Agony! The Golden Horseshoe Ride on Exmoor is over the toughest endurance terrain in the UK and it lived up to expectations. Last year when we filmed, the wind was so strong I had to anchor Lucy, our camerawoman, to keep her steady whilst filming! The die-hards were doing 100 miles over 2 days (do watch the video we made of David Yeoman’s ride last year, it's amazing), so I really had nothing to complain about doing just 40 km in a special invitation class for the media.
Unlike most other endurance events, this was not a race. The Golden Horseshoe is about getting a gold, silver or bronze award based on your average speed and finishing with a sound, fit horse. Naturally, I was going for gold (minimum speed of 12 km per hour) which sounds slow compared to race riders who frequently average 18-20 km per hour, but we rode as fast as we physically could (I can assure you) for three and half hours on Exmoor, where there were boulders, ravines, ditches, breathtakingly steep hills, bushes and bogs to negotiate.
Princess Sahhara (Sara for short) is an advanced arab mare, who was kindly lent to me by Angela Osbourne (Angela was riding in the ‘killer’ 100 mile class). Sara gave me an awesome and challenging ride, from which I am still recovering! She did the whole distance (bar one or two brief sections in walks when the terrain was too dangerous to do anything else) in an extended trot which would rival any warmblood (different, I grant you, but huge nonetheless!). My accomplice (elite squad member Annie Joppe) cantered to keep up. The flipside of Sarah’ extravagance was that she tanked me the whole way! I kept thinking, ‘she’ll settle soon’, or ‘I’ll work her out and she won’t pull anymore’, but to my amazement it just never happened. So I used all my new core dressage muscles to brace myself behind the movement to avoid wearing my arms out, standing in the stirrups as the trot was just too big to keep rising to. Trotting downhill in this style was quite spectacular but especially difficult!
I was fit (as I have been battling with a 1 in 12 hill outside my house on a regular basis) but what I hadn’t banked on was the discomfort of the girth buckles bruising my calves, as I stood up in the saddle for 40 km. Standing the whole time also put severe pressure on my knees and there were moments where I seriously thought my knee-caps were going to explode!
On three separate occasions we got lost. Far from having enjoying the scenery, I was concentrating so hard on every stride to keep Sarah in balance so she didn’t get on the forehand, trip and injure herself, and also studying the ground to negotiate the best route between hazards. Sarah, bless her, was not too bothered where she put her feet, she was just trotting ‘for a 10’! So I didn’t notice the absence of red course markers in the wilderness! 
What was particularly scary was motoring along, then seeing right in front of you, a black patch of bog. You know you'll have one or two strides in it before you can detour and your horse will sink up to its knees. I could only think, ‘what if Sara pulls a tendon or does a ligament, OMG, her mother will kill me!’ But what a mare - unbelievable heart and stamina. She really knew her job and just 'kept on keeping on' and pulling with it!
Annie’s partner Robert drove Clare with all the camera kit, accompanied by our experienced helper Tora, to each of the pit-stops and kept up an endless supply of water to cool the horses, sugar-beet ‘tea’ for them to drink and sustenance for us.
On another matter, if I never have to open another gate, it will be too soon! During the ride, we opened and closed at least 25 gates (we had a gate allowance of 7 minutes but that only accounts for about half of them). One was so awkward on the side of a wide, deep ford that I had to get off in the water to close it. So I completed the ride with soggy feet!
At the last pit stop (just a few minutes each), it was decidedly borderline as to whether we would make the 'gold' time (we probably lost around 10 minutes through our off-piste excursions). But not wanting to be bettered by Lucy Higginson (editor Horse and Hound) or any of the other media participants, Annie and I found our competitive streak and, balancing what we felt our horses had left in the tank, we went for it! It was nail-biting. 
The clock was ticking and we were trotting flat out up a section of road (something I would never do normally so I felt very guilty). Then after the mother of all hills (so steep that we had to walk at the top to let the horses catch their wind), we were able to gallop the last 4 km or so on grass. And that’s how we came through the finish, full-tilt out and whooping with less than 45 seconds to spare! It all happened so quickly, Clare hadn’t even had time to turn the camera on to record the drama and we even caught out the commentators who were on tea break!
What a feeling! But it was short-lived. As they say, it’s not over until it’s over and we still had to get the horses through the final vetting. Saddles off, horses watered, sponged and minor scrapes cleaned, they were walked and grazed and their heart rates checked at regular intervals. 
We had 30 minutes to present to the vet but it’s a delicate balance between allowing enough time to get the heart rate under 56 beats per minute (an extremely fit pulse) and the horses stiffening up which might mean a ‘fail’ on the trot up! Added to which, Sara is a stress-head and any slight distraction sent her heart rate racing, so I massaged the acupressure point under her brow band and rubbed her with a towel in an attempt to relax her! She was also getting cold (not good). We had hacked 45 minutes to the start to minimise the risk of Azoutoria, which is more prevalent in mares, and didn’t have lots of rugs in the crew car which was mostly filled with sluish bottles and water containers.
The vetting was a tense affair. In addition to checking the heart rate, the vet also listened to her gastric functions, tested for hydration, checked her eyes, gums and feet. Despite trying to kick the vet in agitation (that's Sara not me!), everything was fine and I then had to trot up. It was a bit of a struggle for both of us (Sara groaned - when she was out of the vet’s earshot) and I just hurt. But remembering my instructions – make it sprightly as if we were up for another ride, and look the vet in the eye and smile confidently as you run towards him - we somehow put on a good enough show to pass. Oh joy, we got our gold award! All we had to do now, was lead our horses 45 minutes back to the stables and yes, you guessed, I got carted all the way!
When I first filmed at the Horseshoe, I really couldn’t understand all the fuss about the vettings, but now I knew first hand that a great ride could all be for nothing if you failed at the last hurdle!
I was asked to come back later to present some of the prizes which gave me time to find a hotel, beg for a shower, have a cream tea and check the website and emails. I was feeling very fragile by then and had to move extremely slowly, but managed to revive myself for the ceremonial duties. (Part 1 of the video we made is now published for your amusement!)
I was warned that two days after the ride, the stiffness would be so bad I would have to come downstairs on my backside! I wasn’t completely convinced about that and stuffed a very large amount of arnica. It was my badly bruised calves that were also swollen from overuse, that I was worried about, primarily because I had my first dressage lesson with Jane Gregory on her grand prix schoolmaster 2 days later. From the frying pan into the fire!
I forced myself out of bed earlier than my body thought was appropriate to school my own horse before work and get my slow body and even slower brain going again. I managed but only just! I did the same yesterday morning and set off to Jane’s in the afternoon where I met the 16 year old Luke, a fabulous looking boy who proved to be a superb teacher, as did Jane. My lesson next week, is being filmed, by the way; this was just a warm-up!
As Jane explained, Luke does it all but you have to ask! Nothing is handed to you on a plate and you have the added challenge of working out how to ride an established horse. Within minutes, I was sweating buckets! Wow, this was hard work. 
But as Jane pointed out, it’s all about creating the energy and getting the timing of the aids right. I discovered this the hard way when I tried and failed several times to get canter - very embarrassing indeed! But by the end, I had moments of lightness and harmony in trot and in canter, as well as some piaffe and passage steps in walk and trot. A result and something to build on next time. Naturally, I have been given homework, namely to keep my arms next to my sides and retain the contact when I get it right, not give it away! I will have a few lessons with Jane, who I think will be a great teacher for me (as you will see in the first video we make). I then need to find a longer term ride to fulfil my aim of riding at FEI level - alongside eventing my own horse Norris and taking up endurance!