Maggie tailors her training to the agreed objective...which in my case was doing an ER on Flecky. I have done a few of these on my older horse, Menos, but only up to 80K and not generally very well. My first challenge was to do an EGB ride on my own on Flecky, as I had got him to advanced by riding with EGB friends (Sue Henry and Jane Greatorex in particular). The solo ride went much better than I expected, and the penny started to drop that if Maggie says we can manage something, we can!! After that, we built more distance, up to 65km. Then one day Maggie said "how about this objective of doing an ER then". Despite my feelings of panic, as I had thought we would attempt this next year, I felt very excited.....could we really do it? I followed Maggies instructions to a tee: we did about 5 special interval training sessions on gallops/ hills.

Race day dawned and I was nervous as hell, but a bit numb as I had to get up at 3am! Bless him, my non-horsey other half came with me to help drive home, and the very capable Mid-South member Pauline Higgs kindly did crewing for me. She was also helped by Hilary Weaver, who was in charge on the Inter-Regional team (which I was part of). So after warming up off we all went: not a mad start at all, thank goodness. The first 40K loop was quick enough though given its a tough hilly route: 20km/ hr. The following three loops everyone was more spread out so the pace dropped off a bit. The final 16K loop had an enormous hill at the start, and both Flecky and I felt tired that one round. But he still managed a good canter up the mile of grass gallops to the end. I was so proud of him as we crossed that finish line, but had to concentrate to get him ready for his 5th and final vetting, with massive help from Pauline. It is a very comprehensive vetting for ERs, and for the final trot up 3 vets watch then cast a ballot. You can imagine my relief when he passed, and even greater delight when I learnt he got placed (especially as the ones ahead were far more experienced riders/ horses).

So come on everyone....if we can do this what's stopping you?!  This is one of the best achievements of my life! Whatever you would like to achieve is possible with some effort, so give it a go!