Missing the first ride of the season
Beth Endurance
by bethendurance
54m ago
I was pretty down in the dumps about Estrid missing the Cannock chase ride due to injury but actually it didn’t slap me like it used to. In the many pony injuries over the last 10 years, a kind of silver lining, is that I appreciate just getting to the start line of a goal, I genuinely feel happiness and relief when I just make it to a venue, never mind expecting to actually complete it. Estrid fell over the Tuesday before the ride, when we both took a tumble in the school, and then she came in from the field 3 days later with heat in her leg and looking really stiff. She may have tweaked some ..read more
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Tissy Time
Beth Endurance
by bethendurance
1w ago
It was great to be back on my trusty steed for our first after work hack of 2024. Although Tissy is less than enthusiastic about hacks from home and even less so about, what she considers a pointless gait, having to walk the majority of it. She’s always been this way, this pony loves adventure, spontaneity and speed. She is not one to enjoy a casual plod around the block. Unfortunately for Tissy, a casual plod around the block is a requirement for being able to go on adventures. So were building her work back up slowly so that we can head to some nice pleasure rides. She’s not maintained as mu ..read more
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Just Because
Beth Endurance
by bethendurance
2w ago
I too often have a schedule to stick to, training to complete, jobs that need doing. So when I have a day that I have decided will be a no adulting, no timetable, no pressure day it is absolute bliss. I decided to go for a slow 5km chilled out hack on Estrid in the sunshine. I cleaned a saddle I’d been meaning to sell since June last year. I gave Tissy a bath ready for her to start being ridden and I did all of it just because, not because I’d written a list that needed completing or had a deadline to stick to or a goal to aim for, and that feeling was actually really nice. My brain would not ..read more
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Crich Tramway Endurance ride
Beth Endurance
by bethendurance
3w ago
It was so nice to start the 2024 endurance season with a little outing to the Derbyshire groups social ride at Crich Tramway. Thank you as always to everyone who helped put on the ride and it always amazes me how many smiley helpers the Derbyshire group manage to muster out on course so that we didn’t have to do a single gait! Estrid has come on leaps and bounds in the last year but she still struggles when we ride out with Fluffy…I have no idea why as she doesn’t do this with any other horse, but it’s like she’s moving with the handbrake on and she stops at the strangest things. By herself sh ..read more
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First long(ish) training ride of the season
Beth Endurance
by bethendurance
3w ago
I took Estrid to her first training session around Cannock chase and I was thrilled with her! There was a tree across our path which meant I couldn’t go along the usual track and so I got entirely lost in the woods trying to find a way around, she went over all sorts of terrain, cambers, steep slopes, boggy bits, rocky sections, the lot and she didn’t put a hoof wrong, not once did she question me and I really enjoyed spending time exploring with her. For me a short training session is 5-10km, medium 10-20km and long would be 20km+. So really we did a medium training ride as we covered 17km an ..read more
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What to do that isn’t lunging
Beth Endurance
by bethendurance
1M ago
We have never done anything together as a livery yard with our horses. We have quite a variety of horses and activities, from mainly hacking, to mainly schooling, dressage, hunting, and of course, endurance. So it’s rare for us all to be doing something together. I organised Ross Cooper from ROSCA Horsemanship to come to our yard and do a 2hr clinic. Some of the horses on our livery don’t have transport and some don’t feel confident riding in an arena with other people so we decided upon a groundwork clinic to give us more ideas for training activities over winter that wasn’t just lunging over ..read more
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Estrid’s first trip to the gallops
Beth Endurance
by bethendurance
1M ago
Estrid is aimed at a maximum 80-100km this year so she doesn’t need to do specific long canter training or traditional gallops work until next year. But I do like to introduce canter work when we up the distance to 80km. One because 80km of trot is pretty boring and two because I like to up it slowly and I don’t want to start doing gallops work for 120km from no experience whatsoever. If I had good training grounds, so long hill climbs, good going and a decent network of routes then I wouldn’t need to introduce canter work specifically at a gallops as I would just integrate it into our normal ..read more
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Tissy’s winter holiday
Beth Endurance
by bethendurance
1M ago
Tissy is pretty remarkable in many ways (I’m biased) but truly in the fact that you can leave her for weeks and then get on for a ride and she has absolutely no issue with this, she isn’t fresh or spooky, she is just the same old Tissy. This trait makes giving her time off super easy. She has always had 3 months ‘off’ a year without any training her whole life. Usually from October to December at the end of a season. In her older years she’s had more like 6 months off from October to March. I still take her out for a little spin here and there but riding Tissy is meant to be fun for both of us ..read more
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A riding lesson at Ingestre
Beth Endurance
by bethendurance
1M ago
Just wow! It is so exciting when you find someone who gets you, gets your horse and gets how to get the best out of you both. This is exactly the experience I had when I took Estrid for our first flatwork lesson at Ingestre stables with Rob Lovatt. I really want to get Estrid working long and round, powering form behind in a nice even rhythm. Which we sometimes achieve at home but she’s so stressy that anywhere else she’s like a llama. Rob instantly got us working better within about 30s, the way he explained things to me and simplified exactly what to do made me feel less like I was juggling ..read more
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Our First Dressage Competition
Beth Endurance
by bethendurance
2M ago
It was on paper an absolute disaster! If you were told you were merely ‘Sufficient’ or ‘Satisfactory’ with the next level down being ‘insufficient’ it’s safe to say you probably wouldn’t class that as a win. However, despite a score of 59% and a test that looked like a stressed ironing board who couldn’t stay on the track was having a go at Dressage, it was, for me personally, a very successful day. The whole point of signing up for dressage this winter was so get Estrid out to venue’s in the hope that exposure will reduce her stressiness. The added bonus is it will, in time, improve her balan ..read more
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