September Robin Hood Challenge 80k ER Report

@David Saunders Photography

Given the close proximity of Southwell racecourse, an hour and a half away, we got up at 5.00am to travel over there the Saturday morning of the ride having packed the truck and hitched the trailer the previous evening. We arrived in plenty of time to set up our area in the vet gate and present for the pre ride vetting. As usuall I tacked up 25 minutes before the start time and walked Dylan round on relaxed rein for 15 miinutes before comencing any trot work. Then we were all off, Dylan was well behaved but strong. His long canter stride length allows us to take it easy on road sections as we inevitably catch up once we start cantering. Mary Stubbs and I rode much of the first half of the 33km blue loop together in 5th and 6th places. We both made use of the lovely grassy tracks cantering more then trotting. Cathing up with some of the FEI riders who had started 30 minutes before us. Dylan and I pushed on from the second crew point to joing the leading two horses to cross the finish line in 3rd place. By dint of a faster present to vet, 3 minutes, we moved in to first place having completed the loop at 16.8kph.

First out on the 31km red loop we had a one minute advantae which we gradually extended over the chasing horses and riders. Dylan was keenly moving forward offering canter on all of the grassy stretches and thoroughly enjoying himself. Pilot error however meant the loss of our carefully built up lead when I missed the turn to the top loop of grassy tracks round the cross country course. This resulted in us traveling an extra 6k, and as we where 1/3rd of the way round the top loop Mary Stubbs and Marlak silver flame passed us heading in the oposite direction towards home. We came into vet at the end of the in third place presenting in three minutes. This gave Mary a 10 minute lead over us and Gina Harris now in second placea 4 minute lead due to a lost shoe. To say Steve was not happy with me was an understatment, I was a tad annoyed with myself as well. Dylan thankfully did not know he was let down by his rider so was not grumpy with me. Dylan ate and drank exceptionaly well during the hold and five minutes beforea our out time we I tacked up and warmed him up.

Beth Langley and HS Amitista in the FEI YR class set of one minute before us, this worked in our favour as it gave me a bumb to keep in sight. Which we dully did only trotting on the short road section on this 16k loop. Two turns before the crew point I sighted Gina Harris. Beth asked me what position I was aiming for and helped me up Dylans pace so we caught gina shortly after passing the council tip and started to pull out a lead. We continued to ride together round the top loop and as we entered the first side of a field that you cantered all round on the cross country course at the furthest point on this loop we spotted Mary and Marlak Silver Flame starting round the third side. We now had our next target in sight. Dylan was happily cantering till we turned off the top loop heading back to the race course about 1.6k from the finish when he offered to speed up to 24kph and as we turned on to the race course galloped for home, if you believe my GPS readings he hit 42kph. We managed to narrow the gap to 1 furlong as Mary crossed the finish line so I slowwed Dylan down and trotted across the line giving him a big pat for such a good try to catch the winner.

@David Saunders Photography

The official results have us averaging 16.11kph over the 8km course, due to pilot error we actually averaged 17.3kph over 86k and on the last 16kph loop clocked up an average speed of 20.0kph. I have never ridden so fast on any loop of an endurance ride on any horse and Dylan has not averaged over 16kph at any distance before this. We vetted 8 minutes after crossing the line with Dylan looking like he had been out for a gentle hack.

A lovely finishing touch put on by the ride organisers was a podium for the top three placed riders to stand on during the presentation another first for me this year.

Below are my heart rate monitor and GPS readings from this ride.

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