01-07-2007 Plumpton
42km Endurance
This was our hardest conquest so far!!!
Despite leaving nice early, the navigator took a strange detour. As we reached North Chailey, it became obvious we had gone to far. About turn and left and we were back on track. Arrived at 9 o'clock and unloaded. Gabby was absolutely fine. As cool as a cucumber munching on the spare grass at Plumpton Race Course.
We went to the vet for 9.50 and was given the all clear, despite the vet having to get a second opinion on her trot up. Apparently she was leaving her back legs behind a bit. Well, she was probably a bit stiff as she came in Saturday morning and was in till Sunday ready to leave. That followed by an hours drive, may explain it. Either way, the all clear we was given.
We tacked up and away we went. 10:13am. The sky was dark but still dry (ish). We walked for the first five mins then picked up trot. 45 mins later we hit check point one and still in trot. Bless her! From here onwards was up and down hills. As we were on the 42km we had to do a second loop back over the steep hill. These climbs were hard, and we did get a bit tired. But then after a bit more walking, energy levels were renewed and a trot we were. To make matters worse, when we got to the top, the heavens opened for five minutes. Thankfully it passed over rather quickly.
When we reached the final check point we were very much in good time, averaging about 11.5km p/h so we made a decision to walk home from there, and indeed we did.
We arrived at 14:02. This combined with the gate allowance as there were loads, gave us a riding time of 3hrs 43mins. That's an average speed of 11km. Spot on what we aimed for.
Now for the important bit. Cool down, drop the beats per minute, and pass the vet. First things first, remove two massive flints we picked up between frog and shoe. Now buckets of water and lots of cooling down whilst munching on hayledge and drinking very soaked sugar beet water. We went to the vet and managed a beat of 41 bpm. Thus achieving a Grade 2. We passed the trot up without fail. No problems with the back legs!! Gabby obviously woke up!! The only comments we did get from the vet was a bit of bruising in Gabby's mouth where she had been on the bit so much. Maybe we need to consider riding in the snaffle instead. The pelham may be slightly harse for long distance.
A big well done to Gabby, you really pushed the boat out this time to achieve. Now for some work on hills ready for Ashdown forest in August (50km).
Donna took a couple short movies of us crossing the line. Movie One - Movie Two
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