2 My first Real Endurance Rides
Being at the Masters Games meant the Waikato Endurance Club now had my name and address. So I started getting sent the newsletter…. And in the newsletter was information about upcoming rides. Yes, I had enjoyed my 20km so much I was going to have a crack at the real thing and I was really looking forward to it.
George got/has windgalls, or at least a bit of puffiness down there just above the pastern. So I discussed it with the farrier and asked him to do George a bit shorter than normal. Unfortunately it was the apprentice and he did a bit much and now George was a bit sore, nothing major, just a bit tender and so he couldn’t do the ride that weekend, I was totally gutted, I had so been looking forward to it. Just writing that now I realise that even though I had been riding for 24 years at that stage I actually knew stuff all!
So as to not miss out totally I took Supes. He hadn’t been doing any suitable training, in fact I ended up selling him not long after as endurance took over my life and my lovely TB was wasting in the paddock. But we could surely manage the 10km!
So I turn up to the ride once again not having any idea about anything… but I just treated it like any horse event, unload horse, tie horse to float, go and find out where you enter. I’m at the caravan and the person there asks “have you done endurance before?” I proudly say yes I did 20km at the Masters Games, a head snaps up from the depths of the caravan, “So you did”. I think then that Kerry must have taken over from there as I have no recollection of being lost or confused… and I should have been! So with no trouble at all I end up with a number, a day vet card and my horse at the vet ring. Supes wasn’t particularly calm but we had a lovely ride on what was essentially a pretty crap out and back course along a farm track… speaking with hindsight there, I still enjoyed it at the time. Kerry was very sceptical about my having brought the wrong horse and made me promise to bring the right horse next time.
One thing I clearly remember from that ride was seeing all the buckets people had lined up at their trucks already filled with water. As we beginners all strapped our horses at the trough I realised what those buckets were for, I was using someone else’s towel, I didn’t even have a bucket much less a sponge!
So now I was learning about minimum times. At the Masters Games Kerry had pretty much read us the riot act at the ride brief. We were novices and would not normally be allowed to race, but she had medals to give out, even so we were not to ride too hard… She didn’t know how frightened I was of the vet check at the end!
For the next Waikato ride I had George and we were ready, lined up in the 25km, our longest ride yet and a real one. George being a Standardbred meant that simply by trotting off as slowly as we could we kind of ended up riding with some “real” endurance people. And so I discovered one of the things I really love about endurance, that even as a complete newby you can end up riding with awesome people and talking about all sorts of things (mainly horses of course), so I learnt lots that day just by riding and chatting – thanks to Mel & Ken for taking the time and having the patience to baby sit a beginner, they were just doing 25 because they were doing 50 the next week. Wow, imagine doing a 50km endurance ride! They were clearly really good at this!
So because I was riding with real people on open horses the reality of minimum times hit home. About 5km from base Ken pointed out that I needed to mind my time and so George and I walked while they continued. Then I was only two paddocks from the finish and I still had 15 minutes to kill, I hid behind a hill, how embarrassing to get it wrong! But it was right next to State Highway 1, so I felt a bit dumb doing that too… so we wandered to a trough, and then took the long way around the paddock. Approaching the finish I made sure to check the official time before crossing the line – my time? 2:00:00…. Minimum time? 2:00:00. Hmmm, I had just caught the “first novice home” bug, very common with novice riders – oh dear!
Another 25km at Maramarua in May – yes, first novice home, I had Kerry running for the finish shouting not to finish yet, she wasn’t ready! That was the end of the season. George and I had done 75km, although I believed at that stage that it was 95 as it took me a long time to get my head around the fact that my 20km at the Masters Games didn’t count… not fair!
Next season started with another 25km, not actually first home that day, but the first home was disqualified for being 30 minutes under minimum time, so first qualified still counts. Kerry started giving me forms and telling me to join this and join that, it was totally confusing, not only did I have to join the club but also Endurance NZ and ESNZ, it’s simpler these days. But I was going to Antarctica in December so that would all have to wait. The crisis of being away for six weeks was that I needed someone to keep George fit! The next Waikato Endurance ride was on January 30 and I wasn’t back in NZ until the 15th! Yes, I had the endurance bug, hook, line and sinker!
And yes even then I was data obsessed. The reason I can tell you the details of those rides is that I not only kept my certificates and vet cards but I cut out all the results from the newsletter and put them in a folder…. So I can in fact confirm that when I turned up at rides and discovered that Kerry appeared not to be there that day it was of course because she, and the rest of the family, was on a horse. So remember ride officials, when people are going to their first few rides and still feeling their way, it’s really nice to have a few familiar faces there pointing you in the right direction. I think at the Waikato club we do that pretty well.
