Shuckburgh Hall 40km Endurance ride with Estrid - Vlog 181 - Beth Endurance

I am so grateful to the effort of the Shuckburgh Hall endurance ride organisers that it was able to go ahead. The weather made what is normally a tough job even tougher, with marking and choosing a safe route but they pulled it off when so many equestrian events had to cancel and I would like to thank them and everyone that made the ride happen for their hard work.

Shuckburgh was more of an old school endurance ride, we're very spoilt sometimes with excellent going on non-technical terrain and although I love those rides sometimes it's fun to mix it up. It had a very varied mix of tracks, set aside, bridleway and quiet lanes, I think it may have been less technical if the ground hadn't been so wet and soft but the conditions called for more care and a slower pace. It did have a fair few gates but most of them were manned with lovely volunteers and there wasn't one that I would have had to get off for.

Estrid was brilliant! She was much better at the venue, not perfect but definitely an improvement on the first 40km she did with lower starting and finishing heart rates. Best of all our trot up was straight this time! Out on course she was on fire! She rode in a pack, in a pair, by herself, in front, at the back, in the middle, side by side. I coulnd't have been prouder. She was more patient at the crew points, even if she did throw sugar beet over Dan, and she even managed her first slosh without any drama.x

She is naturally fast, and although as a novice I would prefer to be going between 10-12kph it just doesn't work for her. She did an average speed of 13kph, made possible by doing a fair bit of walk, for this ride and she didn't even puff once, she never felt tired and she certainly didn't look tired when we were back at the venue. I really enjoyed the fact she seemed to be enjoying herself and I had a lovely ride, albeit a tad spooky, there were several occasions where I surprised myself with my staying on abilities.

Her personal performance was enough to make me grin from ear to ear but when I heard we had also won the Performance Formula I genuinely couldn't have been happier. I really love that EGB have used the Performance formula throughout all levels of endurance now, it means that although you don't have to be competitive you can be and it really adds a bit of icing to the cake with the sense of pride and achievement. Thanks to Baileys Horse Feeds for my wonderful prizes and Lucy for getting them to me as I had to dash off to an 80th Birthday party!

Thanks for watching,
Beth