NARNIA RIDE REPORT Priory Equestrian Centre near Farnham, Surrey 2nd June 2002

by Maggie Pattinson and Andrea Baker

It was lovely to be back at the Priory and thank goodness our luck held with the weather – it makes such a difference! WE really do have lots of thanks to give to people starting with the New Owners of the Priory Kim and Howard Miller who made us most welcome and were, we hope impressed with their first taste of Endurance – Kim is threatening to join in soon! Special thanks must go to Karen Carruthers and her sister Kelly who returned early from Scotland and a family funeral to honour their commitment in the Secretaries area.  Also of course huge thanks to all our VETs (some of who came on board at the last minute when we had lost 2 of the 5 a couple of weeks before), parking bods, check points, timekeepers , trail riders, comms  etc etc – almost 50 helpers are on board for the Narnia and each one deserves special thanks.

We ended up with somewhere in the region of 160 starters – many of whom were doing their First “proper” ride – we hope they enjoyed, certainly all but a few (experienced) riders managed to find their way over the fantastic countryside.

 First across the line was Pauline Higgs, whose mare was spun for lameness at the final vetting  - next in were Jo Carter and Sarah Kellaway – Jo had it by a nose and unfortunately Sarah was spun with a high pulse leaving 2 nd place open for the next horse home which was Nikki Freud’s mare Blue fresh from France , 3^rd was our only foreign rider – Meg Wade who flew in from Australia earlier in the week.  Meg was very complimentary about the Ride in general and went happily away with a prize from Performance Equestrian.  We again owe thanks to various companies for their generous prizes, they were: On the Hoof – Distance Training – all rosettes, Performance Equestrian – various prizes & vouchers, Goldfinch Jods – voucher for performance jods, NDS – best condition, Association of Master  Saddlers, Horse Health – numnah. It is so nice to be able to give prizes and our hope is that all recipients will take the time to drop a note of thanks!

Brian Floyd-Davies and Jane Edwards did a good job of the most dreaded job – The Technical Steward, fast becoming top contestant for the “Most Hated Job of All” – they did brilliantly with no-one having to wait more than 40mins (post vetting) – quite a feat! (Some moaned – but they are always there and usually never help – and have no concept of the nightmare now involved in the “Journey of the Timesheet”!

Dramas of the day included poor Margaret Fogg finding an elderly gentleman having a Heart Attack on Thursley Common, she and a couple of other riders (sorry didn’t get who you were) did a fantastic job getting the Ambulance Crews in (it really shows if you know where you are on the map!) and staying with him until they arrived, they all continued and were of course give time allowances of c 1 hour. Thanks girls you did a fab job, I have tried to ascertain his condition but so far only been told that no one died that day in A & E!!

All in all a great day thanks to lots of people and our wonderful horses – see you all again next year (pos a two day).

 

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