Farlington School’s Katie Bedwin has become the youngest person in the history of Endurance GB horse riding to complete a 100 mile event.
On Thursday 3rd April 17-year-old Katie and her horse Elayla travelled to Nottingham in preparation for the Haywood Oaks Endurance ride, a one-day 100 mile race.
Katie and Elayla, and the three others in her class, had a mass racing start at 6.00am on the Saturday morning in the dark, their only light being head torches. By the third vet gate, there was only Katie and one other extremely experienced combination left in the race. The ride was mentally gruelling covering one part of the course nine times and Katie rode most of the distance alone.
Katie and Elayla eventually finished at 8.39pm, again in the dark, to come second, just six minutes after the first horse, having made up 15 minutes on the last loop. There was still the massive hurdle of passing the last rigorous vet inspection of the day. In all she had 8 vet inspections and hold times equating to 3 1/2 hours non-riding time. Elayla trotted up sound, with a remarkably low heart rate. Katie is the youngest person in the history of Endurance GB, by two years, to complete this distance.
By successfully competing in this ride, Katie has qualified for both the Young Rider and Senior Elite squad of which there are only 10 combinations presently in the UK. This distance is the top of the Endurance ladder and would make her an elite rider.
Elayla went the next day for her fit to travel inspection and, again, ran up sound with a low heart rate. The vet commented, “Are you sure this horse did 100 miles yesterday!” I don’t think the same could be said for Katie! Elayla was given a well-deserved break in the field, while Katie has since competed on another horse, but at the lesser distance of just 80kms!
Sara Whittaker, Director of P.E. and Sport, said, “We are very proud of Katie’s achievements. She is very passionate about her sport and throws herself into everything she does. She is a great all-rounder and a credit to Farlington.”