3. Stepping up the Distance – George beats Don!

by Jenny · Published January 23, 2019 · Updated February 6, 2019

George looking awesome and fit at Okoroire (and I’m looking pretty silly!) As you can see you can start endurance with no special gear, just a leather bridle, cheap plastic saddle that I’d bought for a pony that was too small for me… no fancy colourful plastic endurance gear yet. That’s the great thing about endurance you can just start with what you already have.

Me in Antarctica studying Adele penguins!

I had a great time in Antarctica; I had managed to find a friend to keep George fit, so I was all set. 25km at Okoroire (what a beautiful course) and we were ready for the big step up to try our first 40km. By now I had heard about getting through novice, 200km and George and I would be Intermediate and able to race! No more minimum times! I had a goal, we’d done four 25km rides (they used to count back then) so we were half way.

February 19, nearly one year since our Masters Games victory, George and I lined up at TeMiro, a lovely base on the top of an air strip. I had chosen to ride on the Saturday afternoon, the ride didn’t start until 2pm… with a minimum time of 4 hours… I wasn’t allowed to finish until after 6!!! Gulp. Unfortunately there had been a communication mix up and gates which could have been left open had not been… someone counted the next day and there were about 43 gates in the 40 km! Due to this I ended up just chugging around with two open riders often not bothering to get back on between gates as they were so close. However I had learnt my minimum time lesson and so I let them get ahead well before home. George was demoralised and tired and the last big hill was a huge effort for him, I even tried leading him but that was worse. We got to the top and there was the base, nearly there… we approached a gate and I noticed there were no markers, I looked around, there were some markers taking us back down a hill… you have got to be kidding!!!… we’ve just slogged our way up. But the 40km was made of a 25km loop and a 15km loop, so anything marked was on our to do list and we had not been through that gate yet. Happily it wasn’t far down before we were up again and finished, in 4:21. Little knowing at that point that the two open riders I had let get ahead had gone on through the wrong gate and thus ended up six minutes behind us! So George beat Don home, not only first novice home but first horse home!! Don was a very good horse and later went on to win many rides and compete internationally at the World Equestrian Games. I think that was probably the hardest 40km I’ve ever done… Hearing later about how good Don was I resolved that one day George would beat them without a course error advantage, but we were never in a ride together again.

So with Kerry now making sure I learnt and did all those things I was supposed to do, I got a number for me, two numbers for George (Endurance and ESNZ) and a log book!!!! There is nothing quite like getting your first log book, no more day vet cards for us.

George’s logbook! In New Zealand we have logbooks rather than having our horse’s vet records on separate sheets as some countries do. I love our logbooks as you have all the ride info together so it doesn’t get lost or dirty/wet. When you start out you have a separate sheet, a Day Vet Card. Often for the shorter rides there won’t be much recorded, but for longer rides the page gets very full.

Another 40 at Pukeatua saw us come up against another new endurance trainee, Andrea. She had the advantage of being on Lois’s experienced horse Zimbo and there we were both vying to be first novice home… game on! We were both looking forward to the day we would be open and could race! Sadly, or possibly luckily, it was another thing that never happened.

About this time the Armstrong’s invited me to train with them, as they lived quite close to me – wow! Turns out it was actually a compliment as it wasn’t until a few rides later that they told me most people couldn’t keep up with them but they had been pretty sure George and I would manage. And so I not only got to train with people who knew what they were doing and got access to some lovely country to ride on (in fact the farm at Whatawhata where the Masters Games had been held!), but I also picked up lots of useful tips along the way.

And thus George and I were able to travel with Richard in the truck to our first overnight venue (AWEC) – having been a pony club kid, and the only horsey one in the family, all the events I had been to had always been close enough to travel early in the morning. The idea of going the day before was completely foreign and up until now I had gone only to those rides that were close. No problems and a lovely ride and now George has done his 200km!!! We were allowed to go faster…

George did actually do two open 40km rides, and yes at the Waikato one that I have the results for we were first home J, but in those days there were training rides and points rides. Due to the Sunday being a points ride and the club needing people to help, Richard had decided it was best that George and I rode on Saturday, then I could help on Sunday, so no first place ribbon for us. It was probably a good thing though as I would no doubt have been tempted to go too fast!

But guess where I helped on Sunday? Vet Gate! With only a clock and some paper and lots of horses queuing in a tiny area, the riders all yelling at me to take their time… I couldn’t see their numbers, and up until that morning had not even heard of vet-gate, let alone know anything about multi-loop rides! Perhaps that day was influential and may well have contributed to my decision to have a go at writing a spreadsheet to do vet-gate timing.

I was thrilled to be an intermediate endurance rider and left to my own devices would probably have stayed there for some time. But I was quickly becoming a part of team Armstrong so the next thing you do is two 80km rides and then you’re Open.

Was there to be no end to doubling the distance just when you’d got comfortable?