Foremark Endurance ride - Estrid's first Vet gate - Vlog 231 - Beth Endurance

Who knew I'd get emotional over a 46km! For someone who's never done that distance it's an awesome achievement and getting emotional is totally cool, but for someone who that distance can be classed as a training ride (me) it's quite funny.

I took my time bringing Estrid back into work after we both hit the deck back at the start of March and she hadn't had the run up to the start of our competitive season that I wanted. I had planned to head out to lots of social rides, get her used to the venue atmosphere again and generally build her confidence. Instead we've spent 3 months by ourselves at home. So I wasn't sure what she was going to be like for vetting, never mind whether she would settle enough for a vet gate!

Estrid's heart rates are rarely under 55 when we're away from home, she's almost always stressed. But she's so brave because she tries so hard to internalise her anxiety and not do anything 'naughty'. So she may stand relatively still for vetting but I can physically see her heart racing in her chest, the tension in her neck and those eyes out on stalks. I'm hoping this will just improve with experience.

She gave me a wonderful ride. She was a bit spicy and chaotic for the first 10km and then she did go back to her old habit of not wanting to pass people and then just as you think she's on her way stopping dead in front of them (for anyone who experienced that I do apologise), but once she was actually in front away she went.

She was pretty singularly focused out on course if she saw another horse up front and keeping her pace steady was tricky as she just wanted to get to them. I can't fault her enthusiasm I just need to negotiate with her on the method. She's naturally pretty fast and has a big trot so our speed was perfect for what I wanted her to achieve, 13kph for the first loop and just over 14kph for the second.

She came into the vet gate a bit pumped as she didn't want to leave the horse we'd been riding with, but she did tolerate water being poured over her and after a few minutes she resigned herself to staying with her humans rather then seeking out her pony friends. It meant that we had a respectable but not ground-breaking 6minutes in to vet. We struggled in general with her heart rate at the vettings as unfortunately we'd go in with plenty of other horses milling around and out of pure coincidence mid way through our heart rate, all 3 times, all the horses would leave. So we started with 57, vet gated with 60 and finished with 58.

She ate really well and drank a little bit. Which is excellent progress for Estrid as she's usually too stressed to eat. She was good at the crew points, all be it a little eager to get back on the move. She didn't seem to even question going out on another loop, she even gave me that 'last loop' feeling heading out, the feeling that she's full of energy and keen to get back out there and your all fuzzy and proud and excited all at once, which I normally only get at the end of a race. So I'm super excited to see what her future holds.