I took the Friday off work to allow sufficeint time to load the trailer and truck, get
to the venuse and settle two horses in. As a precaution I had arranged for Jane the horse Physio to
meet us there and treat Dougal. As usuall I decided to try and do one thing too many so was a little
later leaving home then I intended. This meant that I arrived at the venue and only really had time
to collect my paper work before Jane arrived. She very kindly helped me unload the horses and pop Dylan
in his stable for the duration of the event. Jane then set to work on Dougal and caught up with a friend
I had not seen since leaving Cambridge 3 years ago. After Jane had finished she came down to the vetting
with us, dougal was in mr stompy mode on the way tothe vetting where we duly passed. After Zulu scribed
the numbr one on dougal's rear, to signify that we had passed the pre ride vetting I returned him to his
stable and set about providing him and Dylan with hay and water. Unfortunately this meant that I missed
weighing in, so went and set up our canopy in the hold area along with the water and a few other things
I was happy to leave out over night. By this tme it was time to head of to the pre ride briefing after
which I gave Dylan and Dougal a final check up for the night and a walk out before heading home to my
dinner and bed.
Saturday 5.30 and we are up dressed and having a hearty bowl of poridge before heading off to
Thorseby Park. On arrival we checked the horse then I went and weighed in while Stee took the weelie bin
of rugs to the crewing area and prepared the truck for the days crewing. Then back to the stables where
Steve took Dylan for a walk while I platted Dougal up and then tacked him up. As per usual we walked
Dougal to the back of the truck so I could get on from the tailgate and walked down tothe venue while
Steve headed of to the first crew point. while warming up I arranged with Roz Jackson riding Nazeka to
ride with her for the first loop as we were both aiming for about the same speed, 16kph. At the start
I was again pleased to note that I had perfect speed regulation on a light contact, so far the dutch gag
seems to be working. We set off at a steady trot letting the leaders go. Roz and I soon caught up with
Danniel Coulson on her new ER horse riding in the natioanl 80km ER and passed her and another rider. We
carried on for about half the course together untill we caught up with Pam James on Morwena and Sue Cox on
Triolleta and spent the rest of the loop with them. all around this first 40km loop we kept bumping in to
Sue Broughton escorting the Bahranian film crew around, so like it or not they got a lot of film with us on.
As we approached the vet gate I started to slow Dougal down and after crossing the bridge into the venue I
walked in hopping off about 200yds from the in timers averaging 16.3kph. As usual Dougal had not drunk on
this loop and it took us about 9 minutes to have him ready to vet. We vetted with a heart rate of 60 and c's
and 3s so were asked to present for a recheck 10 minutes before our out time. By now we are quite used to
this and know that Dougal will drink and eat well in the hold time so were quietly confident that this would
not be a problem. It was not, his metabolics had improved to 1's, and B's. So we tacked up ready for the
second loop.
We set off on the second loop With Dougal cantering away from the venue, Pam was about 2
minutes ahead with Sue 6 minutes ahead of her. I was pleased when Dougal took a long drink from the
ford as we crossed it and we soon caught up with both sue and Pam and rode together on this 30km loop.
Dougal was drinking well throughout this loop and felt well within himself. All three horses were
working well together and we returned to the venue at an average speed of 15kph taking about six minutes
to vet this time. Unfortunately the timing stewards made a mistake and did not record the time we asked
to present at, so they decided to award us 6 minutes. we vetted on 58/52 with mainly A's and 2's and a very
strong sensible trot up. Again Dougal’s ate well and drank as much as he ever does during the hold, while I
ate and cleaned tack. With five minutes to go I started tacking up then mounted.nbsp;
Again Dougal offered to canter strongly away from the venue. Sue was three minutes ahead of us and
Pam a further minute ahead of Sue. For 10km we gradually caught Sue up, it was tantalising to see her disappear
round corners then reappear as we rounded the corner only for her to disappear again. however it was great for
giving us something to focus on. Pretty soon after catching Sue the two of us caught up with Pam. I am pleased
to say that Dougal did all of the pace setting during this period. I then decided to give Dougal a breather so
stayed with Pam and Sue for the next 7-8 km until Dougal asked to go on a bit which I allowed him to do. Again
I slowed coming into the venue and hopped off, having averages 16.4kph. As I entered the vet gate I was me by
Sally Payton with a slosh bottle. The whole Payton Family was present and Gilly, Des and Sally helped us to to
crew Dougal through this vet gate. He was somewhat hot so took about 10 minutes to lower his heart rate. One
good thing was on arrival at the crew area he instantly had a good long drink.
We vetted on 64/64 with A's (Action, Gut Sounds), B's (mucous membranes, Muscle tone) one 2 (Jugular refill)
and some 3's dehydration and capillary refill, once again he trotted up strongly. We rugged him up and allowed him
to eat, which he did so pretty continuously throughout the hold. Ten minutes before our out time we presented to the
vet for our compulsory recheck, unfortunately his heart rte had risen to 71 so we were eliminated. Over night Dougal
had his legs wrapped in cooling bandages and was left with plenty of water and various different food supplies. At
10.oo ish that evening I gave him a final check and took him out for a walk. I am pleased to say he was dragging me
round as he does normally.
The following morning on arriving at the venue to take Dylan out we checked up on Dougal and Steve took him out
for a walk while I got Dylan ready for his class. He was bright eyed and looking ready to go again. Although a
disappointing end to our Saturday there were several bright points, his hind end lameness and moving on three tracks did
not reoccur and he gave me one of the strongest rides he has ever to date. On the down side until we can get over this
not drinking thing I think we need to reassess what our aims are distance wise with him.
Below are my heart rate monitor and GPS readings from this ride.
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