Lets start by telling you who we are. I am Gillian 54 years of age married to David who is a bit older!! And is my long suffering crew when we compete. Our house also contains 2 Japanese Akitas, I half bred Rottwieller, 1 half Siamese cat and 1 newly acquired Siamese kitten who seems to think that the downstairs of the house is for practising her skills at speedway.

Our two Akitas

Our outside family consists of 4 horses Felicity or Whizz 21 years of age half bred hanovarian, dashed my hopes of being an eventer, Shazzarr 21 years of age, first endurance horse and recently retired, George 11 RID, this is Davids horse whose main aim in life is to make life difficult for me and last of all Monfi a 9 year old Arab we bought in Spain and my present competition horse.

So that’s the family. How did we arrive in France? Well back in 2000 David and I were working what seemed to be longer and longer hours and getting nowhere. David had a fourwheel drive and horsebox business and I was a nurse at the BRI in Bristol. My sister had already moved to Spain and after a trip out to see her we made the decision to sell our home in Bristol and move. We left in September 2001 to a derelict farm with no services what so ever. To cut a long story short we stayed for 6 years but I never felt really settled there. Competing was difficult because all the competitions were so far away and then there was the hassle of having to get permission to transport the horse from the ministry vet every time we went out.

Eventually we made the decision to move to France and after a year found yet another derelict property with land. We moved here to the North Dordogne in February 2007, we transported the horses ourselves, 5 at the time, 3 in the lorry and the 2 Arabs in the trailer. The drive took 25 hours plus stops for the horses to be fed and watered. David and a friend did the driving, by the time we arrived we were all shattered but the horses had all travelled well and looked fine.

It has taken us two and a half years to renovate the house but getting the barn and internal stabling for the horses was a priority so we lived in a caravan for the first few months. We now have a beautiful home despite the efforts of a certain Siamese kitten to demolish it.

                     Our home in the Dordogne

How did I start in endurance? Purely by accident really, I entered a 20 mile ride not knowing anything about it and rode with 2 amazing ladies who during that ride taught me so much, I had no idea about having a crew to help on the way round, learning to pace your horse. It was a whole new world for me and one I wanted to find a lot more about.

My hopes of being an eventer failed miserably. We had bred Whizz for that purpose but it became obvious that she had other ideas and they didn’t include going over large obstacles. Selling her was not an option and buying another horse was out of the question as well, so I did a few low mileage rides with her and she actually enjoyed it but her confirmation meant that she was never going to do more than 30 miles and by now I was eager to go further.

Enter Shazarr. I had seen him in a field not far from where we lived for seven years, he had never been broken and was labelled trouble. I made the owner an offer, it was accepted. Shazarr was never a problem, he just wanted to do something other than be left out in a field year in year out. Our first ride was in 1997 in the Forest of Dean. Slowly we made our way through the distances and by the time we left the UK we were at Gold level, that’s when there were two Endurance Groups in the UK. One of the rides I wanted to do was the Golden Horse Shoe on Exmoor but fate always seemed to be waiting around the corner for us and Shazarr  would always have some sort of medical problem before big rides, including, tendon injuries, a fractured skull, skinning both knees and the most scary of all was when he colicked for five days. When they opened him up he had a tumour in his gut! Typical of Shazarr it turned out to be a very rare type and prognosis was unknown. However he is still with us today and has only just retired from competing here in France.

                              My old boy Shazarr

While we were in Spain we decided to look for a young horse to bring on. Enter Monfi. He was three and half and entire when we bought him, partly broken. As we had mares at the time it was decided to have him gelded, much to Davids disgust I have to say. I deceided to enter him for his first ride which ended up with me in hospital in Alicante, we were about 5km from the finish and Monfi spooked at a dog behind a fence. I ended up somersaulting onto a rock on my back. It was a few months before I could ride again but we had another go and managed to finish the ride this time.

Waiting to go on 2nd circuit of first 90 Alles Sur Dordogne

After we moved to France  we had to start at the bottom and qualify so our first ride here was in September 2007 a 20km. Monfi didn’t really seem very enthusiastic and I began to think that he didn’t enjoy it. I persevered with him and gradually he began to improve and it was like he suddenly thought ‘that’s what you want me to do’ and showed the beginnings of being a really competitive little horse.

2008 saw us go from 30km to 60km with ease and in October I decided to enter him for his first 90km. Whilst out training one day he spooked and I ended up on the floor again, Monfi took off and went home leaving me cussing on the floor. That meant we had to cancel the ride as I had hurt my back again. So that was it for 2008, I just want to say that Shazarr was being ridden very successfully by my sister who had also left Spain and come to France.

First ride of 2008 a 60km Alles Sur Dordogne in Feb

2009 came and Shazarr was lame at the start of the season so Monfi and I were going it alone. We started with a 60km and he was much happier to go at a faster pace. Then his first 90 at Rouffignac, he was great, full of enthusiasm, infact he pulled for the first 60km and I ended up with blisters on my hands but we were placed third and I knew then he was going to be better at the longer distances. In this year he has done another 90km and again come third. I was going to do one more 90km with him but my sister had an accident while tying her horse up and managed to amputate a finger and another had to be skingrafted, David had to go to the UK so I thought that we had achieved everything we set out to do this year and called it a day. Shazarr had had a few problems during the summer and I made the decision to retire him from competing but he still enjoys hacking out and being the prima donna he always has been.

70km done only 20 to go. Rouffignac

Monfi is now having a break over the winter but once Christmas is over and the 2010 fixture list is out then we will start our training regime. Will I or won’t I be able to do 130km?  I know Monfi can but as for me, well you will just have to wait and see. I will let you all know how the training is going after xmas.

If any of you are thinking about having a go at this sport, then now is the time to get yourself organised. To begin with you need to have a riding licence of at least Club level this will take you to 60km but no further, for 90km and above you need an amateur or pro licence. Your horse should already have a SIRE number but it needs to be registered on the Sports horse list.

Now the rules for endurance are a little strange. For Club level you can compete on anything but if you compete at amateur level then the horse must either be pure bred arab or have a registered pure bred arab father, apparently the mother doesn’t matter.

Once you have the licences sorted, depending on what area you live in check out the fixture list when it comes out and find a ride near you to do your first 20km. I use the FFE Compet site or CEER Aquitane which specifically covers the areas I ride in.

Spend time over the winter extending the amount of time you trot your horse and if you can work out what speed you are doing. Remember most horses are capable of doing 20km without too much effort as long as you don’t push them too fast. For the first couple of rides your aim should be to get round, pass the vetting and have a happy sound horse and rider at the end of it. It is not important to have a crew for 20km so you don’t have to rope anybody in yet to help but it is often easier to have company, so try and persuade a friend to have a go and ride with you. The routes are always well marked so you won’t get lost.

My next update I will give you some ideas about training for your first ride, what to take with you and what to expect.

Kindly written for us by Gillian Jones

Read Part 2 Rain Mud and Snow!