Ride Report: Avon Valley – Raine’s First 40km

I really wanted Raine to have done her first 40km in July at Elephant Rock but for a number of factors, which you can read about in my last blog, we ended up doing the 32km there.

On the bright side, the fitness she gained from Bodmin Moor was huge, and I knew she’d be more than ready to tackle 40km on slightly more familiar, home-turf-style terrain. I was confident the distance itself wouldn’t be a problem for her – but I had no idea just how much of a learning curve this ride was going to be for both of us.

If you enjoy following along with Raine’s baby horse adventures, you can fuel the next one (and the writing about it) over on Buy Me a Coffee. Your caffeine = more ride stories.

Post-64km Legs and a Team Relay Curveball

Having completed 64km the day before, falling off and not getting home until 7:30pm on Saturday night, Sunday morning was all about moving like I’d been hit by a bus. My quads and hip flexors were politely asking me what on earth I thought I was doing getting back in the saddle again so soon.

To make things more interesting, I’d signed us up for the team competition.

Team Spirit has run in various guises over the years but this one was: two riders doing 40km, then passing the invisible baton to two riders doing 30km — 140km in total between us. The aim: get all four horses round, and the fastest combined time wins.

The briefing was at 8am with our start at 8:45. I don’t think I had fully considered that this would be a mass start, nor that we would be given race ride vet sheets (thus a full vetting) and that our clock wouldn’t stop until we presented to vet.

In hindsight, it was perhaps a bit ambitious to enter my first season novice horse completing her first 40km in this class.

Nonetheless, here we were.

Our team was supposed to be Keighley Pomroy riding the 40km with me and then Sarah and Niamh Richardson riding the 30km. Unfortunately, Keighley’s horse wasn’t quite right and so we needed to find a fourth member of the team.

Luckily, co-organiser of the event Rachel Judson-Gutteridge was able to step in at the last minute on her experienced 14 year old gelding, Pav.

The “Keaton Now Has Two Horses to Crew” Situation

Due to being a last minute entry, Rachel didn’t have crew as her usual crew was helping at a checkpoint. So my non-horsey boyfriend Keaton (who was crewing solo) now was responsible for two horses! I reassured him that if he could meet us at the points and get everything out I would jump off and crew Raine myself and he could crew Rachel.

We had plenty of sloshes sorted and Rachel had set up a little hold area for when we got back so that we could vet quickly (or try to anyway – me having no idea if Raine would be able to vet fast or not).

Steady away

Raine was her usual chilled self at the venue for the pre-ride vetting and tacking up. Luckily there were only 3 teams in the Team Spirit which meant that the mass start was actually only 6 horses.

Since Pav is super experienced I was able to glue Raine to his bottom and we started off calmly and without a challenge. I did realise that I had forgotten to put my Garmin on but Keaton was stressed sorting out the crew car so I didn’t want to ask him to get it for me! However, I did feel like we were riding a bit blind!

Crew Points, Gates, and Slow Miles

We settled into a nice steady rhythm and I retraced my steps from yesterday knowing the route at this point quite well. I knew the first crew point was 10km in at least and I also knew from the other end when we had 10km to go so that was nice to know.

The 40km loop was different from the 31km loop and it was nice for me to ride some new tracks and see some different sights. This loop was a little more hilly actually but Raine powered up them as she had done at Bodmin Moor and generally just kept trotting along.

I felt really bad for holding Rachel and Pav back as we were definitely much slower than them. Also too there were a few unmanned gates which Raine hasn’t learned how to do gates yet so I got off for those. Good job she stands so nicely.

We had a total of 6 crew points (luxury) on the course which was super as it gave Raine lots of opportunities to drink and for me to drink too. I got off each and every time to give her a bit of a wash down with a sponge (didn’t want to repeat sloshgate from Well Vale) and we took our time.

This combined with generally progressing steadily meant we were quite far off the other two teams. All of this slowed us down and probably frustrated poor Rachel, but my priority was clear: complete sound.

With the ground being so incredibly hard and Raine still having not done a lot of canter work we really did trot for most of the ride. I also felt that the 40km loop had a bit more roadwork and hard tracks comparatively so generally I wanted to be steadier anyway.

 

The Finish Line and Vet Gate Nerves

We made it to the finish without a drama! It was the furthest Raine had ever gone and I knew she was absolutely perfectly sound. Despite it being significantly hotter than Saturday with no breeze at all she had looked after herself for the whole day and I was confident for the final vetting.

Sarah came over to help and Rachel’s husband had stood down from his checkpoint so we had plenty of hands to help get us into vetting. Of course the clock didn’t stop so we were keen to vet as soon as possible.

Poor Rachel had to wait for us again as Raine sat at 71bpm for a few minutes whilst Pav was already down in the low 60s. I’m not 100% sure how long we took to get in but I’d hazard a guess at around 5 mins (appalling by my standards generally but really okay for a baby).

We both passed the vetting with straight As through all the parameters and the vet commented on her brilliant gut sounds! So reassuring after our colic scare at Well Vale. Rachel and Pav passed too so our invisible baton was handed to Sarah and Niamh who set out on their 30km.

Home, Then Back Again

It was now 1pm and the prize giving wasn’t scheduled until 5pm. I made the decision on such a hot day to get Raine back to her paddock and some shade at home. We also had Rita with us and a tired boyfriend so I said that I would take them all home and return for the prize giving.

It’s so unusual to have a ride just 1hr from home that I took the opportunity that we wouldn’t otherwise have. Raine looked like she had been nowhere and was just looking perfect in the field at home.

Keaton and Rita were happy to be home and I had a proper lunch and a shower before driving back to the venue.

I got back just in time to see Sarah and Niamh at the vetting – passed for both of them!

Since we were one of two teams that had got all four horses round we finished in second place. Our time was slow (sorry everyone) but we did it! The winners were much, much faster than us!

It was a really great atmosphere and experience and once again Raine encountered so many new things!

What Raine Learned (and What I Learned Too)

My learnings for this one though are really an amalgamation of all of Raine’s rides so far – we’ve got to work on her independence. She is so happy following behind another horse but she can’t do this forever.

My homework is to really crack on with some solo hacking now and to get her to some more group clinics where she can do independent work in the arena.

Every kilometre we cover (and every word I type) is powered by a mix of horse feed, stubbornness, and caffeine. If you’d like to contribute to the latter, here’s the link: buymeacoffee.com/bellafricker. 

Plans for the rest of the season

Raine has now completed her required 3 novice rides to upgrade to open level but I don’t feel that she is ready for that with her current frame of mind. Of course, I don’t have to upgrade her I can do a full season at novice but I don’t like to do lots of unnecessary mileage. Therefore I’m not sure that I will actually enter anymore GERs this season and instead will take her to some pleasure rides for the experience without the distance on her legs.

Lion’s Tail is a nice ride also not far from home in September and it’s two days so I think my goal will be to enter two days there. It will be good to have the vetting practice for her and consolidate her learnings as well as stay overnight without Chip to hold her hoof.

Really excited by her progress nonetheless and excited to get stuck into her homework and next phase of learning. I am totally confident that with time and experience she’s going to be an absolute pocket rocket. She is certainly showing lots of promise – just need to put all the pieces together. A very smart baby indeed.

If you’ve enjoyed reading about Raine’s biggest ride yet, you can help keep the stories coming by buying me a coffee here: buymeacoffee.com/bellafricker. One coffee = one happy blogger. Two coffees = one happy blogger and a slightly less grumpy crew.