Endurance frustrations with Annie Joppe

Well Fantom duly completed his training for his 1* at Euston and he was scrubbed to within an inch of his life and his mane had a makeover; actually it was hogged!  He is a very good boy about having all this fuss and pampering and seems to appreciate all the attention.

This planned competition was to be a ‘sort of’ test for Fantom to see if he had overcome his tying up difficulties.  It was a long journey of about 8 hours with a couple of stops to offer water, fibre beet tea and carrot with the liquid being rejected but the carrots gratefully accepted.  It wasn’t good that he didn’t drink but he seemed to be relaxed and ate some haylage.

The afternoon was spent setting up our space in the vetgate, reccying a new crew point on the course and taking Fantom to the pre-ride vetting which went very smoothly.  The following morning someone (no names, no pack drill) had chucked all our equipment out of the shade and put theirs in its place.  Well there was no time to change anything so we had to live with it.

Warming up was not great with Fantom feeling like a seaside donkey going nowhere.  However, he brightened up a bit at the start and we cantered steadily away for the first few kilometers.  Disaster struck when he ground to a halt and I knew that again our race was over.  Fortunately he recovered extremely quickly from this episode and didn’t require any treatment but it was so frustrating.

Initially I thought that this would be the end of Fantom’s endurance career however, after having a chat with Feedmark, I am making some changes to his diet which, in conjunction with his own special Formulate, could just be the turning point.  He is even helping himself by topping all the nettles at the side of the field, preferring these to the grass offered.  I have now brought him back into work with the help of Jan who rides with me once or twice a week, and he has now had a full training session on the beach and dunes with no adverse effects although perhaps not quite as exuberant as he can be.

This has not been the best of months at Watergate Endurance.  A double whammy in that I now have to have an operation on my back next week as a result of an ill-judged jump from a rock whilst avoiding penguin poo in Antarctica earlier this year.  This may keep me out of the saddle for a few days (that might be wishful thinking) and out of serious competition for a few weeks.  However, I have constructed a series of plans based on my projected recovery times!

My main aim this year is to qualify Chiara for the Europeans next year or at least complete either the remaining 2* needed or complete the 3* and do the final qualification early next year.  It has just been confirmed that the European Championships will be held in Britain next year in Suffolk which makes it doubly important to me to be able to put myself forward for selection with at least one horse.

The good news is that Chiara’s FEI passport has arrived; all crisp and new and ready for action!  Chiara is also back in work as she was planned to run at King’s Forest in the 3* this weekend but my impending operation made that impossible.  However, training continues although at a lower level for the time being with the focus moving more to schooling and strengthening work.

A few weeks ago I had a chance ride at the local Boconnoc Estate on a friend’s ex FEI pony as one of her qualifiers to restart her FEI career.  This was a hot ride but all went pretty smoothly and Brookleigh was well schooled, obedient and, most importantly, achieved a Grade 1.

The hot weather we are all experiencing; even in Cornwall, has made the ground like iron and long training sessions have had to be on the beach and dunes.  Yesterday whilst training Chiara and Fantom on the dunes, we had a close encounter with a snake.  This snake, which was probably an adder, shot across the path missing one of Chiara’s cantering hooves by inches.  Great care was taken after this to check for these fast-moving reptiles.  Another consequence of the hot weather is the huge number of flies, mostly the house fly variety but interspersed by giant horseflies with massive jaws and phenomenal blood-sucking qualities.  The Feedmark Blue Bottle fly spray goes some way to combat that and they are all on the Fly Formula and covered in fly rugs, but this year it is a hard task to protect the horses from these persistent vampires.