Southern Championship Novice Foundation 27k GER
01/09/2024 Rockbourne
By Corinne Staples

Attempt 2 to get our newly formed Meon Endurance team a team score!
This time we had a new member throw her hand in the fire with Dottie Mills, a junior rider attempting Endurance riding for the very first time!
This was a longer distance than the previous GER we had attempted and also it was a much bigger event, with international and national riders competing over long distances over 2 days. Things were all a lot more professional, lots of stewards, vets, one way systems around the trot up areas etc, it was a bit daunting actually!
Dot was first to leave onto the course, followed by Kerry and Sharon about 10 mins later and then me about 20 mins after that ( had a bit of a mare, quite literally at the pre ride vetting, as Nixie was not being easy and I was sent packing to put a bridle on her and come back with more control as she was deemed dangerous. I was struggling and close to tears trying to calm my daft mare down whist not let go of her either!) We finally passed vetting.
Anyway on the course poor Dot’s horse Buster lost a shoe and Dot sadly had to retire.
I loved the course, the scenery was awesome, the terrain was generally soft and forgiving, some roads and tracks, but mostly long stretches of grassland and absolutely no gates! Phew.
Sharon and Kerry were on it with their time keeping, checking their maps and times at each check point etc. I in contrast didn’t check my time once, I just rode Nix as consistently as possible in trot and canter, and tried to avoid walking. She felt awesome and I just knew I was well within time, we actually walked the last half k chatting with some pleasure riders, I was that confident we had nailed it speed wise, and just needed a get a low heart rate for vetting so felt right thing to do.
Kerry and Sharon were also well inside the time by a long way, and Kerry’s horse Angel graded with a grade 3, one better than last time. Sharon’s Ella again had a heart beat too fast to grade, this is probably because she is a hairer coblet, and doesn’t cool quick enough, but she was able to get a completion mark as her heart beat was the max allowed in the rules.
My horse Nixie seems rather blessed with a low heart rate so we graded easily with a grade 1, I was chuffed about that obviously.
Then for the Performance scores and the class results! Being a championship these were calculated there and then once all riders were back and vetted. So after a reasonable wait with a free glass of bubbles from the organisers, it turned out I was first, had won the Novice class, the novice 27k championship, with a little trophy and a prize! Kerry was 5th in the championship and Sharon was 6th!
We have no idea where we will end up in the league yet because we only have the one team result this year, but am honestly quite blown away that we did it! Meon has an Endurance Team, hurrah!
Thanks very much to our crew Steve and Debbie, and a special mention to Dottie who didn’t have luck on her side this time, but proud of her for giving it a shot. Next Dot, you will smash it!