Liz Taylor

Winter truly sets in

Well winter seems to be finally upon us, the dark evenings are a mixed blessing, lovely because it means I can have dinner at a ‘normal persons’ time (i.e before 9.30pm!) but it also makes life difficult when jugging a full time job and horses... it seems to be dark at either end of the day. I am riding/schooling/lunging before work at the moment...so my mornings seem to be starting ever earlier!!

Normally, after a full endurance season my horses would have shoes off and no work from first weekend in October until January, as I feel it is really important if you have a horse that is competing at a high level to give it a complete rest, allow those feet, legs and muscles to have a complete and full relax – and give any minor issues (that you might not know about yet) time to heal. I also think its especially important mentally – we need to let them ‘chill out’, if we have spent the summer working them hard and expecting them to perform, and reaching peak fitness, they are going to mentally want a rest – I want a nice fresh horse who enjoys going out training, not one that’s sour and is sick of work...so I generally find by giving them a break through the winter when I get back on in January they are pinging and ready to go!!

However, as this year has been about breaking in Enigmatika and bringing her on ready for her to start her endurance career next year, we are going to keep her ticking on over the winter. She was only broken in April, after 4 ½ years muddling around the field doing her own thing so she’s hardly had a stressful or demanding 6 months, we have also just managed to get her going really nicely and I would like to build on this over the winter when there is no imminent pressure of competitions to get her fit for. If we can get her muscled correctly, balanced and moving well and in a rounded outline this is only going to help her endurance career as she will then be a much more balanced and responsive horse to ride, as well as being more surefooted and have the muscle structure in place to be able to carry a rider for a long period of time. I believe this, in time, will enable her to better travel at speed, she will find carrying weight easier as working in an outline will have helped strengthen her back and being balanced should help cover the ground easier than a horse who is on the forehand stumbling and tripping.

We have also been having regular one-to-one dressage lessons to get her working correctly and teaching her to use herself, she has really taken to this and (when she wants to) has the most amazing, elastic and huge paces. Her trot has moments of being absolutely wonderful, but her canter seems to have fallen apart as her trot has improved... we are working on this but as with all babies, its never easy! Enigmatika certainly has a personality on her, very sweet and genuine but exceptionally sharp at times, she knows her own mind and is quite a determined little miss, I like this type of attitude though as it can really work for you on an Endurance ride as you need a tough little horse who isn’t going to give up when the going gets tough – they have to have a little something about them! (The riding lessons have certainly helped me too, I am feeling much more balanced and I am much more aware of my position and hands, I would definitely recommend splashing out on a couple of lessons over the winter!)

Over the last few weeks we have continued going on our little hacks out (no more than an hour and a half as there is no need – the only reason we go that far is it takes me 20mins hack to get to the woods where we do most of our riding). We have just been consistently doing things that she may encounter on an Endurance ride, we have to cross a motorway bridge to get to the woods (admittedly I don’t think I’ve ever done an endurance ride with one of these in it but it’s good training). She’s met push bikes, scrambler bikes, umberella’s (very scary!!), prams (terrifying), walkers, barking dogs, dogs that charge at her legs, fishermen, tents (!!) horses that gallop up and down hedges etc... She’s a bit of a dude and seems to be just taking it all in. We usually ride alone at home, and I actually think this is really good way of building a horses confidence in itself, it learns not to hide behind other horses and have the confidence in its own ability – and on an endurance ride you can’t guarantee you will always be riding with someone, so you need a horse that can go on its own. I also had a friend box her horse over and we went for a ride in the woods, we will also box to my friends yard and ride out from there with a group of horses to give her experience of going in a group too (in front and behind!).

My local endurance group has a series of group Winter lessons in an indoor school which we are planning on taking her to, the first one is this coming weekend, the 8th November...if she behaves we’ll take some photos to show you on my next blog! I think these communal lessons at a ‘boxed to’ busier location (equestrian centre) will give her some excellent experience before she is expected to go to her first Endurance Ride and behave with lots of other horses around, and coming up behind her / passing her etc – also we are aiming to take her to the Offas Dyke Pleasure ride at the end of the year, which will be her first Endurance ride.

I’m really quite excited about the 2010 endurance season as I think I will have a very nice, well rounded horse who is ready to get stuck into her career path to international competition.

Liz