40 – North Island Champs at Bulls

by Jenny · Published March 7, 2021 · Updated March 7, 2021

Henry had been going well. So Kerry suggested that I might like to ride him in the 160 at the North Island Champs. Then, if he did well, perhaps he could be in line for selection for the World Champs. It was a tough call. If I rode Henry I could not ride Lace. And it was Henry’s first 160…

For better or for worse I decided to ride Henry. This meant Lisa got to ride Lace, but if anyone else is going to ride her then Lisa is awesome, you always know she will totally look after your horse better than you would yourself.

So we started practicing on our Champs horses, Kerry and I would train Lace and Henry during the week but on our joint training rides we all did swaps: Me on Henry, Lisa on Lace and Kerry on Tigger. Tigger would be doing his first 120 at the NIs. Emma of course was on Shimar.

Mid December we went to the Ruahine ride at Pah Hill. A practice on our allotted horses. All good, 80km, Henry 3^rd, Lace 4^th.

One training ride took us to Raglan beach. It is a lovely beach to ride on but only 2.5km long, so 5km up and back… we usually end up doing at least four trips! On this particular time we got the horses off the truck and saddled up before I noticed a large lump on Lace’s stifle… it had definitely not been there that morning, so it must have happened on the trip over. Kerry felt it – it was soft – and she wasn’t sore so we continued with a successful training ride.

I got to take Henry for his first gallop down the beach! He is an Anglo Arab and has always been of the opinion that cantering is best and can be done anywhere over any terrain, but he had not yet actually gone fast with a rider. I remember it well, we started cantering and I urged him a little… I could feel his hesitant disbelief… “Really?… I can go fast????”, “Yes Henry… GO!” He didn’t needed a third invitation he was off and he was FAST!

Some weeks later the lump on Lace’s leg was still there, it was now very hard and had not really gone down at all. I had been warming it and massaging it to no avail. But at least she was still not sore.

We got down to base, and it would have been nice, except for the wind! It was horrible.

Pre-ride vetting, Henry was good to go, but the vet was having a close look at Lace’s lump. Lisa was explaining that it had been there a while, Lace had not been sore at all… I went into the vet ring. Second trot up, he still doesn’t want to let her start, says it is affecting the way she goes. President of the vet commission brought in for the third trot up, I take Lace so it’s not all on Lisa (although she is better at trotting them up than I am!), “I’m happy for her to start”… Phew! The vets later talked about Lace’s haematoma and it was noted in her book. Both horses had a start in the 160. The haematoma had not reduced even after many weeks, so I ended up getting an ultrasound check. It had actually become fibrous as the ligament over the patella had reacted by growing into a hard, protective lump. Since then it has almost completely reabsorbed, but it took a year or two.

Not long after the start of the ride at 1am, just ahead of us on the horizon, was one of the best shooting stars I have ever seen – there are some bonuses to being up and riding at stupid o’clock!

The first two loops were no problem and thus I don’t remember much about them. Although I love riding Lace I was also enjoying watching Lisa ride her, you get another perspective of your horse. I was really enjoying watching her intense focus from a different angle! Henry was going well, he had this head tossing thing that would disappear totally on the beach, so we think it was something to do with grass and possibly insects, it also happened more in sunlight than darkness… anyway I think at one point I leant forward to get under a branch just as his head was coming up…!

There was one patch of heavy course gravel, Lisa and I continued to jog on it while others walked… this meant we made up a lot of time on the horse who had been well in the lead. I knew, and was used to, Lace being fine on gravel… and Henry was padded in front so I thought he would be ok. But he ended up going out lame behind, the stones may well have been to blame.

However now I was on the ground to help with Lisa and Lace. They were well placed. Lisa looked after Lace well on the fourth loop, slowing down a little and giving her a pick of grass while she could. The last two loops were the same, loop D, and only 17km long, Lace and Lisa were in the lead. At this point I gave Lisa the tip I had learnt at Whareama – don’t ride her like an endurance horse, ride her like you’re doing cross-country… have fun!

Lisa and Lace did just that for the next two loops, at 19km/hr, and won the ride handily. Lisa reported enjoying not only the whole ride but those last two loops in particular!

Emma and Shimar had also successfully completed the 160.

The next day Tigger and Kerry successfully completed the 120 – although Tigger did his best to self-destruct on the mounting block (plastic stand thing) getting tangled in it and demolishing it entirely…. Sigh. But he was becoming really good in the vet ring, being totally calm even when they started taking down the vets marquee right there and he was the only horse in the ring at the time! It was so windy one of the poles had broken.

We spent a lot of time getting Lace warmed up and keeping her warm for the Best Conditioned. There was no room for Lisa to gallop as the ride was in the vet ring, but Lace was pulling the whole time.

With quite a bit of stones on the course there had been a few complaints… but Lace did the whole 160 and won best conditioned – by a long way apparently – with no pads on! The vets were amazed there was not a mark on her, apparently most of the other horses had scratches or rubs. So the horse who was nearly vetted out pre-ride won both the ride and the BC!

I gave away my pony’s best ride. I was so pleased she had won and so pleased for Lisa – it was her first 160. But it was pretty hard to take none the less. Really happy and yet sad too. I regret that I was not riding her, I have never regretted that Lisa was.

Thanks so much to David Fitzgerald – Irons the official photographer, who not only takes awesome photos but lets us download them all for free.