RAF Cranwell Success
Monday, 9th May 2011
We set off for Sleaford on Saturday morning, the car and trailer packed with a vast supply of food for the journey - 3 crew need a lot of feeding! We arrived without a hitch 7 hours later as living in Wales does make everywhere very far away!So this was it, out first FULLY weighted for 80km, 75kg over a fairly flat and fast course and this was also our first senior race. However, the plan was not to race, -we were going to do between 14-16kph (the most likely speed for a 160km completion) and ‘take it easy’ as a practice run. On Saturday night I set up my vet gate area which is an aspect I love as I can set up everything to be symmetrical and it gives me something familiar and soothing to do before bed.
On Sunday (the morning of the race) I drove over to the corrals to feed Tissy and we picked up Mike who had driven over from Keele to crew for the day. It must be said my four crew members looked very smart all in matching Team Langley strip, and they all did remarkably well for their first proper crewing session of the year. They worked out a few rusty kinks and should be on form for the future!
Tissy warmed up beautifully, the extra schooling has been paying off and the fact the saddle makes it easier is a huge bonus. Still being a young rider, everyone was quite surprised to see me in the class but Tissy actually behaved wonderfully as they all raced off into the distance leaving us to a calm, collected steady canter (I know, this doesn’t sound like my horse at all). We came into the first crew point in last place out of around 10 starters, and my crew were shocked to the core. I reminded them I had said I wasn’t racing to which they replied, ‘Yes, but we didn’t think you would actually do it’!
We came into the first vet gate not far behind the other riders and Tissy was so on form we presented in under 3 minutes all day and actually passed a fair few riders in the gates.
Tissy cantered out of every hold and on the second loop we came across a big group of the seniors, who had gone too fast for their horses’ fitness and had now slowed down. Tissy and I maintained our rhythm passed them and went into 2nd place, still 9 minutes behind the leader Lorna Kidson whose horse was giving an excellent performance and looked brilliant. This isn’t where I expected to be whilst taking it easy but the placing didn’t matter, I just wanted to keep a good consistent pace going.
Again we flew through the second vet gate with no concerns bar the fact that my knee and ankle had been causing me considerable pain and was making me feel quite sick. So when Mike went to make me warm up before I got on, it was a considerably shorter session than anticipated as I just couldn’t do it with the pain. Despite this we flew around the last loop. I wanted to simulate a real last loop so we did it around 20kph with a senior tagged behind us. When the mown grass 200m finish to the line came, the horse alongside us started racing, Tissy was getting faster and for a split second I was going to go for it but then I remembered why I was racing in the first place, this was a practice run, it didn’t matter where I came and who remembers 2nd place anyway? Having fought my competitiveness and Tissy’s will to go hell for leather all day I wasn’t going to give up and injure my horse in the last 200m so I pulled up to a steady canter and we let the other horse go to finish a respectable 3rd place. We didn’t have to crew Tissy at all at the end and presented straight to the vets for an all A’s (metabolics, gait, muscle tone, hydration etc are marked and A is the highest you can get) vetting.
Tissy’s performance had not changed one bit with the extra weight and everything had run so smoothly. I was one extremely happy little jockey when I sat outside my tent munching my dinner in the sun with Mike and Will having ‘manly’ banter and Mum and Dad chilling. A lovely end to a very promising day. Finishing that 160km and qualifying for the senior British Team seems to be getting ever more realistic.