Despite the ongoing Foot and Mouth crisis, Sue Broughton - Chief D'Equipe for the British U21 Endurance squad, is thinking positively and making plans for the trip to the Junior World Championships to be held in Madrid in September.

The squad's first engagement will be Hartpury College in Gloucestershire on the 9/10 th June for an assessment weekend sponsored by the college. They will be based at the Equine Therapy unit and will have access to the equipment which will be used during assessment. The horses will be blood tests and scoped, and checked over by the team vet and physio, then a ridden assessement will be conducted in the indoor school. It's not just the horses that will be tested though - the riders will be put through their paces in a variety of fitness tests, team building exercises and workshops.

On the 7/8th July the squad will assemble at Pauline Holloway's yard in Sherwood Forest for a training weekend, consisting of a 40 mile ride on Saturday and assessment on Sunday. To compete in the World Championships horses and riders must have completed an FEI 130 KMS ride so at the end of July some of the squad will travel to Moulins D' Englebert in France to compete in the 130 KMS CEI-B event there.

Because of the expense of taking the team abroad all squad members will be working hard to raise funds. Sue herself is organising an "Auction Of Promises"- Following the very sucessful one held at the Spirit Of Sherwood last year.

Any contributions would be very welcome and Sue can be contacted on e-mail at susiebro@tinyonline.co.uk or on 01623 408137

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