Training Day 1

Blaze ready for day 1 of training.

Nothing strenuous just a short hilly ride to get us started and to give me the opportunity to access her fitness levels and her recovery rate (how quickly she can return to normal breaths per minuet and heart beats per minuet after intense excersise). In Endurance its really important that your horse can recover quickly after excerting themsevles as you need to maintain a particular speed. For example after climbing a steep slope your horse must be able to then pick up a trot or canter as quickly as possible, they cant walk the rest of the way! Or once you've crossed the finish line you only have 30 minuets until you have to present your horse to the vet, this is when the vet takes their final heart rate which determines the garade you achieve, so you want them to be able to return to a low heart rate as quickly as possible. A quick recovery rate is really important!
Its amazing how fit hill work can get your horses, even if they just walk up them. It is ofetn harder for your horse to walk up a steep slope than trotting or cantering up them. They have to really engage their hind quarters in order to power themselves up the slope as they have no momentum to help them. 
Blaze was awesome, iv never known a horse thrive on taking on slopes, she is drawn to steep inclines, head down and just powers her way up them, eating up the ground with her powerful stride. I had one particular ride in mind but as we made our way through the woods she had her outside eye on the big slope that we were walking round, her nose trying to face it so as her body could follow! I gave in and allowed her to go in the direction she seemed to eager to persue, directly up the hill. The mud was slippy and deep in some places and she was having to work much harder to climb it and she loved it!

All the bits and pieces we need in order to reregister with EGB

We did a couple of steep climbs to get her heart rate going and to get her using those hindquarters. I love the sense of teamwork we get when tackling a steep climb. Its as if she says "Just point me in the right direction mum and ill get us up it." She puts her head down and powers forwards trusting that I'm looking out and guiding her through the easiest path. Its such a wonderful feeling to know that I can trust her to act like a parter, maintain gait and direction and to look where she is going when I have to duck down under branches and things.
We headed back home via the road, so as to incorporate yet another hill. Im not a fan of trtting horses on roads but i wanted to see what I was working with in regards to fitness and so a asked for her trot to see how long she could last. She managed about half way/ two thirds of it at the trot and walked the rest. A great first day. Blaze felt great, enthusiastic and she had a nice gentle work out. Most importantly we felt like a real team. Love my special girl so much, she is one of a kind and truly incredible, I cant thank her enough for allowing me to be her partner <3