South Downs Endurance GB 24k GER 28th July 2024
By Corinne Staples

A proper first for Meon RC, we entered our first ever team into a graded Endurance GB competition, this one was in EGB South East region.
Kerry, Sharon and myself set off on a rather hot day to Findon near Worthing.
I have done one graded ride before, Sharon has done one but a long time ago, and Kerry was completely new to Endurance.
The team was just us 3, so unfortunately we all had to score, and to cut a long story short, only Kerry graded, so we didn’t have a team score sadly. Nix and I were 4 mins too slow, and Sharon’s Ella had a heart beat just slightly too fast to grade.
However, Kerry did score, despite having exactly the same time as Sharon, as they rode together, Angel’s heart beat was lower, so they got a grade 4, but also they came individual 2nd in the 24k GER we found out a day or so later when the Performance results are calculated.
I must say it is a learning curve and on Sunday all 3 of us learnt something new. Kerry learnt about pace and time. Sharon learnt about horse’s heart rates, and I learnt particularly about gates, and how to do them,   because Nixie and I had never done a gate before, let alone a dozen. Endurance is a sport which uses a    table to work out your score, it is a combination of average speed and your horse’s final heart beat. The idea to reward fitness and correct judge of pace I presume.
The ride was absolutely stunning, 3 hours of breathtaking views across the south downs, almost all off road riding, and it’s a time you really get to know and appreciate your horse.
Us 3 are all inspired to keep trying at this game and would really welcome anyone interested in joining the pool of riders going forward to get in touch!
If we had a team of 6, we might get a score on the team score board next time