Biography
I have been riding since I was 11 years old and competing in endurance since 1997. I bought a TB, Justice, while I was at uni' to bring on and sell and much to "daddy-bank’s" disgust, I kept him. I tried him at eventing but it just wasn’t his cup of tea, so we began endurance riding, imagining it to be old ladies out hacking gently round a few miles and having a nice day out. We discovered otherwise. In fact, I think of it as "extreme hacking" and you get the idea – together Justice and I discovered the challenge of riding over varied terrain, in varied weather conditions and with various aches and pains. All for a small colourful rosette. Isn’t it amazing what people will do for a small ribbon?
After a few years in the sport and a lot of effort trying to get round what was a very elusive 50 mile completion for us then, we finally got to Gold level (this is now called Advanced). We entered the most prestigious ride in the endurance calendar, the Golden Horseshoe, only six weeks later. Many people enter the 50 mile or the 75 mile class but Justice and I went for the full 100 miles on our first attempt! It is a two day competition, 50 miles each day. Day one went well and we tucked Justice up for the night in a warm cosy stable, legs bandaged and so much hay and feed he thought all his Christmas's had come at once. Day two, I got out of bed and wondered why on earth I thought doing 100 miles would be a good idea. My goodness, I hurt – my legs hurt, my back ached, I was tired and I had to get back on the horse and ride the whole 50 mile course again. Obviously I didn’t tell anyone I felt this way. That would mean losing face when I was so sure I could do this.
So I walked that slow walk that you do when you hurt but you don’t want anyone to realise, and I smiled (almost) convincingly at everyone I met. Once I had got Justice mucked out and tacked up, I felt loads better, so up I jumped and immediately the hurt came back, this time as stabbing pains straight through the knees. Justice didn’t seem to hurt at all; in fact to show everyone how good he felt, he decided that a very rough and ready version of passage might be appropriate to limber up before starting the course again! Why do our horses choose these inopportune moments to demonstrate such otherwise hidden skills? Eventually I made it out on course and the knees eventually decided to stop hurting. We cruised around the course in good time, and finished well.
Needless to say I was hooked and 10 years later I have completed the Golden Horseshoe 160km class (100 miles!) twice more, plus ridden at International and Interregional competitions.