Emma and Bob leading the way, Me and Py on saddle camera.
Submitted by Terrin Turner, Team Easyboot 2012 Member
11 Miles completed. This might not mean a lot to endurance riders, but for my five year old little pony My Py, this would be our first taste of the sport of endurance in the form of a pleasure ride. Training at home, Py easily finishes 12 miles on the trails barefoot. I was excited to put him to the test in the East Yorkshire Dales ‘Mount up for Manorlands’ pleasure ride all in the aid to raise money for the Sue Ryder Charity. Rather gratefully we had a friend who was also in the same boat to come along for the ride and the experience.
Challenging from the start when I realized I had not packed my dressage girth, riding treeless being a disadvantage at this point as I was offered many traditional English girths, thankfully a very small pony girth knotted to form a fit and we were off through the inflatable start line, only a little later than expected.
The route was a nice seven mile loop over undulating bridleways, roads and fields with the chance of extending to up to 14 miles incorporating a spur up a long bridleway to the summit of Weets Top, crossing some loose stone tracks and, if you really wanted a taste of endurance, they had also planned a 16 mile route, which I’ve shown Py for next year (fingers crossed). Completing the first three miles in great time, we made our way up towards Weet Top with a little pit shop at a house offering buckets of water, we plodded over that loose stone, along a dried up stream and up to a grass verge were after a ‘refuel’ we headed back, seeing some beautiful sites on the way.
Py leading the way up the stoney track, Emma and Bob picking their own path.
Lush green grass pit stop.
It was a demanding journey to the finish through fields of sheep and some loose bulls (My Py not a big animal lover) also a missed read map lead to some tough obstacles of a stone wall to climb – thankfully Bob hoofed it over. With only the small task of returning the girth, which I did enroute, we finished the last mile without a girth, and trotted up to the finish with big smiles both ponies earning their rosettes and I like to think we earn our medals to for our map readying, gate opening and bravery!
We did it smiles all round!
Terrin Turner
