after the ride are always a great social event, many hugs and kisses to go around and great prizes and trophies for those who have achieved their goal.

Best Conditioned Line Up:
3-4 horses who have come in at the start of the group for each weight division will be asked to present after a ride, who the day after a 100miler event. You must trot your horse in hand, then perform ridden trot and canter for the veterinary panel. This work out along with heart rate crietria, ride time, weight of rider and veterinary marks for condition will be carefully calculated out to reach a fair conclusion as to which horse is "Best Conditioned" for the ride and weight division.

Off to the vet ring: an exhausted, but happy and relaxed,  pair take it easy walking over to the final vet in, nearly 14hrs of riding and 160km later. No doubt at all that this horse will vet through just fine, but you cant yell in excitement until that final smile from the vet.

3 generations 

Well the day has arrived! May 10th 2008.
Me, my reluctant husband Wayne and my 7yr.old granddaughter Monique are headed for my first endurance ride in 15years. I have owned my 16yr.old standardbred for 10days and neither him or my granddaughter Monique, for that matter, have even looked like going 20km. Here's hoping!
My daughter Patricia Mesiti and her older daughter Brooke were ready when we got to Balliang to collect Monique and her little grey arab mare Jazzie, and we were off.
We camped at the grounds for the night and were all up early next morning to get started. Good old Wayne (not a horse person at all) cooked breakfast for us all and saddled Motto, my boy, and Jazzie while we ate. Unfortunately for Patricia her VERA card had still not turned up so she couldn't ride the 80kms. So her and Brooke rode off on the 40km ride about 8am while Moni and I went at 10am.
Poor little Monique was terrified, I had her on a lead but she was sure we would be galloping off when the rest went by. Her eyes were full of tears as she said, ''I'm trying hard Nana, I'm trying really hard". With lots of comfort and a big hug, we finally got started on our -endurance ride- at a very sedate walk.
At about the half way mark, who should pass us but Patricia and Brooke,so that raised lots of excitement. Monique was starting to get pretty sore by the time we reached the 3kms. from home marker. We all know what that feels like I think, so we decided to have a singalong to help us get to the finish. We crossed the line in 2hrs18mins. We were feeling very proud of ourselves as we crossed the sandy strip back to our float. Next thing I hear a shriek and Jazzie is lying down and Monique is sitting on the ground beside her. Jazzie had decided that her work was done for the day and lay down to have a roll in the lovely soft sand with Monique still in the saddle on her back! She had her arms folded (half angry half laughing) and says "Do you know how much that hurts Nana?" and we both burst out laughing.
We got back safe and sound to our float and good old Wayne took over our horses for us. I had a much needed coffee and then off we went to vet in. Even the vet had seen Jazzie's little act and had a chuckle with us.

Patricia and Brooke arrived about 30mins. later and they both vetted in too, so a really good day was had by all.
We were all thrilled at the presentation to all get prizes, especially Monique for being the youngest rider to complete 20kms and having such a successful day after not long recovering from a nasty fall. The beautiful prizes were a confidence boost for all of us.
Happy Endurance All!
Marilyn Ritchie