Bluey and I are back at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester and have started our training for Wentwood in Spring 64km CR on March 18th. I came back on January 4th for 2 days of very intense training to be a Student Ambassador, and Bluey joined me a week later. Having had no turnout at home over the Christmas break he was very pleased to be back in his paddock at Fosse Hill and spent some time announcing his return with squealing and bucking.

He went out for his first training hack yesterday, 14km around beautiful little lanes, while this morning we went into Cirencester Park for the first time. We rode out with Becci, a postgraduate student, and her ex-racehorse Jade. I had not been into the park before and was quite surprised by how large it is, while Bluey was overjoyed at the miles and miles of grassy tracks. Although the ground was still semi-frozen we did lots of trot and canter work, and I am hoping to use it as an integral part of our training regime, combined with roadwork, canter work on the exercise track and sessions on the horsewalker.

Academic work has stepped up this term with a presentation to give on the popularity of Irish and French bred NH horses, a group essay on Dairy Supply Chains and a scientific literature review for Equine Science all due soon! Add to that training and looking after Bluey, polo lessons, upcoming work as a Student Ambassador and my own fitness work in the gym; this term looks set to be nice and busy!

Anna and Bluey xxx

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas Mine was pretty good, although it’s rained nearly every day here, and as Bluey is in 24/7 over the winter riding him has been rather exciting!

Due to College commitments I missed both the South and West Wales Trophy Dinner and the overall Endurance GB Awards Dinner. I was very pleased with Bluey, claiming his 250km Distance Award and placing 2nd and 3rd in the 1st Season Open and Overall Open trophies. Congratulations to Jeni Gilbert and Flurrie for winning the Supreme Championship, and to Carri Ann Dark for being named Young Rider Champion.

So on to 2012… This time of year I always get rather excited looking at the ride schedule for the new year and planning my competitions for the year ahead. Obviously plans rarely (if ever) work out as hoped! However I am planning on taking Bluey to his first 64km CR in March at Wentwood in Spring, progressing to 80km in April or May depending on my exams.

I return to Ciren on Wednesday, and have Student Ambassador training before lectures begin on the 9th January. Bluey will come up a week or two later, and will start his training for Wentwood.

I wish you all the best for 2012, may your hopes come to fruition, your dreams become reality, and your competitive season be successful!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Anna and Bluey xxxxx

Bluey has returned home to Wales for the Christmas holidays, and I head home on Friday evening. Before he went back I took him out for his very first day’s hunting with the Vale of the White Horse.

The meet was on one of the College’s farms, just a short hack from Fosse Hill, so 4 of us set off together. I had been at the yard for hours plaiting Bluey’s mane- it desperately needed pulling, but I had no hope of doing so without doping him- and my friend Vicky had driven over to plait his tail. It was just a Monday morning meet, but there were at least 35 horses out- a massive contrast to the packs at home, who would have that many mounted followers out at the Opening or New Year’s Day meets! Bluey was very well behaved at the meet, and rather good setting off. I had put him in a gag for just the second time and it was a mistake as he really resented having a contact, I kept him out for about 20 minutes, long enough for him to see the hounds and get a feel for hunting before taking him back and out for a long hack to relax. By the time I got him back to the yard the others had returned and I had to quickly sort him out before literally running to my French lecture! There aren’t many universities where you can arrive at a lecture in full hunting regalia- the RAC is one of them!

Bluey went home on Wednesday, both my grandfathers and my cousin driving up to collect him. I have pencilled in his next hunting experience to be with the Towy and Cothi on Saturday!

Friday night saw the RAC Christmas Ball, which had a 20′s theme. It was a great night, and I was rather pleased not to have t get up early the next morning to feed and muck out! This week is going to be busy with exams in French, Business Finance and Business Environment, and coursework to complete in Business Finance and Soil and Environmental Science. I also have to clean my car and pack up all the stuff I have accumulated….

xxx

Bluey has secured himself a Royal Agricultural College Sports Scholarship, which will be a tremendous help in financing our 2012 season, as well as allowing me to manage our competition schedule through greater flexibility with my academic work! There are several months left for Bluey to hurt himself or for our training to be disrupted, but all going to plan I am hopeful that next year will be our best season yet!

In other news I have loads of coursework to be getting on with, and was shocked to realise this morning that I am coming to the end of my 7th week at the RAC- with 10 week terms I will be home for Christmas very soon!

Goodbye for now- I am off to have some celebratory drinks, and will be toasting both Bluey and Ribble without whom we certainly wouldn’t be having this support from the RAC!

Anna and Bluey xxx

It’s been a busy month at the RAC in Cirencester, I’ve been set my first pieces of coursework (if anyone is knowledgeable on the Hanslope soil series please help) and have had loads of other things to be getting on with- including our polo initiation which involved standing outside for an hour (in November) wearing a bikini and wellies and eating and drinking awful things (a wild mixture including garlic granules, sambuca, tequila, lager, wine, baileys, lemon juice, cold rice pudding, dog biscuits, cat treats, whipped cream and unknown substances!) while occasionally being sprayed with cold water, flour, custard, tabasco, ketchup and occasionally pelted with eggs. It cumilated with bobbing for eggs in a paddling pool. Very messy.

Bluey has arrived!!!!! Last weekend I drove home early on Saturday morning (especially early as the night before I had been at the RAC Beagles’ Dinner and Auction and got a bit carried away bidding on a polo lesson). That night we had a leaving party for my Carmarthen Veterinary Centre colleagues Hannah and Pete who are moving on to new jobs in Uttoxeter and Devon respectively. Then on Sunday morning it was another early start getting Bluey and his rug wardrobe plus accessories (pink whip, pink wheelbarrow and a variety of other sparkly things) to their new home in Cirencester! The journey was smooth, taking 3 and a half hours and Bluey looked very settled and so Mum and Dad took me to the Thames Head Inn for lunch and then left.

Bluey was very bad on his first day and ran through four electric fences- thankfully he didn’t hurt himself, but is now in a solitary paddock, which he really likes! I have ridden him out nearly every day, the roads here have steady traffic but the drivers are all very much used to horses! Close study of the local OS maps has found me some good circuits and interesting diversions- lovely bridleways and the fantastic Hailey Wood which is the other side of the Stroud Road to Ciren Park for those of you who have ridden in the park. Hacking out is an experience with deer crossing the road, squirrells everywhere and always being on the lookout for hunt jumps in the fields which I have a slight obsession with searching for- being a livestock rather than arable area we do not have hunt jumps in Carmarthenshire field boundaries!

Bluey has been on the horsewalker several times and I’ve just about got the hang of using it, he hasn’t been on the exercise track yet but he has had a canter round the farm tracks which criss-cross the fields. At the moment we are just doing steady work to have fun and build a “hunting fitness” for his proposed winter activities of hunting with the VWH and then Carms Hunt and the Towy and Cothi once we get home- but I am really looking forward to next term when I will start his real fitness work for our propsed first ride of the season in March. I have everything here I need to train Bluey to the best of our abilities, all I need now is luck and time.

Anna and Bluey xxx

I am writing this from the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester where I am studying BSc (Hons) International Equine and Agricultural Management. Fresher’s week is now over and I am in my second day of lectures! RAC has been great fun so far, although I am the sole endurance rider here, which is not surprising!

Rewind….

Before I left Bluey had his leg re-scanned, there was a huge improvement and so I started walking him out in hand and as he was stiffening up in the stable I had Paddy Davies (nee Blake) our local McTimoney-Corley practitioner come out and see his back last week. Mum has been riding him for me and he has been going well for her, so he is booked into Fosse Hill livery yard for the last weekend in October. I can’t wait until he gets here as the yard has a 1km exercise track and a horse walker as well as being within hacking distance of several VWH meets!

Frankie had his first lesson, heading down to Pantgwyn Livery Stables for a flatwork session with Jonathan Pett. Pat and I were very pleased with how he went, as usual he took everything in his stride- he is a fantastic little horse and I’m hoping to take him hunting over the Christmas holidays.

Here at the College we have our own pack of beagles and last Wednesday they had a meet at Bledisloe Lawn, literally in front of my halls! We had a fantastic time walking through the Gloucestershire countryside. I’ve also started polo lessons as the College has a beginners team, it’s great fun although I am not going to take up my mother’s suggestion of retraining Bluey as a polo pony- I think he’s be too scared of the stick to be honest!

Anna xxxxx

Bluey is out for the rest of the season, he was still one tenth lame so I had the lump on his leg scanned yesterday, and he has a small amount of fluid on his distal sesamoidal ligament. He is now having 10 days box rest and in-hand walking, and will then gradually be brought back into work, and should be fine as there is no serious damage (Sarah my vet thinks that he has kicked one leg with the other…) but it is the end of this year’s goal of a 80km completion. So thoughts now turn to next season, and the hope that next year we have better luck.

In better news Raph (Woodbine Raphael) who I have been helping exercise went to his very first show and took the Local Hunter Championship. The weather was appalling and he was fetlock deep in sticky mud, but despite some bucking he looked fantastic and I was so very pleased for him and his owner Gwyn who rode him in the show, I don’t think any of Raph’s team expected him to do so well!

In three weeks I head to the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester to start my degree reading International Equine and Agricultural Management. If everything goes to plan Bluey will join me two weeks later and will have a fun winter hunting with the Vale of the White Horse and riding in Cirencester Park. As well as being close to the park the College’s livery yard Fosse Hill has a horse walker and a 1km all-weather gallops, so fingers crossed Bluey will be in his best shape yet for the 2012 season!

Anna and Bluey xxx

I started my last blog by writing about how things were looking good, so inevitably I must begin this post by reporting that once again bad luck has struck right at the wrong moment. Everything had been going well with his training, plus Bluey had made new friends in the form of Woodbine Raphael (Raph) and Woodbine Cruising (Frankie) two full-brothers (quarter Section B, three quarters thoroughbred) that I have been riding for their owner Pat. Then while I was working in Pembrokeshire County Show (serving tea, coffe and scones to the clients of World Wide Sires, a company that sells bull semen) Mum reported that Bluey had a lump on his hind leg. He was not initially lame, and after a chat with my vet we decided to continue riding (nothing too strenuous) with constant monitoring and daily cold hosing. He was fine and the lump reduced in size, but when I rode him on Saturday he was stiff behind in walk, and when I had Mum trot him up for me I saw that he was a little lame in trot.

Of course by now I had entered Bluey in the 70km CR at Tintern and booked Robin to shoe him with pads a few days before. The lesson is I suppose to never enter rides until the last moment, to never make plans and to never, ever utter the phrase “This year I plan to…”

Luckily my vet doesn’t think its anything too serious, and has prescribed a week’s worth of bute, cold-hosing and hand-walking. However even if he was sound in time for Tintern (I wouldn’t do a long ride but considered downgrading) he would still be at risk of testing positive for bute if he should be blood-tested, and a rider has just received a 4-month ban for failing a blood test…

Bluey should be fine after some time off, and as the vet is out pregnancy diagnosing my father’s cattle on Thursday I will ask him to run the scanner over Bluey’s leg to confirm that there is no serious damage. So Bluey has been re-routed to do the 80km CR at Red Dragon, and I am keeping everything crossed that this time everything goes to plan….

Anna and Bluey xxx

Then I took him to Brechfa forest for a 32km hack with my friend Jess and her cob Holly. The flies drove Bluey crazy and he was very fidgety all the way round, reversing and stamping his feet whenever I had to stop, but he enjoyed himself, and so did I!

Sunday saw us heading to Bridgend to compete in our wettest ever ride! The heavens opened just past Swansea and I was very grateful that Mum had thought to pack a coat- I had everything else sorted, but the beautiful sunshine in Carmarthen had put rain straight out of my head.

The pre-ride vetting was great, Bluey trotted up nicely along the tarmac corridor marked out by sheep hurdles, and convinced the vet that he was an Anglo- Arab. Setting off the rain came in, and I was asked to ride with Angharad Morgan and her cob Llangennydd Flying Comet. Coming to CP1 I was very pleased to see that the checkpoint steward and photographer Celia Saunders had tempted the donkeys off the mountain and beside their car, meaning no nasty donkey surprises later on! However I was less pleased later on when we find ourselves back at CP1 rather early- somehow we had wandered off the outbound track and come onto the arrows marking the homebound loop!

Pushing the horses on we soon got back onto track, however no sooner had we done so than thick fog started to swirl onto the mountain, reducing visibility to about 20m. The fog occasionally lifted, revealing beautiful views across the valley, but it was by far the eeriest ride I had ever ridden, and the by this time I was soaked through.

We came to CP2 10 minutes behind on time, the checkpoint was down a very steep shaley incline and by now everyone’s crews had realised that the best thing to do was to drive on, stop by the checkpoint and call out their rider’s number to the steward as the riders appeared at the ridge.

Knowing that we were behind on time Angharad and I put Comet and Bluey into steady canters and pushed on home, as the ride was linear back to Point B it was a case opf just following one’s tracks, and trying to avoid incoming horses. Again visibility was poor, but the horses were great and the ride had a real sense of adventure!

We got back to CP1 (in the correct order this time) and were happy to see that we had over an hour left (the cantering had made up a lot of time) and both horses were happy.

Our final speed was 13.19kph, the fastest ride time that Bluey has posted. Spotting a break in the rain I presented Bluey at 11 minutes and he stood relatively still for a heart rate of 52. He had a B for his gait, I think as a result of a stoney track, but the vet was happy with him and couldn’t see anything obviously wrong. So that was a Grade 4, and now I’ve just got to convince Bluey to relax at vettings!

Thanks has to go to all the De Cymru helpers, who braved such horrible weather conditions to vet steward, vet, checkpoint steward, timekeep, TS and mark (and demark) the course. The ride wouldn’t have taken place without them.

After three days off Bluey is back in work, and is fit and well, our next ride will I hope be 70km at Tintern, it’s just a case of keeping him in work for 4 weeks and getting him safely around the course! My farrier has already been booked to show him with pads a few days before the ride as Tintern is well known as a stoney ride.

Anna and Bluey xxx

However the good news is that he is back in full work, last week we did two 18km and one 14km rides plus a short 8km hack. He coped very well, with minimal sweating after his 18km effort. After a discussion with Cate Langley of Team Langley Endurance (Beth Langley’s mother and crew) I’ve decided to maintain this work, add in a weekly gallops session and maybe even drag Bluey down to Lucy’s menage in Idole (Lucy’s Livery) for some schooling sessions. As a result of this I hope to do 70km at Tintern and 80km at Red Dragon but of course it’s just a hope… will probably end up doing 40km and 40km, or stuck with a lame/shoeless pony!

Bluey was a very naughty pony last week and managed to rip his fly sheet in half- I’ve no idea how! Being a typically sensitive thin-skinned, pathetic thoroughbred he has a serious issue with flies- on rides he has mastered the art of scratching the side of his face on the tarmac- and so he had to be treated to a new sheet. I got very excited at seeing a pale blue with lilac polka dot number on an online saddlery store, but sadly decided not to purchase it when I worked out that the 6 foot size was double the price of a plain rug, and also double the size of the 4’3″ rug which was the price advertised!

In other news we’ve set up a Fat Club in work with fortnightly weigh ins on the big dog scales. My GPS is again helping me as it records how many calories I burn off running- I was very pleased to see that my 6km run/jog/power-walk burnt off 400 calories today, that’s a few chocolate bars! Last week I finally managed to pass my driving test- fifth attempt- so I’ve been getting solo practice in and am trying desperately not to lose my licence! I suppose that it’s taught me not to give up… Bluey and I will eventually complete that 80km CR and upgrade to Advanced… I just wish we did it with the same ease as other combinations do it- what wouldn’t I give to be an endurance expert and have the sort of training facilities and sheer luck that some riders have!

Anna and Bluey xxx