The Parsler girls collecting the Animal Health Trophy for the 100km Family Challenge‎

We had a fantastic weekend at the Kings Forest ride and had our first go at a vet gate.  3 grade ones and a huge silver trophy – not a bad haul!  Becca has written all about it on her training blog so follow the link below to find out more

http://egbhi.wordpress.com/2010/07/04/kings-forest-6…00km-challenge/ ‎

One of the Pony Club Team was lucky enought to be crewed by members of the British Young Riders team at Cirencester last weekend.  She has come back with lots of useful tips which we thought we’d share ……….

• put map case on under the number bib, it doesn’t then do “loop the loop’s” and tie you in knots
• fill all “end of ride” buckets when you first get to venue and put them under the trailer, then you can refill containers if required
• Some rides will let you “vet in” with hoof boots in situe (saves time between vetting and start time.
• stay really relaxed with horse at vetting (hrt rate) then really up your energy for trot up.
• Look directly at vet when trotting back to him/her (keeps you on line)
• Smile at all times around the vets – makes them think all is fine even if you are worried
• If some outside your control occurs when heart rate is taken (red arrows! / loose dogs / laughing crowd) – you are able to ask to have heart rate redone.
• After initial cooling then concentrate on front end of horse and inside thighs (back and rump muscles quickly stiffen up if over cooled – lameness)
• If at all worried your horse might be unsound – don’t wait full 30min before presenting, go early and take hit on heart rate not lameness (a “completion” is better than an “elimination”)
• Allow calm grazing up to 5 min before vetting especially if stopping horse grazing stresses them
• allow enough time to very calmly walk to vetting
• get off straight after booking out with time keeper and start cooling straight away (crew to meet you there)
• pure apple juice may get horses to drink if they don’t like water
• keeping drinking (water/isotonic drinks)
• Don’t have to remove hoof boots for trot up
• Train horse to lower head at vetting – drops the heart rate.
• “endurance” bridles last longer.

At the Lion’s Tail we also discovered (the hard way) that….

• If your horse loses a shoe at the last minute and is not lame you do not have to put it back on to vet and can even have the pair removed to even the horse up.  It’s your decision!

BHS has now launched its Imagin service which gives online maps of the whole country, plus ‘vetted’ circular routes produced by horse riders.

http://www.emagin.org/Routes_by_region/East.aspx

choose the route you want, choose the tab with 1:250000, scroll around and use the print option in your browser to print the route in sections.  There will be more info added to the route in time I believe.

You can now effectively print any area of the country 1:250000 with the ROW on it, for free!!!!

As this database builds it will be a fantastic opportunity for horse riders and non-riders alike.

Note, thanks to the huge effort Ann Kennedy put in when she produced the Bedfordshire on Horseback series our region has more maps than anyone else so far!!

Vikki Barratt has volunteered to be a mapping volunteer, collecting routes.  They will not appear straight away as they need to be verified.

Please have a look, pass on the info, and if you know of businesses who might want to advertise let them know.  Also please tell me of any circular routes you know of, esp. if you can say where to park.  I also have the support of Lets Go for publishing routes, where we can add more info about the route, such as a ‘talk round’, historical facts or whatever…

Vikki would love feedback on how you feel about this new resource.  email her by clicking here.

An unmounted session designed to get you going for the new season.  Learn some exercises to help your horse or pony stay fit, balanced and mobile during and after rides.  Work out your own fitness program – yes your fitness does make a difference to your horse! (and to how you walk the next day)

click here to download full information and book your place.

As usual a good morning out was had by all at the annual Treaure Hunt in Linford Woods.  The sun shone brightly and with everyone warmly wrapped up in tinsel and santa hats we all managed to ignore the heavy frost!

Refreshments were provided at the finish and handed out to the chilly riders by the willing troop of parents.  Everyone managed to successfully complete the hunt and there were some quite creative solutions.  I think the wood had been pretty much cleared of rubbish by the time we finished! (S for Strongbow can, Y for Yazoo bottle, H for haribo packet etc etc – you get the picture)

Winner of the special rosette for most festive turnout was Beth Davidson.

Thanks to Tiscali for hosting us once again and to all the members and parents who made it such a fun morning.

Maggie discusses the pony's recovery rates after each lap.

Maggie Pattinson of On the Hoof Distance Training and chef d’equipe of the English team, ran a small fitness training clinic at Milton Keynes Equestrian Centre in August which we were lucky enough to attend.

Maggie started the training by explaining about aerobic and anaerobic exercise, aerobic meaning that the blood is fully oxygenated and so the heart and other systems  can work efficiently.  Aerobic meaning that the level of work has increased to a point at which a lack of oxygen means that performance will diminish.  Flat work race horses will often do the entire race in the anaerobic zone, however this means that after a certain distance performance will drop off very rapidly.  So for consistent and sustainable performance such as an endurance ride you need to ensure that the horse is working in the aerobic zone.  However to increase the aerobic threshold you do have to occasionally push into the anaerobic zone.

Regarding initial fittening of the horse or pony Maggie believes there is no short cut to the general graft or 4 to 6 weeks of walk work early in the year. However she did say that you should not underestimate the benefits of hacking out, so any mums who go out with their friend should not feel guilty about having a chin wag, as you are actually helping to build a good level of base fitness!  Conversely whilst very good fun, blasting around the countryside flat out does very little to generate long term fitness.

Archie recovered best when worked in a steady trot

Maggie had brought several heart rate monitors that could be fixed to the horses saddles so as to monitor the level of exertion on the horses system at certain paces.    This was carried out at various combinations of pace depending on the individual horses.  Each horse did a warm up lap starting with a walk section and following with trot for the remainder of the circuit, at the end of the circuit the recovery time to a level of 60bpm was taken. This provided a base line, and also gave a rough indication of each horses fitness.   Then a series of circuits at different paces were done each with a target BPM rate in mind.  The riders were asked to assess which pace to adopt to get the required BPM.

The readings from the heart rate monitors were occasionally quite surprising, for instance whilst a resting pulse rate when untacked could be in the late 30′s or low 40′s even a gentle walk could raise it up by 10bpm, if the horse was a bit spooky or made to go away from their stable mates then it could go up to 80bpm even when still walking.

At higher paces different horses could behave quite differently to what you would expect.  For instance Shine who has wonderful extension and can trot for England actually had a much lower heart rate at canter.  Conversely Archie had a lower pulse rate at trot, but was not significantly slower in that pace.  Another thing that was rather counter intuitive was that in some cases the recovery time back to 60 bpm actually got better the more work they did, an example of this was Shaz who would definitely benefit from a significant level of warm up in advance of the event proper.

It was also obvious the effect that fighting with an onward bound horse can have in increasing the pulse rate, when allowed to have its head the pulse came down and very quickly the pulling match stopped.

One other thing that was quite surprising is how high the pulse rate could get under exertion.  A horse with a resting rate of 40 could easily get up to 180 on an extended canter.

One thing that was common across all of the ponies however was that a consistent pace gave a lower overall pulse rate and better recovery.   During

Recovery was faster when riders kept to a consistent speed even when that speed was fairly fast!

a circuit where the ponies changed up and down pace frequently the pulse was higher and the recovery time longer than when a consistent pace was done even when the consistent lap was quite fast.

What was good is that each of the riders went away with a couple of personalised tips on how their own pony behaves under work, and a good indication of what would work for them.  Also, encouragingly for those riders with older horses, we learned that if the horse has been kept in work for most of its life then it has a good base level of fitness that has built up over the years enabling it to perform on a par with a younger animal.

Report by Rebecca Parsler.

I went to the Interegionals at Barbury Castle on7-9th August 2009.   Me , my Dad and my big sister Tasha had been selected for the Eastern Region team, from Cromwell group. Gilly, the chef d’equipe, took my pony Havannah in her trailer with her horse because we only have space for two in our trailer. We followed up the next day with my sisters and Dads ponies Talisman and Shine.

When we got to the venue, after looking out the windows at all the huge fields and rolling hills, saying how fun it would be the next day, we found where Havannah had been put out in a corral and unloaded Shine and Tally.   As we were bringing them to the gate to the corral area, Havannah saw us and jumped out of her corral and galloped across the field ducking and jumping other peoples corrals as she went,  causing a bit of a spectacle for all the people setting up camp!  We managed to catch her when she met the wooden fence and led her back to the corrals with Talisman and Shine.

After setting up camp we had a team meeting, met all the other members of our regional team and got our bright pink kit, Dad looked lovely. We later on went to eat at a restaurant with very slow service and a lack of bacon for Tasha. We eventually got back very late, but Mum and Dad were soon out again in search of Mum’s left behind handbag. An hour or so later all the drama was over and we got to sleep.

The next day we collected in the ponies and groomed them before heading off to the vet. It took ages to get through the vet as Havannah’s legendary low heart rate had hit its record at 24 bpm and all the vets including the chief vet all came over as they didn’t believe it. Havannah did get jokingly accused of ‘cheating’ because she drops and skips heartbeats all over the place. Once we were finished there we returned to the trailer and finished grooming and tacking up. Me and Natasha put white bows in our ponies manes and sprayed slightly wonky silver stars on their bums, which did get some comments from our team.

Natasha and me showing off our lovely pink team kit! (Photo by Eric Jones)

Setting off along the racecourse with fellow team member Pippi on a borrowed horse all the ponies were energetic and pulling to go.  The first part of the route is on grass track the whole way, which is good to get a decent start, almost the whole ride was on downs and ridge ways with little roadwork. We got back in good time and got vetted, Havannah got a grade 1 and shine a grade 4.  Sadly Talisman was vetted out and our team vet confirmed that he had thrown a splint and prescribed 6 weeks off work. (not such good news for Dad’s plans for the rest of the season)

After we saw the horses relaxing once again in thier corralls we went up to the trade stands for lunch. Mum had spotted a cheap free ‘n easy saddle she wanted but unfortunately it was gone by then. We were sitting above the vetting area eating cakes and watched a pair of riders having a racing finish and also the only 160km rider to finish and joined in the cheering when she crossed the line and passed the vet.

At the prize giving there was more cheering as the Barbury Champion was presented with her rug and rosettes. Our regional team was placed 7th and me and Tasha also got a 3rd place young riders medal. All in all it was a good ride at a great venue and I’d like to go again.

Rebecca Parsler

Whaddon Chase Pony Club is organising a fun and friendly “virtual” treasure hunt to help raise funds for their Endurance teams’ training program.

Everyone is welcome to enter and there will be small prizes for the winners.

Click here to download an entry form.

Results:

Championship Team 2009 - Whaddon Chase Pony Club

The inaugural Pony Club National Endurance Championships was held on 20th September 2009 at the College Equestrian Centre near Bedford.  Although this was the first year, 12 branches competed with riders travelling from as far afield as Wales and Yorkshire.  Pony Club Chairman Cherry Michell, Endurance Chairperson Robert Blane and Nicola Slater from sponsors Carr & Day & Martin presented a huge pile of wonderful rosettes and prizes.  All said how delighted they were with both the number and standard of the entries.

A dedicated team of Whaddon Chasers have been working hard all year to qualify for this event, clocking up in excess of 1500km of competitive rides between them (not to mention all the hours of both mounted and unmounted training they put in!).  In the event we are proud to say that their dedication obviously paid off.  All the WCPC riders produced excellent results in very full and hotly contested classes.

Some mention also has to go to the team of dedicated parents and friends who provided essential back up crew in the form of both escort riders and ground support.  The day of the Championships was brilliantly sunny, which is very nice if you are sitting around, but not so good if you need to ride 30-40km in 3 hrs!  Without the positive army of people driving round the Bedfordshire countryside with buckets of water, sponges and bottles of drink it would not have been possible for our team riders to achieve the results they did. So a major thank you to Nesta, Jane S, Peter, Jane A, Jacqui, Kim, Rachel, Maria, Celia, Katrine, Karen and Aaron.  (I think we also managed to prove that Whaddon Chase really know how to organize a killer barbeque!)

Not surprisingly the Novice classes attracted the most entries in this first year.  However, from a National Committee perspective, what was most pleasing was the sheer quality of those entries.  The standard was unbelievably high and there was almost nothing between the first 10 or so riders in both sections.   We were therefore extremely pleased with the following results…

Junior Novice

Whaddon Whizzers  team 1st –  Katie Spaughton, Hannah Maskell and Bryony Parsler

Whaddon Wonders team 3rd- Eve Knights, Louise Gallavan and Kathryn Naysmith

Katie Spaughton individual 1st

Hannah Maskell individual 5^th

Senior Novice

Team 2^nd – Beth Brown, James and Peter Alexander

James Alexander individual 2nd

The Open class was not as full but the standard was no less high. Once again placings were incredibly tight, especially between the top 5 riders, with no more than 3 or 4 penalty points between them (out of a possible 55).  The eventual winner put in a stunning performance that would not have been out of place on any affiliated National team.  All our Open riders can feel justly proud of themselves for the following results in such a tough competition…

Senior Open

Team 2^nd – Rebecca and Natasha Parsler and Gemma Maskell

Rebecca Parsler individual 2^nd and EGB grade 1

Natasha Parsler individual 5^th and EGB grade 2

For a full list of results please go to

Everyone showed a great team spirit, helping each other out and all seemed to have really enjoyed the day.

For full results and more information please see the main Pony Club website at http://www.pcuk.org/Disciplines/Endurance/Endurance-Championships/

Who are they for?

ANYONE  who cares about how fit their horse/pony is
•  Eventers
•  Show Jumpers
•  Dressage
•  Endurance
•  TREC
•  Riding Club/Pony Club Teams
“On the Hoof Distance Training” are passionate about fitness, they want everyone to enjoy training and have a greater understanding of what fitness is and how it can be achieved for every discipline.

What do we do?:

Using a measured distance we look at what the horses heart is actually doing..
•  Assess fitness
•  Work intervals – technically using heart rate monitors
•  “play around” with the heart rate monitors – to see “exactly” whats what!
Each session covers you and your horse specifically, you don’t have to be a particular level or even aiming at something in particular it can simply be about learning more about how you both “tick”. The aim is to have fun, to improve and understand a little (and sometimes a lot) more about what about what’s going on under you!

Who is running it?

Maggie Pattinson of On the Hoof Distance Training. Maggie’s passion is for fitness in the competition horse. She has a lifetime’s experience with horses and has been lucky enough to compete and work in many different countries in a variety of disciplines – mainly Eventing until she discovered Endurance 16/17+ years ago. Since then she has trained, competed and crewed at International level. She is currently chef d’equipe for the Home International English Team which is how the Parslers have got in contact with her. She runs this type of training regularly at different levels for her local EGB group, the international teams and for some of her local PC branches too.

Whilst this training has obviously been organised with Endurance in mind you don’t need to have an interest in Endurance Riding to attend. Maggie is keen to help everyone at all levels of riding to achieve the correct fitness levels to be able to get the best out of your horse.

What will it cost?

The cost per head will be £20-25 for 3/4 hours training in groups of 2-4 riders.  (As Maggie is travelling from some distance she has set a minimum charge for the day so until numbers are confirmed it is impossible to be definite on cost.) If you are interested in attending please contact Nikki using the contact form below asap to book your place. You will get a pre-training questionnaire sent back which you will need to complete so that Maggie can plan the session specifically for you!

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