Many thanks to the Rogerson's, Stubbs and Yeomans without whom this weekend would not have been possible.
I had commitments on the Firday so took Dylan down on the Thursday, set up our vet gate area, his coral and stable. The
stable manager was excellent he made Dylans bed for me! I then had to go home leaving Dylan in the capable hands of the
Yeomans till Team Rogerson/Stubbs arrived on midday Friday. Who kindly put my entry in for me and vetted him that
afternoon. Steve and I arrived at about 8.00 to check up on him and feed him, was chufffed that by conincidence he whinnied
as we walked to his coral to put him in for the night with a small feed. Then off we went to my parents for dinner and to
sleep.
5.50am the next day up we got and back to the venue,load p the truck with crew stuff and then off to weigh in before
returning to tack Dylan up. We wandered over tot he website and warmed up, dylan was on is toes but not threatening to buck.
Then we were off, the lead riders took of at a great rate, Dylan was very chilled out and walked accross the line and broke
into a trot. He was a little stroong for about the first 5k but settled into a steady 15 ish kph with Cat moon on Leila for
the entirity of the first loop. Both were spooking at anything that took there fancy and Dylan decided he did not want to go
through the water crossing first. On the way back towards the venue we were overtaken by the leaders in the 80k class going
a fair lick, Dylan found this all a bit too exciting and wanted to pursue but did listen to me and we soon lost sight of them.
Before we knew it we were back at the venue and in our first vet gate. Not the quickest of presentations 3 minutes 20 seconds
for us but a safe pass with a heart rate of 56/56 then into a 30 minute hold.
With the hold over we were off again, Cat Moon and Leila were in sight at the start and we soon caught up and carried on
round the orange loop together. Again we were travelling at about 15ph with both horses going nicely inbetween spooks. Dylan
had a few new things to encounter, firstly the pigs, which he has never seen before but has smelt and heard. He was quite
interested in them, but not scared, thakfully we have to ride by an indoor pig farm on a regular basis so they were not scarry.
The same could not be said of the water cannons, he found these quite scarry, and when water started dropping on us he barged by
Cat and Leila before she had a chance to move over. I managed to get him back in two strides and checked that he had not hurt
Leila. Fortunatley he had only bumped into her bum with his shoulder. We were both fine so set off again. About half way round
this loop we were caught up by christine Yeoman, Sarah Rogerson on CS Cabira and Carrie Anne Dark? We continued like this as a
group till the end of the ride. we managed to present in 3 mins 17 seconds with a heart rate of 64/64. Howwever the examining
vet was not happy with Dylans gut sounds and discussed this with rod Fisher who suggested a recheck 10 minutes before our out time.
I was not too worried as I knew Dylan would eating and drink well and he did so throughout the entire hold and on his rexamine
everything was fine and his heart rate was 48/48.
So we tacked up and set off again on the third loop, which was the shortest loop consisting of 20k. For the whole of this
loop we were by ourselves, the members of the group we had come in with had upped the pace to about 16.5 kph while we maintaned
about 15kph. Dylan seemed happy enough maintaining this pace and being by himself. He seemed to have plenty enough petrol left
in the tank as he was still spooking at things and water cannons working or not were eliciting either an extended trot or canter.
With such a short loop it was soon over and we were back at the vet gate. By this time my parents and relations on holiday from
Australia had arrived so it was a mass crewing effort, I was not sure where to stand with this many bodies about. Dylan just
took it in his stride and took a long draught of water. Unfortunately at this point my vet gate heart rate monitor decided it
had run out of battery life so we played it rather cautious with our vetting hence took 5 minute and 28 seconds to vet with heart
rates of 52/52. Then into a 40 minute hold with a compulsory recheck 10-15 minutes before our out time. we all settled down to
eating and drinking, Dylan had lost interest in carrots but was keen on the apples my Uncle and aunt had brought with them, grass
however was top of his list of wants, something to remembe for next time, ask crew to pick some grass at crew points if there is
any. At the recheck his heart rate was 48/48 and his metabolics had improved througout the hold.
so off we set on the fourth loop leaving the venue at a canter. I had intended to ride this loop slower then the last loop
however not quite as slow as we did in the end, something to work on. While on this loop we got to see a fair bt of wild life in
the form of fallow deer and a hawk hunting. Steve was ably abetted by my Uncle Philip, over on holiday from Australia. About
2/3rds of the way round the loop we were caught up by Sue Box rinding Ryu and both horses then picked up there speed and worked
better with the company. On arrival back at the venue again with no working heart rate monitor I frantically went searching for
a stethascope and we also played it cautious so vetted in 5 minutes 23 seconds on 54/52 and were then into a 40 minute hold again
with a compulsory recheck at 10-15 minutes before our out time. Once again Dylan was drinking and eating well, apples and grass
were the favourites.
So off on the final loop Dylan offered canter from the start and of his own accord picked up the pace on this last loop compared
to the previous one. The fifth and final loop consisted of the same 20km route used for the 3rd loop. despite this Dylan was still
finding things to spook at. I had been having a dim day with my GPs and had kept forgetting to stop the timing in vet gates so was
a little unsure of our overall speed and thought I may be getting close to the 13kph mark, this feeling was slightly compounded by
the fact that my ability to do mental arithmetic had flown out the window. I kept coming up with vey silly numbers that I knew was
just not possible. Any way we kept on going and were soon heading back to the venue where on entering the last field Dylan offered
to canter, we dully trotted accross the line stopping the clock. With help from Sophie O'Hara smith we were ready to vet in 4 mins
and 45 seconds of crossing the line. The rogersons very kindly offered to trot Dylan up for me, an offer I was more then happy to
take up. Dylan put in the same solid performance he had all day and trotted up sound with heart rates of 52/56 for his first 120km
completion at an overall speed of 14.19kph.
Below are my heart rate monitor and GPS readings from this ride.
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