@kayleightonkins: We were competing in the 32km GER and wow what a ride! Our first competitive ride back this year! The scenery was absolutely out of this world. This place is popular for good reason with so many beautiful routes, it meant Billy encountered everything from other horse riders, hill ponies, walkers, cyclists, dog walkers, runners, drone flyers, motorcycle riders, vehicles, tractors, sheep, cows & even gliders! We had an absolute blast for most of the ride although around 20km in he hit a bit of a wall losing motivation as we hadn't seen another horse for a while, the sun was beating down at that point and I think we were both questioning our life choices for a few minutes, after a lot of plodding, stopping and looking around and contemplating Billy then decided he would aim for some walkers in the distance and picked up the pace, when we got to the trig point someone was flying a drone which woke him up further and we hared back down to the crew point. Picking up a forward trot we arrived at the gliders field and were briefly held for a glider to be released and for it to drop it's winch (all new experiences for Billy and I) I really enjoyed the bridleway along here until it started the steep descent back towards the venue. I decided to get off at this point as the ground was very slick and we walked the few KM down to CP3, from here we caught up with some pleasure riders and yo-yo'd between them and me opening gates before we eventually got back onto the venue! It was a slow ride for us as I did get us a little lost (my own fault!) resulting in us doing 37km instead of 32km, however we still managed to finish within time, his final HR was 55 and he trotted up sound which resulted in a completion ❤️ Huge thanks to all the organisers, volunteers, venue, and of course my crew 🥰 and well done to everyone competing / riding! It looks like Bill is back on the endurance circuit! These amazing photos are by David Saunders Photography 🤩

Kayleigh Tonkins

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Region: GB

Monday 03 August 2026 10:58:47 GMT