The local ride was held at Newstead the Queens birthday long weekend in June 2010.
I rode a lovely mare named Aloha Farina, trained by Sandine Arabians. We competed in the 80km ride. Farina is a lovely mare to ride, she does not pull, or over exert herself, just continues to move forward and cover the distance. On the first leg, we rode with two other Sandine horses, until around 5km from home, where the two open qualified horses travelled in, leaving Kristina on the novice. A great recovery for Farina and Sapphire, the other horse of Sandines, ridden by Tamara.
We were given the nod to go a little faster on the next leg, and Tamara and I set off with great relish. We had just hit the front, for each of our divisions, when Farina pulled a shoe.
Friends on track came to the rescue - Rowan from Flying Circus endurance riders offered an easy boot, a boot to fit over the hoof so we could keep going. This did not fit, however around a minute later Zeke ABC came past and kindly fitted his easy boot on my horse. Zeke is known surname of ABC, as this is easier to write and say, than his very long, maybe Dutch surname. I think the sportmanship and sharing is just fantastic in endurance, and am very proud to ride and compete with such a great bunch of people.
We kept going, very slowly as the boot was a little too big, I was hoping for a farrier to fit the shoe back on, however some sports tape was put around Farina's leg, so that her pastern would not rub. Thanks Tony T for bringing that out on track! After that we then kept on going.
We passed some of the horses that we had go past us earlier, and put ourselves in 3rd place, towards the end of the second leg. Tamara had won her division, which was just fantastic. Both of us are not normally competitive placing riders, so it was fun to give it a go.
Farina trotted out sound in the vet check, with her gumboot on. It certainly got us around the track. Once we took the boot off and returned it to Zeke, Farina was a little tender on the foot. The tenderness lasted long enough for us to not present in the fittest horse competition, the good news being that she was completely sound later that evening.
It was a great ride, easy going, well marked, friendly volunteers and ride organisers, and people generally raved about the ride. I look forward to riding Farina at the next ride in Newstead, in six weeks time.
