We won the national championships 2011 !!!! Hooray !

Pictures available in the photo gallery (link above or click here)

Congratulations to our team :

Charlotte Vickery (age 10) on Pippa

Oliver Holman (age 8) on Jerry

Cora Moore (age 9) on Fleur

Emma Cording (age 12) on Joe

Daniel Vickery (age 8) on Cookie

 

They won the Junior Novice team event on Sunday 18^th September 2011 at Keysoe in Bedfordshire, completing a 20 mile ride at optimum speed and with some very good heart rates.

 

Oli also came 2^nd as an individual rider and Charlotte came 3^rd, both with heart rates of 38.

 

A whole season of preparation and training – both at home and at endurance rides – meant that even our oldest team pony, Cookie (aged 31) completed the ride fit and well and capable of continuing. The ride course provided excellent going, and lacked the hills we are used to on the South Downs, and so the ponies found it comparatively easy.

 

The children seemed to have endless energy and never tired.

 

A wonderful weekend for us all – the team, the ponies, the adult escorts (myself, Sue Cording and Coralie Holman) and our fantastic crew, Rowena Moore, who provided water, drinks and food for 8 horses and 8 riders throughout the competition.

 

Thank you also to Teresa Clarke who has helped us to qualify the team by escorting various pony club riders at competitions this year – and kindly lending her horse to Sue for the championships.

 

And a final thank you to everyone at Endurance GB South East, our local group, who have helped and supported us at all the competitions this season, providing extra vettings just for us, to enable us to qualify.

 

In 2012 we plan to take 2 junior teams and at least 1 senior team – so if you are interested in joining us contact me on suzannevickery@dsl.pipex.com

 

The 2011 season

 

Having started the season as early as possible with our February Chobham ride, we did 3 rides in March, finishing with the lovely Duncton ride near Petworth. This is right up there with Tilford and Windsor as one of the loveliest rides in our region, and was attended by Emma Cording and Charlotte Vickery.

 

Emma Cording attended the Hale Court ride in Hartfield in early April, followed by the Findon Ride on the South Downs, kindly escorted by Lindsay Sparrow. Unfortunately this coincided with most of the team’s mounted games competition, and so they weren’t able to attend.

 

At this point Emma sold her pony and acquired a new one – so she had to start qualifying all over again !

 

Charlotte Vickery completed 20 miles at Friston Forest in May, with Daniel Vickery and Emma Cording on foot, helping me man a check point for the day.

 

June brought us the 2 day Black Knight Ride in Hartfield – our most local ride around the Forest Way and surrounding farmland, with an overnight camp out, swim and BBQ for those who wanted.

 

One of the most popular rides in the country is held in early July, and we took 4 pony club riders for 20 miles, to see how well prepared we were for the forthcoming championship. Windsor is a stunning ride around the Great Park and we struggled to go slowly enough for the pony club optimum speed of 10 kph – we could have cantered all the way !

 

We were joined at Windsor by Megan Bruce-Smythe on her young horse, Wallace. Megan rode brilliantly and got a grade 1 at her first endurance competition.

 

In August, our 3 older riders competed at the Ashdown Forest ride : Emma Cording, Megan Bruce-Smythe and Sarah Hamblin. Ashdown is beautiful but the going is hard, with all the ruts and bumps. All the riders completed at a very good speed.

 

The Seagulls ride at Plumpton was our last chance to train hard, before the championships. It is a very tough ride – steep and very stoney – and it was a miracle that everyone came home sound. The views were lovely and the weather perfect. Oliver Holman, Charlotte Vickery, Cora Moore and Daniel Vickery all competed. Cookie won the Best Veteran Pony award and a lovely black fleece.

 

At the end of the season all our riders had completed a good range of rides, almost all at Grade 1 level (ie heart rate 47 or below) but to succeed at the championships we knew we had to do even better – and we did !

 

Suzie Vickery, Old Surrey and Burstow Endurance Manager

suzannevickery@dsl.pipex.com, 01342 850680

Brendon Training Ride 13^th March

This ride took us up the South Downs for the first time this season, and we weren’t sure how well all the ponies would cope with the steep climbs. The answer was very well indeed. Last year’s Brendon ride had involved sideways rain and biting wind – this year we just had mist. Visibility was very poor and we missed all the lovely views but we didn’t actually get wet, and the mist kept the ponies cool. Pony club members Charlotte and Daniel Vickery, Cora Moore and Olli Holman all did 20 km. We were a bit slower than the previous ride because the hills are steep and slippery so we had to walk quite often. We caught up our time cantering over the grassland, which was lovely.

All 4 ponies passed the vet with heart rates of 38 to 40, which is excellent and would give them a Grade 1 if this had been a competitive ride.

Tilford EGB Ride 6^th March

Only Cordelia Moore was able to attend this ride and she enjoyed the beautiful weather and the sandy heathland tracks to finish with an excellent heart rate of 36, showing that Fleur will make a very good endurance pony. Her speed was 8.6 kph.

Chobham Endurance Training Ride – 20th February 2011

4 OS&B pony club members kicked off the endurance season with this new ride across Chobham Common : Charlotte Vickery, Emma Cording, Oliver Holman and Daniel Vickery. Both Emma and Charlotte are experienced endurance riders but Oli and Daniel were on their first proper ride, and they both did extremely well. The going was very good, despite the wet ground – mostly sandy tracks across heathland. The children were accompanied by Suzie Vickery, Coralie Holman and Moira Evans (an EGB member who kindly volunteered to support us). We did 18km at an average speed of 10.9 km per hr. This was a little faster than intended, but everyone passed the vet with good heart rates between 36 and 44, showing a good level of fitness at the start of the season.

We all enjoyed ourselves, and the ponies behaved very well. This was a qualifying ride and we are now one step closer to getting our team to the Endurance championships. All the children were awarded a Pony Club Kestrel rosette, and Oliver Holman made us very proud by winning the Best Turned Out junior rider (and a bucketful of goodies).

Next ride : Brendon Training Ride – 13th March (Near Devil’s Dyke) – 20km across the North Downs.

Please contact me if you would like to join us. Suzie Vickery 01342 850680

Photo kindly provided by Radfoto