The season has started!

It's been a long time in coming, but the 2017 endurance season has officially started. I can't tell you how good it felt to finish an 80km ride with Elayla; no matter how many amazing horses I ride, there is no better feeling to riding your own.   I think Tilford took us all by surprise this year; the persistent rain meant that the going became very difficult in places and we had to make the speed up where the ground allowed. Despite this we had great fun, and it was the perfect ride to start Layla's season and to finish with a grade one was the icing on the cake.   The first ride of the year can also be a bit nerve-wracking because horses can change over the winter and it's the first true test of any minor adjustments you have made over the off season. For us the biggest change was Layla's feeding regime and I'm really pleased to say she has thrived on it, and I can only thank the team’ at Baileys and Feedmark for ensuring she has the best diet for her job. I'm really impressed with the Stamina and Endurance supplement, it is the first time I have fed it to any of my horses and it definitely ‘does what it says on the tin’ – providing slow release energy and proteins for optimum performance, and also aiding the horses’ main systems to ensure they are in the best condition.   The recovery of horses post ride, is just as important as their care pre ride and because Tilford was more difficult than I had first thought, I booked Layla in for a last minute massage two days after the ride. This was the perfect way to help her muscles recover, by ensuring she didn’t suffer from any particular muscle tightness. She also enjoyed some time out in the field, which is a great way of keeping her mind going whilst she's not in work and also to keep her moving.   Layla has since come back into work and is looking onwards and upwards to our next competition at Kings Forest in April. Her 2017 season will be tailored towards her condition and performance for the World Endurance Championships for young riders in Verona, Italy in September. This ride will be different to anything we currently have in the UK, due to the nature of the hard, stony tracks and cobbled roads, and so its paramount that I condition the mares’ body to be able to cope with the demands of the going and the concussion that her legs will receive.