Ride Report: Red Dragon: Season Finale

It’s been my season goal for a long time now to take Chip to Red Dragon, a ride that’s equal parts legend and fear… (coffee fuels these write-ups, so if you enjoy following along you can support me here 👉 [Buy Me a Coffee]). And when the 65km CER new race format was launched this year that was always to be my chosen class too. (Previously, racing only started from 80km + so it’s so nice to have the opportunity to be competitive at a slighter shorter and more accessibly distance).

However, the concept presented a few challenges.

Hills when you live somewhere flat

The first big one about actually tackling the course, after all it is supposed to be one of the toughest we have and the second about stabling on site.

I actually rode a 2-day 80km at Red Dragon in 2016, but my memory is so bad I genuinely couldn’t really remember it at all! Since everyone has different perspectives on what constitutes a ‘hilly ride’ I was also getting a few mixed messages about what to expect.

Nonetheless, since I live in a very flat part of the country I figured it was most certainly going to be hilly for me, no matter what everyone else said.

I set out my training plan, which incorporated both Elephant Rock in July, Avon Valley in August and then the Michaelchurch endurance ride three weeks before. That was successful on paper but in reality scared me so much that I don’t actually think it did anything for my confidence going into Dragon at all. Around this I had to travel a fair bit to get to hills (40mins to one location and 1.5hrs to another) with lots of repetitions to get our hill training in.

Want the full blow-by-blow of Michaelchurch? You can read the detailed blog here.

Hoof boots – the hill I’ll die on?

The third issue which only arose at Michaelchurch was facing slippery going in hoof boots. Chip has been trained and competed exclusively in hoof boots for the past three years and I quickly learned they are not ideal for moor conditions in the wet.

Since the weather is the one thing that absolutely no body can control I really did panic about Red Dragon as I knew I simply wouldn’t be able to do the course in the rain as we wouldn’t be able to stay upright.

The hoof boot debate could fill an entire blog of its own. Maybe that’s one for winter miles… fuelled by flapjack and, you guessed it, coffee. If you’d like to help, you can support here 👉 [https://buymeacoffee.com/bellafricker].

Stable sagas

The second issue I had mentioned was about stabling. All of my horses live out 24/7, 365 days a year in an established herd. They have freedom, friends and food and I think this set up makes for happier horses. Nonetheless, inadvertently, it’s created a small issue when it comes to stabling at events. That is to say that for FEI events where stabling is compulsory it’s been a big stress indeed as Chip has gone on hunger strike the last two times we stabled at competitions – not ideal before a 160km!

In preparation for knowing that we had to stable overnight at Red Dragon, I started bringing Chip in during the day for a few hours and with many thanks to my yard owner, he was turned out at lunchtime. For the first week he persisted on his hunger strike mission and just stood at the stable door in protest but he eventually resigned to his fate (or got used to the new routine) and settled into being stabled for a while.

Since he has quite a bit of arthritis I didn’t want to progress to stabling overnight at home either as I don’t think that would benefit him overall, I felt that the few hours was enough practice. BUT I wouldn’t really know if that had worked until we got to Dragon.

Travel plan

To give us a fighting chance of him being settled in the stables I decided to travel on the Thursday even though our race wasn’t until Saturday. This meant he would have a total of three nights in the stables at Dragon but also it meant that he would have an extra night in the stables before race day – it was going to go one of two ways…

I started packing up the weekend before and made the most of each evening during the week so that when Thursday morning came around nearly everything was packed, cleaned and ready to go. However, the weather forecast for Saturday looked like my worst nightmare – heavy rain and only 13C all day… I am not exaggerating when I say that I genuinely thought about not coming.

The last thing I want is for Chip (or myself) to get hurt on a ride and falling down twice at Michaelchurch was very fresh in my mind. Not to mention the fact that we had such a quiet season in 2024 and this season has been going so well, I don’t think I could mentally face a failure on our card.

However, we’d done all the training and put in all the work! And if there’s one thing for sure, we know the forecast can change by the hour. I called my best friend and crew, Shez, for a pep talk and soon we were on our way.

Thursday: Getting there → Early Bird Gets the Best Corral

I accounted for a 5hr drive to Dragon given that it took us over 4hrs to get to Michaelchurch but actually I think the drive to Dragon was easier! We were the second horse to arrive at the venue at about 3pm on Thursday. It meant we were spoilt for choice on where to park and where to set up our corall.

I opted for as close to the stables as possible since the venue is huge and you end up walking so much anyway and I wanted to minimise lugging stuff around as much as possible. Before long others were arriving and Chip was happy to have some company.

Our first night → Lights Out, Anxiety On (For Me) 😅

The curfew on the corralling is 7am-7pm so with a high degree of hesitation on Thursday evening I took Chip to his stable at the last possible minute and then left him to it. That is to say I didn’t stay long to see what he was going to do, just made sure he wasn’t immediately stressed and left again. I know that sounds maybe callous but we didn’t have any other option. These are the rules of the showground and he just had to be okay.

In the morning, I made sure to get there at 6:30am for breakfast and I cannot express my relief enough to say that he had eaten loads of haylage, all his dinner, he’d drunk water and he’d weed and pooed and was totally calm and fine. I know for most horses this is just normal but for Chip this was phenomenal given the previous two competition stabling experiences! Back into his corall for 7am we had a fairly chilled day on the cards with just a sports massage for Chip booked at 11am and then the pre-ride vetting in the afternoon.

Friday: The day before

I was really keen to go and walk ‘The Hill’ in person so that I refreshed my memory on what was ahead of me so my boyfriend Keaton, Rita our Dalmatian and I all set off for a walk. We knew the Friday classes were starting at 10:30 and we wanted to be out their way. We were treated to the most glorious crisp start, not a cloud in the sky and pure sunshine, fresh (a touch of frost on the grass initially) but stunning. What a view! It was nice to know what to expect and make a bit of a game plan in my head.

Back to the venue for his sports massage it was another relief to hear he was very good after his journey and just a few minor niggles to work on. We were then graced with this highly unusual entity of ‘free time’ since the rest of our crew team weren’t arriving until after lunch and there was nothing needed to be done at the venue.

Keaton and I had a walk around the town and then we came back to our accommodation which was happily only two miles from the venue. I used the time to prepare dinner (bolognaise sauce so that we only had to re-heat it in the evening and cook some pasta (ideal pre-ride dinner by the way!)) and then actually had some chill time.

Once Shez and Heather had arrived, the crew team was complete and we headed back to the venue to check in officially and go to pre-ride vetting. I had a big plan about doing loads of walking before we vetted but for some reason we kind of didn’t and then we got to the farrier check and I was super stressed! The trot up in the barn certainly has a bit of a reputation and for my arthritic man the reality of presenting on a concrete trot up suddenly made me panic.

As usual, I should have not feared as I could hear all the way up and down our trot up how beautifully symmetrical he was and how totally sound he was too. So okay we got to start! I can’t lie that there wasn’t also a bit of me that hoped the vets could also tell me it would be okay to just go home now too! It meant we actually had to do the ride now!

The briefing wasn’t until 6pm but we filled the time sorting out the crew car and socialising. The briefing just confirmed all the information that was already in the ride information packs so we all knew what the rules of the game were. We then headed back and had a nice dinner and an early night.

Thankfully, the weather forecast had changed to rain from late afternoon so I hoped with some luck that it would stay true and we would in fact be off the course and finished before the rain came. The nighttime forecast was much milder too which made the morning more pleasant at 9C.

Saturday: Start line

Once again, Chip had his breakfast at 6:30am and then we began hand grazing and walking him. By 7:15 we started tacking up interspersed with the walking and then I was on for 7:45 and heading down to the start line.

Again I had a little moment of panic – “why am I doing this” and once again my bestie was there to say “otherwise, we’ll never know” and so with that I made it to the warm up field. It was a nice group size with us 65km racers starting with the 2-day 160km class (since we were all riding the same first loop to the on course vet gate).

That little wobble of “why am I doing this” is exactly why I share these blogs – the behind-the-scenes reality, not just the rosettes. If you value the honesty, a coffee is always appreciated ☕ [https://buymeacoffee.com/bellafricker].

Given my hesitation and pessimism my game plan was to start quietly at the back which I stuck to as we set off at 8am behind the pace car. There’s a lengthy section of road (2km) before you go off onto the tracks and begin the hill. There was definitely a bit of jostling going on up front and it looked a bit too frantic for me so I was very pleased to be the very last horse walking up the hill and in our own space (Chip not so much but I have breaks so it was fine!). Once we got to the top there wasn’t a horse in sight!

A good friend had told me if you pace yourself properly up the hill, you’ll pick everyone off along the top and she was true to her word! By the first crew point (10km in) we were back in the front of the second pack. From here on out we road most of this first loop in a group of four and Chippy was most happy to oblige being the lead horse and pace setter. The views were simply stunning and the going was absolutely perfect.

I have to say though, if it was raining it would have been just as dangerous for us in hoof boots as Michaelchurch was and so there’s no way we would have been having such a nice time as we did.

Chip was quite full of himself with the race environment which he seems to have so missed these past few seasons and so there were more than a few ‘near misses’ in terms of me nearly coming off. One was so violent that I managed to lose my garmin watch off my wrist! I have a very nice bruise to show for it too!

Into the vet gate

At the last crew point we broke away towards the vet gate (more Chip’s choice than mine) and so we rode the next 4km into the vet gate alone. A standard quick presentation time for Chip and a flawless A for action in yet another cow barn (this one complete with cows actually sharing the space with us) we enjoyed our 40min hold.

As per the plan we did a complete boot change in the vet gate so that we had fresh pads – so important to help reduce concussion as well as new fluffies to help reduce rubs. Chip ate well and I did my best to eat…

Loop two

Onto the second loop with vigour, we made the most of the first few km of flatter farm land before we got back onto the moors and started more climbing again. It wasn’t too long before our race mates caught us up and then we completed the rest of the second loop together as three.

It was so nice to have some company and we were all riding nicely together, taking our turns in front, helping each other do the gates. Very social and the horses were all happy bowling along. There were as expected lots of climbs and descents, some good going and some technical going. I was so grateful for hoof boots to protect him from the stones and fair bit of roadwork that interspersed the grassy going.

A change of pace

Before I knew it we were back on the top of those stunning moors and bowling along the top. Suddenly the canter had opened up a lot more and I sensed that mood had changed in the group as the finish was approaching. I laid my cards on the table early that I wouldn’t be partaking in any proper racing. There had been far too much emotional trauma in the build up to this to risk it for me.

I got off and jogged down the hill with the others – who also politely gave me a pause to get back on at the bottom so we could carry on trotting towards home.

Into the finish

There is one final crew point about 1.5km from the venue which only I had crew there. I told the other two to go on without me and race it out but Chip absolutely wasn’t going to be left behind. He was literally running backwards to go with them! He at least did have a slosh but neither of us had chance to stop for a drink!

Across the road we turned into the racing finish and I took a very big pull, making it categorically clear to Chip that we weren’t going to be involved in the race. I was more than happy to secure 4^th place just 25 seconds behind 2^nd place. That’s absolutely good enough for me.

The final vetting

It’s a long walk back up to the vetting barn from the finish at the bottom and Chip’s heart rate was already 48 by the time we got up there. I did take the opportunity to once again change his boots and pads and rearrange the fluffies on his hind feet (since we had broken another boot strap) before we went into vetting.

There was a bit of a queue since we all needed a 3 vet panel for a CER finish as well as lots of graded riders and pleasure riders also needing their final vetting. Nonetheless, all three of us had passed securing our 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th places 😊

Once again I was just so pleased to hear that perfectly symmetrical and even trot on that concrete. No toe dragging, no unevenness just 100% sound. Finishing the day with nothing less than an A for any metabolic measure either – I couldn’t be prouder.

Chip was so pleased with himself, you could just see it in his face! He marched us back to his corall and tucked into a second buffet. We all had a picnic at his corall and then mustered some energy to pack everything up.

The evening

Many hands make light work, we had unloaded the crew cars and got everything sorted in under 15 minutes! Back to our accommodation for a shower and cups of tea it was such a treat to have somewhere so close!

We celebrated with tea in hand, but really it should’ve been coffee for me – I was already planning this blog in my head. If you’d like to keep them coming, you can buy me one here ☕ [https://buymeacoffee.com/bellafricker].

The prize giving was at 5pm so we headed back to the venue once again for that and of course to give Chippy lots more TLC. One of the nicest things about Dragon are the exceptional facilities and with that the opportunity for socialising that it presents. It was too early to put Chip into the stable for the night so we had a drink at the bar and saw lots of friends and generally had a lovely time. So many people congratulated me on facing me fears and of course on our result too.

I bandaged Chip’s legs ready for a night of standing in and at 7pm he was back in the stable – just in time for the heavy rain to begin. I know it’s selfish but I truly was so happy that it had held off for me. Thank goodness I wasn’t riding on Sunday as that course would be just so slippery now!

A nice meal back at our accommodation and an early night. Of course I couldn’t sleep as I was just too adrenaline filled still. I woke up at 01:50 and after tossing and turning until 5am I got up and started writing this very blog!

Sunday: Home time

Back to the venue at 6:30am to give Chip his breakfast and take off his bandages to ‘assess the damage’ I was blown away to see such a nice set of legs! I cannot express enough what a difference using hoof boots and pads make compared to metal shoes. Even more surprising (in a good way) was how he simply strode out of the stable, completely and utterly sound. I just couldn’t believe it!

He had eaten and drunk well again but was also very happy to get back to that lush Welsh grass and so I left him in the corall whilst I went back to have my own breakfast and get packed up to go.

True to plan, we were all packed up and loaded to go just before 10am (again many hands make light work) and Chip enjoyed towing Heather around the venue whilst we were taking his corall down ahha. What’s crazy is that I’ve never really thought of Chippy as a two day horse but now I’m wondering what’s possible, even more so at a ride where he could be corralled and so could walk around more overnight…

The drive home was tough, I was really rather sleep deprived on my sub 4-hour sleep and of course just generally from the ride itself and the excitement/stress/adrenaline of the previous few days. Thankfully Keaton did a good job of keeping me awake and focused and with a couple of stops to break the journey up we were home not long after 2pm.

Chip delighted me once again with a ‘perimeter check’ of his field at trot once he was back in the paddock – showing again a beautiful even trot, tracking up beautifully of course. Looking the picture of health, I just couldn’t be prouder.

I know I put a lot of work into the training, I really did leave no stone unturned and we have extra physio sessions to keep us on the straight and narrow too, but even so he surpassed me expectations. We climbed 1,700m on that 65km! That’s a heck of a lot of climbing!

Reflections → Season Finale: Fear Faced, Goal Nailed, Heart Full

It is such a joy to finish the season on a high, knowing that I have achieved my year goal. There is of course always a tinge of sadness when the season ends though too. He’s at his fittest he’s been for over two years and now there are no more rides to go to. He is very deserving of some down time, and my brain will also enjoy some respite, but it also feels bittersweet to have no where to go and nothing to aim for after having such a strong focus for so many months. We also have to get through a winter and come out of it in one piece – you just never know what kind of winter/spring we will get.

My vet is very forthright in saying that I must keep Chip in work at all times and as fit and strong as possible given his arthritis in his spine most especially. He will have his deserved two weeks off before we begin winter maintenance work. Of course this will be much lighter intensity than this training block. I would really like to continue to work on doing everything I can to build more topline too. I know he is looking lean and fit and for many of us it’s the normalisation of seeing so many fat horses that can make our endurance horses look comparatively poor but I really do want to see more roundness over his back. Perhaps another blog for another time!

So in summary, I still can’t quite believe we did it. Red Dragon was the goal I set back at the start of the season, and against all the doubts, wobbles, and weather forecasts, we made it happen. More than that — we really enjoyed it.

Chippy owes me absolutely nothing. He’s given me over a decade of adventures, taught me lessons I didn’t even know I needed, and carried me to places I’d never have seen without him. To finish his tenth consecutive season with him still sound, still fit, and still loving his job is all I could ever ask for.

I don’t know exactly what 2026 will hold for us, but I do know this: our goals will always be about enjoying the journey together, keeping him happy and healthy, and making the most of whatever time he has left in this sport.

Thank you to the organisers and volunteers who make Red Dragon such a special event, to my incredible crew (who keep both me and Chip together), and of course to Chip himself, my once-in-a-lifetime horse.

If you’ve enjoyed following along this season, I’d love for you to drop a comment and share your own season highlights too — and if you’d like to support these blogs (fuelled mostly by coffee and flapjack 😅), you can buy me a coffee here. Every little goes a long way in keeping these write-ups coming.

Here’s to winter miles, new challenges, and one very well-earned holiday for my best boy. 💚🐎