Annie Joppe’s endurance blog: this year’s successes and failures

Another birthday, another year older; what have I accomplished/failed to accomplish this year? How can we make the next year better? What have we learned? While Chiara and Fantom are having their well-earned autumn holiday, now is the time to reflect on the 2018 endurance season. Yikes, where has the time gone?

For both horses there were particular highlights and lowlights; such is our sport. For little Chiara the highlight has to be her success in the two-star at Royal Windsor. While 10th place is not amazing, her ability to pace herself covering the ground effortlessly and being fresh at the end, was a good achievement. On the flip side, our attempt at our second two-star at The Masters as part of the British team in the Nations Cup was not so successful and there are definitely lessons to be learned.

It is now the beginning of the party season. I just love getting dressed up and partying the night away with my horsey and non-horsey friends, and the first party was for Halloween, so dressing up was absolutely the right thing to do. I was reminded the next day that I had told people that I would ride around the village dressed up as a vampire the following day — I’m sure I didn’t really say that, did I?

Today is a wet day and I mean really wet. Luckily this time it was known about for days in advance and all outside work was completed the day before, meaning a rest day for both the horses and me. Well, how can you rest when your house is full of cobwebs, spiders (who are convinced it’s now winter) and a few million dog and cat hairs and, of course, Horse & Hound magazines strewn around the place? Horse people often, I think, grow blinkers when viewing their house when the sun is shining and there is time to ride/groom/spend time with your horse, even poo picking and mucking out. But on a day like today, there’s no hiding from the housework.

At the weekend I found myself helping at a new Endurance GB pleasure ride in the west of Cornwall. It was a leisurely affair over a wonderful route through woodland, farmland and private tracks and, as it isn’t too far away from me, might be useful as a little training route to add variety in the spring. It was wonderful to see local riders and horses of all shapes and sizes enjoying the countryside and, for many, their first taste of endurance riding. These pleasure rides put on by EGB throughout the country are an excellent introduction to endurance, enabling riders and horses to do a short distance without having to worry too much about the speed and to enjoy wonderful marked routes that, in many cases, are not accessible to the public.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Annie is an international endurance rider who competed for Great Britain at the World Equestrian Games in 2014. Annie previously competed to intermediate level eventing and has also represented her country in endurance at the 2009 European championships.

Annie Joppe’s endurance blog: this year’s successes and failures

Continued below…

Annie Joppe’s endurance blog: the job from hell