Endurance Success Stories

Alderney Prince is a well bred good looking chestnut TB who was in training with Paul Cole and raced 17 times on the flat with moderate success. He was tested once over hurdles with no success and he was sold on as a potential eventer. Prince showed a lot of ability at home but was unable to cope with the pressure of competition.

He was loaned to me on the understanding that I’d never compete with him. We spent a year hacking out and schooling, getting to know each other. The following year we went to a pleasure ride organised by the local endurance group. Prince hacked round the 20 miles without breaking into a sweat and I was asked if I had ever thought of trying endurance. I hadn't but with some support and the owner's permission we tried our first endurance competition in 1999.

He relished the ability to go round the route unimpeded and covered the 20 mile route with ease. We were both hooked. Since 1999 we progressed from Novice to Advanced and competed at distances between 20 and 40 miles. Prince's stamina, speed, low heart rates and good recovery rates means he has been very successful and he has an enviable record in terms of completion: in 10 years he has only been vetted out twice.

Highlights of his endurance career include competing in the Man v Horse marathon, being on a number of Cheshire relay teams (4 x 25 miles), being selected for the North West team for the Inter Regional finals, winning best TB in endurance in Cheshire and Derbyshire. Prince has successfully completed 1,111 competitive kilometres to date. In addition to endurance Prince has also been successful competing in Le Trec and in-hand showing, and he's proven himself a brilliant nanny out hacking with my young twins on their Welsh ponies.

Prince's progress has not been without its difficulties: he is not an entirely straightforward ride and he can be strong and willfull. His bucking was pretty violent at times. He has also had some very serious injuries.

In 2005, after a 12 month lay off after a tendon injury he sustained a leg/ foot injury so bad that the vet gave me overnight to consider putting him down. However, to everyone's amazement he came completely sound. The following spring he deteriorated badly and was admitted to Leahurst where, after extensive tests, he was found to have blood in his urine and droppings, very low platelet count and other anomalies. He was tested for swine fever but it came back negative, although he did have a rare from of vascular cancer, haemangiosarcoma and he probably had only 2 weeks to 2 months to live. To everyone's shock but sheer delight he began to visibly improve over the summer months.....to the point when he was clearly fit enough to come back into work. The perseverance and guts he shows when we're on an endurance ride have, I'm sure, been a large reason he's overcome all his physical problems.

Since then Prince has really gone from strength to strength, apart from a setback in late 2007 when he suddenly went blind in his right eye. He became very anxious and difficult to manage but we worked through it and 2008 saw us out competing again: he came back with even more energy and enthusiasm than before and looked great -especially for an 18 year old! To my delight we were winners of the EGB Cheshire Group veteran trophy and the SEIB Racehorse to Riding Horse for Endurance for 2008. I was so proud of him - he has defied the odds and overcome major problems and proven himself to be both an amazing athlete and totally versatile. He's been an absolute delight to own and I love nothing better than seeing him out of my window grazing contentedly alongside his friends.

(Written by Kate Williams, February 2010)

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I am pretty certain that when Ribble Assembly was born fifteen years ago his breeder would never have predicted that he would end up competing in endurance competitions! Ribble raced 56 times under rules- 28 times on the flat, and 28 times over hurdles. His racing career took him to County Kildare, where he was trained by Peter McCreery, before re-crossing the Irish Sea to Pembrokeshire, where he spent three seasons point-to-pointing under Frances Goldsworthy.

Two years later Ribble was advertised for sale on adtrader. Having just sold a very temperamental chestnut mare, my mother and I were looking for a quiet, traffic-proof horse. When Mum contacted the seller she came off the phone and said to me: “We’re going to see him, and you’re not to tell your father- he’s an ex-racehorse and he’s chestnut.” After riding him on a busy road we were so impressed that we bought him and the next day Ribble came to live with us.

That year I rode in a few NCR’s in the area and found that the endurance clique were very kind and welcoming. Sadly Ribble spent much of the summer off work, but thanks to our brilliant vet Huw Griffiths and fantastic farrier Robin Williams, he came sound and I decided to register him with EGB for the 2009 season.

2009 was an eventful year for Ribble, and disaster seemed to loom around every corner! He missed countless rides through a combination of bad luck, poor ground conditions and unlucky injuries. However he managed to amass just enough points to be placed 2nd in the SEIB Racehorse 2 Riding Horse Championships and 10th in the Retraining of Racehorses Endurance Championships.

The year cumulated in Ribble being very lame. Miraculously he recovered, but we decided that due to his flat feet, Ribble should retire from competitive endurance. He is now on loan to Carmarthenshire College’s Equine Department during the school terms, where the students actually fight over him!

Despite his problems I can honestly say that I would never consider buying another breed of horse again, Ribble has been worth every penny, and without him I certainly wouldn't be riding now. In November I purchased another thoroughbred who I hope will be better suited to endurance, but Ribble will always be my very favourite horse!

(Written by Anna Bowen, February 2010)

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I first met Flying Artist when she was just a few hours old. She was a twin, the other one was born dead, and she was so small and weak she was lucky to survive, but her fighting spirit pulled her through and she developed into a tough little mare.

When she was two I decided to buy her. I had just lost my mother and decided with part of her legacy I would race the mare.

I broke her in myself and rode her on. At the age of four we put her in training with Rod Millman. Her first race was a National Hunt Flat race at Chepstow. I was so proud of her, she looked magnificent in the paddock and won the best turned out. She ran a few times over hurdles too but never really settled, so we retired her and the process began of turning a highly strung and temperament racehorse into a riding horse.

Dressage was our first discipline partly because I could do it in a confined area and hopefully if I was going to part company someone would be around to pick me up!! We would arrive at the venue and unload a horse that was dripping from head to toe in sweat. She did finally settle down and we had a lot of fun competing. Sometimes doing reasonably well and other times doing badly, she even did “fancy dress” dressage.

I had a go at show jumping but that proved very hit and miss, as did cross country. 

Then we discovered Trec. The obstacles presented a challenge, she is very much a thinker and she took on the obstacles with great enthusiasm. In the early days she often jumped out of an obstacle instead of negotiating it and I remember being stuck at the top of a steep incline with her refusing to go down. But with practice she got the hang of it and suddenly we were getting good marks. The most surprising obstacle was the immobility when she usually scores the full 10 marks.

The orienteering part of Trec presented its own challenges, but we’ve won and been placed at Level 1 and progressed to Level 2 where we’ve been placed. I’m sure the horse would tell you that with a better map reader, we would have done a lot better.

Our next challenge was Endurance. We tried a non-competitive ride and were hooked doing several rides as non-members before affiliating last year. To ride over Dartmoor, Exmoor or Bodmin Moor with no-one else around, is the most wonderful experience. You rely so much on each other, it’s a partnership. The highlight for us was winning the South Essex Insurance Brokers Racehorses to Riding Horses Competition, Endurance Section in 2009.

This is the story so far of Flying Artist- a truly remarkable lady, now 18 years old. I feel I have been so privileged to have been able to share my life with her and hope we have many more years together yet. We have so many more places to ride and experience, the Quantocks and the Brecon Beacons beckon and, who knows, may be one day even the Highlands of Scotland!

(Written by Val Jones, January 2010)

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I have to say that it was a complete shock to me when I discovered we had won the ROR special prize for top novice endurance horse registered with Weatherbys.

I've always considered Trooper to be the best as he always tries so hard, and to be awarded a prize was just delightful. Endurance is something we've recently discovered and Troops is loving it!

I've already shown off the RoR jacket at our first competitive ride of the season at Cannock Chase. It must have bought us luck as he did his fastest speed yet and finished on a superb heart rate and achieved another grade 1. I have now decided to upgrade him, and whilst I will still keep him at the shorter distances (we are both advancing in years, Troops is now 18 and I am the wrong side of 50!!) I hope we will be contenders for an award this year. The main thing for me is to have fun and come home safe and sound.

(Written by Anne Green, March 2009)

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Paddy was born in 1983 in Ireland and bought to the UK to race in 1986.  He ran from 1987 to 1992 winning three races and he was placed ten times.  He then hunted and ran in point-to-points for two years, winning again!

Linda Burrows bought him at 13-years-old in 1996 and he immediately showed talent for Endurance.  The further he went, the keener he felt and in April 1999 he completed a 50 mile ride to achieve Gold standard.   He had a really good year and went on to get his 60 mile Golden Stirrup award.  In 2000 they qualified to go to the Golden Horseshoe in Exmoor and won a silver award in the 75 mile class.  A kick in the field nearly stopped him ever competing again but he returned to Exmoor in 2002 and completed in the 100 mile class in the worst weather conditions for years.

Rostreamer (Paddy) won the RoR award for his success in 2003.  When competing he is wonderful and travels well, stables away with no problems and enjoys everything he does.  

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Dora was bred to race.  She is by Gildoran, twice winner of the Ascot Gold Cup, out of Ice Moon by Ballymoss – second in the Derby, winner of the St Leger and the Arc de Triomphe.  She shares her 3rd dam, Arctic Pearl with Florida Pearl.  She is home bred, as were her dam and grand dam.

Dora is small, approximately 15 hands.  In 1996, due to unfortunate business circumstances, she went to Malvern Sales where she was bought to do endurance riding.  Two years later someone else bought her at Salisbury market and rung her previous racehorse trainer, Mary Rimmell, to find out more about her, who said that if she wanted to sell her she wanted first refusal.  Six months later, she arrived back at home.

Mary hadn’t ridden for seven years so spent the first couple of years hacking around followed by a first pleasure ride at Cirencester in 2002.  They then got to Grade I and competed in 14 rides, all Graded, achieving nine Grade 1’s, before upgrading to Advanced.  In the early days Dora’s heart beat was high, as much as 58 on arrival.  This improved and she is so relaxed her heart beat has been as low as 30 on arrival.  At Alfred’s Tower in 2004, where they won the RoR’s prize, her heart beat was 40 on arrival and she finished on a heart rate of 40 in an average time of 11.59k on the 51K graded ride. 

Mary Rimmell said:  “I have always ridden thoroughbred horses.  They are so willing and will always try and do their best, and are faster than Arabs and have stamina.  There are so many ex-racehorses who would make marvellous Endurance horses, and would probably adapt to Endurance better than any other disciplines.  They do need patience and sympathetic riders.  If you are a nervous rider, then an ex-racehorse is probably not for you, but if you are young and want to get to the top an ex-racehorse could be an ideal solution.  My farrier who looks after the British Endurance team, has remarked that with a better jockey, Dora could go right to the top!  40 years ago I would have been there.  65K with a Grade 1 is the best I have achieved so far, with Dora quite fit to go on.  The rider is usually wilting by this time!” 

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