On arrival we parked up on the hill top which was very windy unloaded Dougal and started to pile clothes onto ourselves and the horse. I mooched off down the hill to the secretarie's lorry to sort out our paperwork and Steve was brought down the hill by Dougal to have him ready to vet after the ride briefing at 8.00.  I then went back up the hill for the ride briefing. A nice informal and concise affair allowing us to vet on time which we duly passed despite the distractions of the stallion 5 yds away letting the world know he existed. So off back up the hill to tack up and prepare. Then mount, off down the hill and warm up. The start was slightly delayed due to the vetting running a bit late.  Dougal was very keen at this point deciding full pass, travers and renvers at all paces was the way to go, making me a little worried about how my brakes were going to work at the start.  My fears however were unfounded as he went off in a lovely sedate trot breaking into a steady canter up the first hill and through the first open gate off to the second open gate leading the way.  Such a change from Berkshire Downs.

So off we went in the lead through the next two gates with number 12 Janine Smith on Little Maybelle past a few bikers and quickly found ourselves at check point 2. After a quick slosh I rode back the way I had come and at the divergence point failed to find a marker pointing the way so started to consult my map.  It all became crystal clear when the man standing in front of the marker moved. This probably cost us a minute and lost any slight lead I had , oh well. Carried on of to checkpoint 4 about 4km away along mainly forestry tracks where again we met Steve and were duly sloshed before setting off on the loop that would bring us back to checkpoint 3.  This section contained some of the most challenging, steep down hill very uneven stoney track which Dougal trotted down in his usual mountain goat style and some of the nicest sections with light sandy going perfect for cantering along. We quickly found ourselves back at checkpoint 3 for another slosh and then off heading for home.  Dougal was going really well pacing himself not pulling and picking his going.  By this time there were three of us riding together Janine Smith, and number 7, Danielle Coulson on Euphoria's Quest. We pretty much swopped the lead between us all the way home with myself crossing the line first Danielle second and Janine 3rd a minute and 20 seconds behind us.  I hopped of to walk across the line for the last 30 or so yards, where Steve was waiting for us with two slosh bottles and he collected our time card.  

The finish was about a minutes walk form the crewing area, close under some trees. With the wind blowing and the temperature still only about 12-13 degrees I popped a thermatex rug over Dougla's bum, untacked and sloshed him while Steve offered water. I monitored his heart rate until it dropped bellow 64 and off we went to vet in 7 minutes and 20 seconds passing with a heart rates of 56/53. So probably could have presented a bit earlier. Janine presented one minute before us and Danielle one minute after us. We then spent the 40 minutes during our hold period with Dougal eating, receiving electrolytes and eating while I drank, ate, monitored his temperature and popped a light weight NZ on to keep the wind chill off and prepared his tack for the next loop.  With about 12 minutes to go  I started tacking up ready to go, mounted and rode over to the start.

Below is my Heart rate monitor and GPS readings for this loop, includes the crewing period.;