Liz Taylor

Vavaar voom!

We’ve had another busy time in June and the beginning of July. Although I am on a bit of an enforced break at the moment due to Karaanza’s injury I like to still be out and about, so I helped at the Cirencester Park Endurance Ride in the middle of June. I would urge anyone who either currently does endurance or who is thinking of giving it a go to offer to help at a ride. There are many jobs available from vet writing to being a check point or timing in/out or even holding a gate open! It’s a fantastic way to learn and meet people and really get involved with the sport. ALL rides need helpers, so even if you can just spare a few hours it will be very much appreciated, if you would like to help, please look on the Endurance GB Website for more information (www.endurancegb.co.uk). I am also helping at Ludlow this weekend.

Whilst helping at Cirencester I was lucky enough to bump into a friend who offered me a ride in the FEI** 120km race at Euston Park the following weekend on a horse called Vavaar. Vavaar has done exceptionally well over the last couple of years, he came home with me for the week to ride out and get used to each other then we took him down to Newmarket for the race the following weekend. There were 41 horses entered in the 120km** so as you can imagine the start was to be quite exciting for the horses! But a true professional Vavaar set off well (I’m ignoring the few bucks he put in throughout the first loop!) and gave me a lovely ride throughout the whole 120km. We left the last vetgate 20minutes behind the horse in 9th place, but nearly an hour in front of the horse in 11th. Vavaar flew out of the vetgate and gave me a super last loop, approaching the finish I saw a horse in front of us, Vavaar still had more in the tank so we set off after it, we caught it with about half a mile to the finish, I didn’t want to race from this distance, so we tried to pass her but she wasn’t keen to let us go, we ended up galloping across the line in a racing finish for 9th place...which we won by about a length... but Vavaar then took some stopping and did a lap of the field! He passed with flying colours and achieved 9th place, out of 41 entries at a speed of 18.56kph.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the Spectrum little Enigmatika is (slowly) taking her first steps towards being a 160km Endurance horse. She is going very well at home, we are still schooling regularly (I am going to invest in some lessons to get us both going well and tidy up my bad habits!) and we are slowly upping the distance we are riding when we go out. She’s a very sensible horse who seems to be taking everything in her stride, she is enjoying the challenges of going out in the woods and seeing new things, we walk and trot, and have little canters, but although the walk and trot is coming along nicely, the canter is still very weak, wobbly and babyish.
I feel its important that Endurance horses are able to ride on their own as well as in a group, because on an endurance ride you can’t guarantee you will always be riding with someone – and a horse that gave up or threw a strop when it was on its own would annoy me! So Ennie has been doing all of her work on her own, I think it gives her confidence as she has to think for herself, admittedly for safety the first few times I took her out I had someone accompany me on a bike, but since then we’ve been on our own and she’s been no trouble at all.

The schooling is ongoing as I feel a nice balanced horse will carry itself better over bad terrain and put less stress on the limbs, therefore hopefully increasing the competitive miles she will cover, and reducing the likelihood of injuries.
As I said, lessons (for me and her!) will start again imminently!

The next step for Ennie is to buy her a new saddle (the current one she is wearing – the only one that fits her – is the old ponies synthetic which is the most uncomfortable thing!) and also we will box her out to a friends yard to ride out from there so that she learns about riding in other, less familiar areas with other less familiar horses. She’s going so nicely at the moment that we will probably try and get her to a small endurance ride at the end of this year, and hopefully some little dressage competitions over the winter before starting her novice season next year.

So far, so good.

Liz (not enjoying this wet weather!) 15th July 2009