Training Day 5.

Making our way into the woods

   More hill work. Today we went right into the heart of the woods, off the gravel track anf hit the muddy mountain bike trails. These tracks are great because they are some of the steepest in the woods, not only that but its really important that Blaze upholds her responsibilities of mainting gait, direction and to look where she is going as im having to duck and dive under low hanging branches aswell as having to slide left and right to squeeze through trees without bashing my knees.
   These tracks are really muddy and so Blaze has to work 10 times harder in order to climb them. She had a really good work out today. 2 super steep slopes, both boggy, head down she powered her way up as best she could. The graidient and terrain was tough and she almost ground to a halt having lost momentum and starting to get out of breath. I urged her forwards, knowing that if she lost momentum completely its quite hard to get going again, i didnt ask her to hurry and if she really needed to stop of course id allow her to do so, i just offered her some encouragement and asked her to try to keep going, which she did. I let her stop when we reached the top but she was off again of her own accord. She really enjoys herself in the woods.

   Coming back down the other side i slid off and walked with her, and it was a good job, she kept all four legs still and slide down most of it! At the bottom I found a load of branches to climb on and mounted ready to tackle slope number 2. It was a pretty long one but it zig zagged slightly and changed in gradient, some parts super steep and others not so much. I like to give Blaze some variety not only is it more interesting for her but also its good practice for negotiating different terrian and being able to pace herself, ie taking it steady and rhythmical on steep climbs or more active and changing gaits on slopes that have flatter sections.

Starting at the bottom we climbed to the top of that hill. Its almost as steep as the drop infront!

   One slope was particualry tricky at it was extremely narrow (a couple of ft) slippy and rocky. I completely dropped my reins and allowed her to pick her own way through it, the last thing she needed was me getting in the way, she needs to pick a way and go for it. If i started medaling it could get dangerous, i could through her off balance or impede her forwards motion. All I had to concentrate on was staying balanced and keeping my weight over her back end so as to give that engine as much power as possible.

   With the amount of rain we have had the stream is running really fast and deep (you can hear the water falling from ages away!) so we went through that too. Its somethign a little different and who knows if we'll be negotiating a river crossing this year.

Training Day 3. Hill Work Continues

Blaze would rather lie in today instead of train!

   With the ground being SO wet and slippy at the moment we are really limited to what we can do in training. Once the ground hardens up then we can create a proper training regime which will included schooling and jumping sessions as well as one of my favourite techniques for helping to improve a quick recovery rate; You get your horse to exert themselves and then rest for the same period of time, exert themselves, then rest, making sure the time taken to do both is equal. To do this I ask Blaze to canter up a really steep slope and then walk back down it, canter up then walk back down. It sounds easy but it is really tough and 15 minuets of this is all we need once, maybe twice a week! Its a brilliant and super effective training technique, so much so that I saw it being used to train race horses on Kim Baileys racing yard!
   Until then we're making do with what we've got which in all honesty is still pretty amazing, Haughwoods IS the ponies back garden! So we're continuing with hill work at the moment. Nothing strenuous still as im still testing boundaries but we're finding the steepest longest slopes we can and Blaze is driving us up them.

What we have to climb and more

   Today (once she actually decided to stop snoozing and get up!) we focused less on gradient and more on distance. The road that leads from the entrance to our land and Haughwoods picnic area is 90% up hill, some parts steeper than others but it is a very long climb. Back in our competitive days Blaze could trot all the way up it, so im using that as a way to further assess her fitness and thats a gaol we will be aiming for as training progresses. For today i just asked her to walk up it, but power walk, asking that she really engages that big engine she has behind. She made it to the top with out any huffing or puffing! Next time ill be asking for a more active walk and them for her trot short sections, building it up very slowly. Slowly is the key here, no need to rush things, its amazing how fit just walking up hills can make your horse, being able to take it up a gear will just come naturally.

What we've climbed, its steeper round the corner

"Slow and right beats fast and wrong"-Pat Parelli

Once in the woods we were treated to some really pretty scenery as it was lightly snowing so everything was dusted in white. What goes up must come down so the next part of the ride was all downhill. This will work to our advantage, once her fitness improves and she can trot all the way up the hill the downward part will allow her the chance to rest and for her heart rate to go down, ready for when we hit the next uphill part which ill ask her to trot up (just like what we would do on an endurance ride)

Pretty in the woods

   By the time we got to the next uphill part Blaze was striding out, enthusiastic (I swear she knows when we're about to embark upwards!) waiting for me to give her the green light to take it up a gear. We trotted all the way up the hill, she needed a little encouragement nearer the top but we got there. It was a great work out as she was blowing out a lot, but continued to walk on nicely, after all, on a ride the only opportunity she'll get to re cooperate is during the walk, we dont stop for a breather, we're always on the move!

It just keeps going!

   I feel asking her to trot up this hill is acceptable in these early days. It is a slightly long one, but levels out half way so she gets a bit of a rest and she is able to trot and canter up this if she is feeling particularly fizzy regardless of her fitness so I know that asking her to do this isnt over exerting her.
   Its all about feel, feeling how much is too much and how much is just right, at the moment walking up steep slopes, and trotting up the odd one thats more of a gentle gradient is enough, she always lets me know when she is capable of more- thats how we managed to achieve so much whilst she was recovering from injury, she let me know in her own way that she could do a little more.

 
   Another good day training. Blaze is doing great and at the moment hill work is enough.

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

To Hell And Back

As of February 8th Blaze was back in training!

Me and Blaze competing. 2005

In 2005 me and Blaze began a competitive career in Endurance. At 12 years old I was amongst the youngest of the Endurance GB competitive riders and Blaze turned out to be a natural at the sport. We both enjoyed it thoroughly and together we completed what turned out to be a very successful first season.
We competed all over the country, including a 170 mile journey up north to Burnley to compete on the moores at Townley Park. We rode past the Westbury White Horse on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. We crossed the damn over Lake Vyrnwy, travelled along Britain's oldest roads at The Ridgeway and galloped round Ludlow race course in a final attempt to cross the finish line before we ran out of time.
Blaze truly excelled herself, keeping up with my friends experienced endurance 15+hh Carbbert Arab. Our first ever ride at The Forest Of Dean on 10th of April 2005 me and Blaze completed a 40 km (25 mile) ride at an average speed of 11 km's an hour. That was 2 km's an hour faster than the Novice speed we needed to go! Blaze finished with a resting heart rate of 47, which meant we had achieved a grade 2. The second best result!

Me and Blazed crossed the damn over Lake Vyrnwy

On 13th August we headed 170 miles up north to compete at Townly Park. We completed a 30km ride at 10.5 km's an hour. Blaze finished with a resting pulse of 42, her heart rate had lowered to her original resting pulse that she had before we began our ride. We achieved our first grade One!
The weather was horrific, truly apocalyptic, by far the worst weather i have ever ridden in. Horses were racing with their heads tucked between their front legs in an attempt to shelter from the howling gale force wind and the driving rain. Horse and rider were soaked through to the skin. Blaze powered her way over the moores, head down, she thrived in these wet, cold conditions.
I remember like it was yesterday. The vet stared at the ticking hand of her watch whilst she pressed the stethoscope to Blaze's side. Always the longest minuet of my life, the vet taking her heart rate at the final vetting.

"42, well done"
"42! Well done Blaze, good girl!" I kissed her pretty face and wrapped my arms around her neck. We did it! Our first grade one. Unkown to me at that time, it should have been our last.

The chalk horse we past over on Salisbury Plain

August 21st 2007
 
Me and Blaze had nt yet completed another season of Endurance as we made the transition to barefoot (one of the best things we've ever done!) Blaze had just started going really well over hard ground and we aimed to get back on the endurance scene the following year in 2008.
We were taking Blaze and my other pony on holiday to the beach. I had never ridden on the beach before. I have never ridden on the beach before. It's one of my dreams. 30 minuets in, i turned to speak to my friend in the back of the truck when I saw the underside of a car coming towards us, in the air.
The next few seconds were just a blur of road, hedges and tree's and the sound of squealing tyres and crumpling metal.
The trailer was no where to be scene. Mum restrained me to the seat whilst I screamed. She didn't want me to see my horses like that. She didn't want my last memory of them to be that. Dead.
A stranger ran over and opened my door and I screamed at him "My horses! My horses! Check my horses! Are my horses okay? Please!"
He ran behind the car and past the hedges and trees we had skidded through. Waiting on a complete stranger to come and tell you if your children are alive or dead is a strange feeling. Things don't seem to play in real time and it feels like your on the outside looking in. Its not real.
I cried, and cried then he came running back.
"They're fine, they're fine!"
I launched my self out of the car, and ran round to the road, past the horse trailer . It was on its roof. Blaze and Piggles were stood in the middle of the road looking extremely bewildered, a couple of onlookers holding their lead ropes.
At a first glance they appeared fine, until I got to Blaze. Her abdomen and hind legs were shaking. Her stifle ripped open.

The car accident. 2007

The car I had scene in the air had hit a car opposite when trying to over take us at dangerous speeds (we were doing just 30 mph). He got launched in the air and he hit our horse box. Right where Blazes head was. The horse box flipped on to its roof. Piggles fell on top of Blaze. The roof smashed apart. Blaze and Piggles were flung out of the roof and skidded across the road. They skidded out so fast their travelling rugs and boots melted.

Whilst Blaze and Piggles took refuge in a neighbours garden the vet arrived. He confessed to me after examining the horses and concluding they were okay, that when he arrived he got his gun out of the back of his car. He said when he saw the wreckage there was no way a horse could have survived and the kindest thing to do would be to shoot them at the scene. He was astonished to see my two up and about destroying the poor ladies neatly mown lawn!

 
Blaze was taken to hospital in Tewksbury where she had an emergency surgery to stitch back together her stifle and assess the soft tissue damage sustained on impact and when Piggles feel on top of her. They concluded that the soft tissue damage was severe, more severe that the wound to her stifle.
Blaze spent 5 days in hospital. I visited every day, wanting to bring her home.

Blaze's recovery was tough. The life she led was one of freedom, not only in the sport of endurance and the training but in her everyday life also, she lived out 24/7. Now she was confined to a stable. Every day, every night, all day, all night. She spent months stabled. She got really depressed and the spark that made Blaze Blaze was beginning to fade. I began to turn her out in to the field, keeping her on a lead rope id stand with her for hours, making sure she didn't exert herself but allowing her to smell and feel the grass, the breeze, the outside. This raised her spirits greatly and we decided that she was well enough to be able to walk to the next field to her pasture mates and be stabled there.
She broke out and ripped apart all her stitches. The vet advised against another surgery as there was little skin to stitch together and instead told us to flush the wound with an antiseptic fluid and let it heal itself from the inside out. It didn't work. It got infected. The infection entered her blood stream and made her extremely ill. The next 12 hours were crucial. She could die.
Blaze just kept fighting and received emergency surgery as soon as she was strong enough. When i say emergency i mean emergency, there was no time for hospitals. She was operated on in her stable. The vet stitched her back together with what looked like rope! Only he had to take away a lot of dead skin which meant the wound and stitches were awfully stretched. There was a strong chance they could rip and we would be back to square one.
They held and healed and Blaze could finally start her 12 months of physio therapy to help repair her soft tissue damage. The vets said she would never be able to compete again. Only gentle hacks. I didn't care, Blaze had survived and the nightmare was over.

We built up her strength slowly over the next 12 months. Blaze did brilliantly and by the following summer I was walking her out in the woods, ridden! The future was looking bright, there was never any pressure to pick up Endurance again, but i looked forward to continuing her recovery. Walks in the woods weren't so much remedy for her body but more for her soul.

August 2008

Things were going great. Too great. Whilst running with the herd in the field, Blaze pulled the tendons in her hind leg. She could nt walk, not a step. She went back to box rest. We had sever flooding that summer, unable to walk through the mud to higher ground we had to dig a mote around the edges of Blazes stable in order for the water to run around her. She pulled the tendons in the same leg a further 2 times over the following months.

Ride details and entry form

2010
Blaze had recovered from her tendon injuries and had come through 2 bouts of colic also. After many hours of pole work on the ground and stretches we finally built up her strength, and began riding again. Nothing as strenuous as our training days. The soft tissue damage sustained in the car crash has never 100% gone away. On August 2nd, my 18th Birthday, we did our first Fun Ride since the car crash and she was great.
Through out 2011 and 2012 we continued to do more and more and have taken part in more fun rides and pleasure rides. We completed a pleasure ride at Blaenavon where we climbed some really steep slopes until we reached the top. Me and Blaze touched the summit. We were given special permission by the ride organiser and were aloud to complete the ride bareback. We were the only riders without a saddle, Blaze was the talk of the ride! Bareback riding is pretty unheard of in Endurance. 

Taking on Blaenavon, bareback!

There we were. On top of the world. Undefeated. Ready for more.

Blaze has already done the unimaginable. She survived the car crash. She survived surgeries and recovery. Regained her physical health. Touched the summit on the hills at Blaenavon. Now she is about to tackle the impossible. On October 2nd me and Blaze will be one of hundreds entering and competing in The Red Dragon Ride, considered one of the toughest rides on the Endurance GB Calendar. We'll be taking on a 42km ride round Builth Wales' toughest slopes.
Blaze was born for this. Its more than a sport to her. Its freedom, its the opportunity to roam, explore, live like generations before her, to do what she is so talented at, what she was born to do. This is it!