Liz Taylor

LIZ TAYLOR IS SELECTED FOR THE OPEN EUROPEAN ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIPS!

We are now at the half way point of the British Endurance season so it is all go at my yard!

The big news is that Falaina and I have been selected as one of the 6 team members for the Open European Endurance Championships, to be held in Portugal on September 8th.  This is a wonderful opportunity for Falaina to compete at such a big event and I am really looking forward to it.

So now the hard work starts!  She was rested after her win at Dukeries and has been brought slowly back into work.  We are now ready to start cantering so look out for us cantering endlessly (well, 20 mile canters) around Wolverhampton racecourse early (too early if you ask me!) on alternative Saturday mornings between now and September!

I wrote last time about how we were preparing Karaanza for her first attempt at 120km's.  We took her down to Euston Park on 8th July.  This ride was not well supported by British Riders but had a huge entry from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, France, Germany and numerous other countries - most of which were using this as qualification/additional fitness work for the European Championships - so we rather threw Karaanza in at the deep end!

Karaanza was amazing.  She was enthusiastic, forward going and genuinely enjoying herself.  She completed the course in the very respectable speed of 17.7kph, in 13th place (23 starters).  The aim was to finish with a horse who was willing to go out again - it would not have been a good idea to push her too hard on her first attempt at the distance.  I wanted her to find it "easy".  We can increase the speed and start to race once I know she can do the distance easily.  The aim paid off and I finished on an enthusiastic horse who I would have happily have taken out for another 30kms!

As the ride appears to have taken nothing out of her the plan is to take her back to the same venue on 5th August for another go at the 120km*** to consolidate the distance.

The other news from the yard is that we have SG Enigmatika back from stud.  We still need to get her scanned but we believe she is now in foal to Shuwaiman Al Bahrain, so hopefully my next endurance horse will be born at the beginning of May 2008!

Liz