BRC Endurance Challenge Final

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SOLIHULL SUPERSTARS BRC ENDURANCE TEAM CHALLENGE 2011

The season started in typical style with a meeting at the pub where we were introduced to our newest team member Sarah Graham. We talked her through the rules and technicalities of endurance riding and entered our first qualifier ride at Vale of Belvoir. We were a team of four at this event – Sarah Graham with L’amour (Larry), Anne Green with Gladston Blaze (Sid), Annette Goodman with Chilli and Dorothy Hasty with her sisters horse Cassie. Our team manager, Lisa Giovine had also entered this ride with her horse Granby Dominica as she was in training, building up to the Golden Horseshoe ride, so we all met up and started the ride together.

This was a case of “in at the deep end” for Sarah, as our horses seemed to know exactly what was coming up and set off at rather a fast pace as they were all so excited!! Thankfully this didn’t last, and we all split up with the faster horses, Minica and Chilli going on ahead, Sid following on behind, and Cassie and Larry settling into a more sedate pace bringing up the rear. We all enjoyed the ride, completed within our speed parameters, all successfully passed the vetting and all achieved gradings so a good start to the team results.

So all inspired, we entered our next ride at Tugby, another Leicestershire venue, where this time we were joined by Helen Foster and Cosmo, and Dorothy this time rode her brother in laws horse, Ryan, who had been part of our 2010 team. We were also joined by Gemma Duke and Une Lady who at this stage had just come along for the experience as Une had been having issues with her show jumping, so much so that she wouldn’t even enter the arena, so Gemma felt that this might help Une to have a bit of fun.

This was a ride of mixed fortunes with Une losing a shoe half way into the ride. We managed to get the farrier out to put a shoe back on, then she and Cosmo put their hooves down and managed to complete within time. Ryan and Larry were not so fortunate, got completely lost and were out of time, but at least we were all safe and sound.

Not to be deterred, we entered our next ride at Lions Tail, yet another Leics venue at the stunning Stapleford Park estate. Now this was a scorching hot day and Chilli didn’t join us here as she was recovering from an injury, so, Sid, Larry, Ryan and Cosmo carried the flag for the Solihull Superstars. Gemma and Une also joined us again for the experience and again lost a shoe right at the end of the ride. The hot weather on this occasion played havoc with the pulse rates, Sid just about managed to get within the parameters, but Ryan was way over so didn’t pass the final vetting. The heat didn’t seem to affect Larry though and he achieved his first grade 1 and Cosmo got a grade 4.

Gemma by this time was getting hooked on endurance riding, and joined Solihull RC so that she could be part of the team. The work was also helping Une who was now starting to jump again so Gemma started to combine the two disciplines into her schedule.

As we had now qualified as a team, Sid and Chilli concentrated on doing some longer distances, and the other girls, Gemma, Helen and Sarah went on to ride at Cirencester where they achieved our best qualifying score and earned us a place at the finals, and Cranham in Gloucestershire which was a much more challenging hilly ride. Une was proving to be a star achieving grade 1’s for both of her rides as a team member. Sadly though, Dorothy made the hard decision to withdraw from the team as both Cassie and Ryan had been a bit under the weather after Lions Tail and it was proving difficult to keep them fit.

So with the finals looming in September, we started planning what we were going to wear, what the horses were going to wear, who was going to crew, tactics etc etc so we had to have another meeting in the pub!! By this time Annette also made the difficult decision to withdraw Chilli who had vetted lame after a ride at Robin Hood. She just wasn’t quite 100% so it really wasn’t fair to expect her to perform over a 20 mile ride.

Then, just the very weekend before the finals, Cosmo sliced his heel and was ordered to have a months box rest, so he was also out of the team. So we were down to the bare bones and it was down to Sid and our two new recruits, Une and Larry to represent the club at the finals. We couldn’t afford for anything else to go wrong. Pressure or what !! We weren’t going to give up after all our hard work and were determined to give it our best shot.

The finals this year were at an equestrian college in Keysoe Bedfordshire on 18^th September and 12 teams were representing their clubs. The day dawned bright and dry and we all made our way to the venue, a journey of approx 90 miles. The venue was rather chaotic as there was also a Lusitano show going on, and the tents from the previous nights campers were all still erected around the lorry/trailer parking area so it was quite bizarre! Gemma was beaming, as the previous day she had won the 3’3” summer championship at Solihull RC – proof that letting Une have some fun had worked, and we hoped that this would be a good omen !

After registering, crews got busy sprucing up our horses as there was to be a Best Turned Out team award and we could see that other teams had put a lot of effort into looking good! Our vet time was scheduled for 11am and the first part of turn out judging was to take place at the vetting area, the second part taking place once mounted and at the start line. We all vetted successfully so crews got busy again tacking up for our start time at 11.30. We had been generously sponsored this year by ALTAIR UK who provided our tops, girth guards and noseband covers, and PLATINUM FROG who did the design work on our tops which were really fabulous. We presented at the start line – and we were off !

The ride was fantastic, quite flat, lots of grassy bridleways and field headlands, so we were able to crack on with Larry setting the pace. Our trusty crews, including Helen and Annette who couldn’t ride today, met us at our first arranged point where Lisa assured us that our speed was spot on. So off we set again to be met at our second crew point where again, our horses were sloshed down, we were refreshed and reassured that we were still on track with our speed. The points for the final results were calculated by using a formula based on finishing heart rates and speed, but the speed this year was capped at 13kph, so although you could complete at a faster speed if you wished, there was nothing to be gained, so we had planned to ride together as a team and try for the optimum speed of 13kph, which is a fair fast pace.

We finished the ride, a distance of 33km today, in 2hrs 28mins so we were confident we had achieved our aim – all we needed to do now was pass the all-important final vetting. We have to present for vetting within half an hour of finishing so our crews got busy cooling off our horses then we all made our way over to the vetting area. All I can say is that it is a good job that the riders pulse rate doesn’t have to be taken as I think we would have failed dismally !! One by one, pulse rates were taken, horses trotted up – hoorah, we all passed – we were elated but all was not over yet as there was the wait for the final results and competition was hot !!

The presentation took place in the indoor school and all the team members were eagerly awaiting the results. For the second year running, Solihull Superstars won the Best Turned Out trophy so huge thanks to our sponsors for helping us to achieve this. Then the team event was announced in reverse order and Solihull Superstars were 6^th – the exact same result as last year. Even though we achieved good scores, everybody had upped their game this year so the competition had been fierce, but given our problems we all felt it was a fantastic achievement.

So for anybody that wants to have a go next year there may not be the thrills and spills of eventing or the elegance of dressage, but it is exhilarating, challenging and most of all fun and gets you out to some fantastic countryside.

And finally, thanks to our team manager Lisa Giovine who once again nearly had heart failure, to Marian Drew Heart of England EGB committee member who came to support us, to our faithful crews who gave up their valuable time and without whose help would make life a lot more difficult, and to our generous sponsors ALTAIR UK and PLATINUM FROG.
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RESULTS 2010: June 20 Cirencester Sept 5 Southwell