Lorna

Scottish Endurance Riding Club - Grampian Branch Rides Location Map Omnibus SERC Forum

Last update

08 August 2010

Lorna Hogg

I joined Grampian Branch of Scottish Endurance Riding Club in 1999, and attended my first ride at Kirkhill that year with Anoushka my Arab x Welsh mare. We had done a bit of everything but I never felt she enjoyed dressage or jumping - we both loved hacking out and would often disappear for hours during the summer - we both loved endurance from that very first ride and went on to gain our Bronze Thistle Qualifiers (at Dinnet and Drummuir) and our Bronze Thistle Final (at Bennachie) that year. We had until then done all of our rides with Kirsten Knox and Echo, who left Aberdeen to go to York in September 1999. The following year we did a limited season (I was still at uni and had to pay for horses with my part time weekend job) by ourselves of 20's and 30's and had a ball! Anoushka was progressing in years and I had a desire for a new challenge - not necessarily an endurance one and so bought Marco from the stud I was working at, to do a bit more dressage.

Then in 2001 I had moved the horses and came across another endurance rider - Graham Howard, we then intended to do a few of the shorter rides together as we would both be going anyway. Foot and Mouth hit and put paid to endurance for a while. Once started again, we got to a few rides and had a great time. 2002 began well with a few more rides and travelling outwith Grampian but Anoushka started to suffer from active bone spavin and so Marco took over late 2002 - I had been concentrating on the dressage and Marco did quite well at that gaining a few British Dressage Points and some prize money. Marco’s real introduction to Grampian Branch for doing endurance (he had done one Pleasure ride) was not great but we continued and went on to gain our BTF at Strathdon 2002. In 2003 we tackled a 2-day 50 mile class at a rather wet Sidlaws (photo), which was great, and then also entered for the same class at the Scottish Championships - we were second, and were one of only 2 to finish there so I was very pleased at that result (it had been very hot over the weekend). We also completed our first STQ at the Highland Fling - we never gained one gold in 2003 but had in both our BTQ's the previous year - cooling and calming were a bit difficult! We started the 2004 season with a Gold at our second STQ at Darnaway and continued our 2004 season with 20's, 30's, 40's and another 2-day 50 at the Championships, mostly gaining Gold awards. We were also selected for the 2004 Home International Team for the 2-day 50 mile class at the Red Dragon in Wales (report elsewhere), and also jointly won the Cresta Lee Trophy - Award for Most Golds in Grampian Branch.