My first FEI Ride

Sandine Arabians offered me a ride at the only FEI ride in Victoria for 2010. I was down to ride Aloha Farina again. We went out for a light ride on the Saturday, and Farina felt so very fit.

Unfortunately Farina had a sore back. Marcia kindly arranged for me to ride another horse, Pyrenees Sapphire. Thank you to Tamara for giving up her ride, so that I could take Sapphire around the course. I was a lighter rider, which was preferred, although we had to weigh me up with lead - so that I could make the minimum weight on offer of 75kg.

I had to dash home in the evening and treat an ill horse with antibiotics - so I was quite busy in transit and not very social the Saturday evening. Esther kindly treated the mare the next day, whilst I was riding. (Note also - very happy the little girl made a full recovery.)

The FEI ride was 90km, over 3 legs. The first leg we were not used to the vet gate into hold procedure, and took 10 minutes too long. I rode with Sandy Horton, the owner of the horse that I was riding. He was riding a big tall and capable Anglo mare, Aloha Rain Dance. The horses were travelling well. Sapphire would blow as she traveled along, and this made me quite concerned. Sandy Horton said this was fine, and that she was going well. I trusted his judgement, and kept the pace up. I do not usually travel at pace, and it is a new skill to develop to judge my horse at a faster travelling speed.

On the second leg, Sapphire fell on her face, literally. I had her on too loose a rein, and she was stretching down and using her neck. She had a la-de-da moment on the flat terrain. I swear my feet nearly touched the ground as her head and neck disappeared from beneath me. Not quite sure how I stayed on, maybe good strong inner thighs from lots of riding. Her knee was grazed, but only lightly, not anywhere near the synovial fluid or knee capsule, and her head was grazed, all down the front.

She was not lame, so we kept on going, likely the best thing to have done.

At the vet check Sapphire was a little off, but fine. Jo Brock came along and did some muscle work, and fixed her neck. Then there was only 20km to go, nice and steady, we were in 3rd and 4th place, and had to hold our positions.

Sapphire was starting to tire - Sandy's horse was going well, however he promised that he would stick with me and get both horses through.

Two horses from the Castlebar camp snuck up on us in the last 2km. We chased them for a little while, and then took hold again. It was more important to get the horses through, than chase the line honours. They placed, only a minute or so ahead of us in time.

Sapphire vetted through, as did Sandy's horse. We placed a respectable 5th and 6th. We did the ride in just under five and half hours, including hold time. The winner did it in 5:02:31, and in second place was Jen Gilbertson, in 5:19:06. The 10 minutes lost in hold time early in the ride would make a great difference to the placings - a good learning exercise to take home from the first FEI ride.

It was great to see that Sapphire recovered really well the next day. Thanks to Sandine for a great ride on a fit horse. I was a little sore, my back and calf muscles were all strained from riding the fall on track. A good massage and a few hots baths soon fixed that!

Emma Holland has some pics for the ride - if I can find one I will publish it with this post.