Finally! The big event has happened. All the planning and fund raising has worked, and last Monday we set off for Burghie.
We took several days over the journey because it is a huge distance from here to Burghie, and we needed the horses to arrive there still able to compete.
The weekend before was spent packing for the journey and on Monday we finally went down to the paddock and picked up Tally and Annie, who were competing there. The first day we only did a 3 hour stretch, stopping in Derby shire where Clair Calvert, another endurance rider we have become friends with, lives. She lent us a field for the ponies next to her own, and when we put Tally and Annie there they were a bit confused at the large number of nearly identical dales ponies (we have a dales at home). There was a lovely little cottage near to the field which we rented as bed and breakfast for the night.
After a lovely breakfast of fresh eggs we loaded up the ponies again and set off for the longest leg of the journey, to Perth. This stretch was 9 and a half hours long and very tiring for all of us. Clair had suggested a very nice service station run by farmers where we stopped for lunch and we later off loaded the ponies at another services which had a large piece of grass. We got taken for a bit of a drag and got stared at a bit by other travelers, even though taking your horse for a walk at a services is a perfectly normal thing to do. 
We arrived in Perth at about 8pm that night, and put the ponies in stables and went to Jackie’s house where she put us up for the 2 nights we were staying. The next day we turned the ponies out and went off for a rest day in Perth. We explored Scone Palace, which I pretended was mine and took a picture for my friends, then went back to the house where Jackie and mum cooked dinner (yum).
The next day we made the last drive to Burghie. By now the poor ponies were a bit fed up of the trailer but still went in without any trouble. The route wasn’t too bad and we arrived in the afternoon, put the ponies in their nice indoor stables and started setting up. We spent a while covering everything in flags, we had a flag pole and a huge string of bunting and fairy lights all round our gazebo so there was no problem identifying the England team camp. After meeting and chatting with the rest of the team members, we all went off to have dinner and go to bed.
On Friday, our second day at Burghie, we all had a team meeting after checking and feeding the horses. We all got our team kit (rugs, shirts, coats, numnahs, hat silks etc). Maggie (chief d’equipe) told us that all the other teams are worried we might be hard to beat as they didn’t know which of us were team members and which were reserves. We had Lorna our physio looking at all the horses that morning and later on me and Dad went for a short ride round the cross country course and woods there. After the briefing held for all the teams we went off to a bistro for a team England dinner. We filled up almost the whole place and moved all the tables around. The food was lovely but the waitresses were run off their feet with the hundreds of different orders.
Saturday was a crewing day for the 1 day riders so me and my family put on our crewing shirts and baseball caps and drove out to the back of beyond where CP2 was to crew the riders. We managed to find the single level-ish bit in the whole of Scotland and parked on it and set up the buckets and slosh bottles. The day went well, everyone passed us fine with no issues except for me finding a hidden stream next to the path (brr). As we finished before the end of the day we ran off to find a tea-shop and spent a peaceful afternoon looking through museums and walking round the harbor and not being at the venue. In the evening we had a hog roast and an amazing huge cake baked by one of the Scots that I managed to get a huge piece of before they realize they were running out and made the slices 1/4 of the size. I chatted to the days riders to find out what the course was, and their descriptions just made my confidence sky-high -_- (rocks, rain, bogs and hills to fall down, impossible gates etc)
Sunday, the big day!
We got up early and dressed in all our team kit and riding clothes, then went to groom and plait the ponies before heading off to vet. After passing the vet we went back to the stables and tacked up the ponies and went to the start. The start of the ride was up tarmac lanes and stony tracks which is what the rest of the ride turned out to be as well. The first problem we came across were hoof-sized metal drainage trenches in the paths. We had been told that a horse cut its hoof in one so we took a lot of care making sure our ponies didn’t do the same. Almost the whole route was roads or hard sand tracks except for the disused railway which was mostly grass with the odd boggy or stony patch. On the railway were two gates, one you had to stand next to a really steep drop to open it, which Tally nearly fell down because he was being stupid and the other which got stuck on a rock so we left it for the Scottish people who were following us 
. At the end of the railway where we had to walk through a stream/bog there was a field of Haflinger ponies, so we took pictures for my friend Rhiannon who has a Haflinger. The weather stayed dry but cool for the whole ride until we reached the vet-gate. It was on top of a moor and after 2 min there we could see a huge rainstorm coming towards us. Me and dad as riders got to hide in the car and eat and drink for the vet hold time and poor mum and Bryony had to stay and hold the horses in the rain. After the vet-gate the weather dried up a bit but it was still cold. We got a bit lost after one of the points on route, as the marking had ended up hidden behind a tree and we wasted about 10 minutes trotting back and forth.
The rest of the ride was alright apart from Tally hitting one stone too many and hobbling the last 2 km. We finished at 10.41km/h which wasn’t bad given the optimum was 11km/h. Maggie said I should have gone on when Tally started hobbling but no way was Annie going to go on her own lol. When we came in everyone was waving flags and cheering which was awesome, and the whole team helped us crew. Annie passed the vet and got a Gold grading, which means there were no penalties at all, impressive given the amount of things you can get penalties for. Sadly tally came up unlevel in the trot up but Dad still got a green tartan rossette for the ride. We had to leave before the prize giving to get back to Perth that night, as Dad had to be in work on Wednesday. The trip home was tiring but we made it in the 2 days and both ponies got home safely and galloped off into the paddock swearing never to go in the trailer again .
It was an amazing experience and I am so proud of Annie for making it round a distance she has never done before and coming out with the top grade. The rest of the team did well too, we came 2nd overall, just behind the Scottish because one of our team riders vetted out.
It was a great competition, but now I’ve done it, I’m not sure I’ll trek that far again 
Tags: competition, distance riding, EGB, endurance, England, English, Home International, marking, midget, route
