Long Trot

by Grant Nicolle

  I was told by the seller that he had a noticeable lump on his girth, and so I booked a 5 star vet check before I would conclude a purchase. A few days later, I attended the vetting, ending with the vet and I discussing Marv and the intended trip. Marv was fully sound but the girth lump was a real concern for the length of trip planned. We agreed that if I bought Marv then the lump would need to be removed. This was a real risk as we didn’t know if the lump (or potential sarcoid), would reappear or heal over. At the end of the vetting I had to decide; to buy or not to buy. This at the time felt like deciding ‘trip or no trip?’ A big deep breath and it was game on, hand shake done, Marv was now on the team. I decided to keep Marv at Sunnyside Farm until I could find a livery nearer Edinburgh which was suitable for the training ahead.

  The vet volunteered to do the operation herself using a heavy sedative, so a few days later we reconvened at the stable in East Linton. Marv was ready in a loose box with a mountain of straw for protection. He was clearly not happy, he knew something was up and was quite unsettled. The vet tried to administer a dose of anaesthetic but she under estimated the weight (and strength) of Marv. The sedative started to take effect but Marv chose to fight it and battled to stay upright. He was bouncing round the box, banging off the walls like a boxer on his last legs. It was awful to watch and we were powerless to intervene. Finally after 10 minutes of this he did finally collapse. The vet and her assistant went in to try and administer more sedative, but as soon as Marv realised the situation, he started trying to get up again. The operation was embarrassingly aborted. I was not happy, as Marv had been clearly upset, he had managed to obtain many cuts to his head in the process (off the walls), and the lump hadn’t been touched. Plan B was to take him to the Royal Dick vet school near Roslin, just south of Edinburgh. A few days later we drove Marv in and I led him into a loose box. This time it went very smoothly. The on-duty vet, with a group of 6 or so vet students came to meet us and we discussed the options. It was decided to use just a local anaesthetic, after a mild sedative. Marv got his mild sedative and I stayed with him at the door of the box while he slowly mellowed. The group came back in 15 minutes and all went into the box. I held Marv’s heavy head over the door while they injected a local anaesthetic. 10 minutes later the lump was removed and wound stitched up. If my memory serves me correctly we had Marv back in the box a few hours later, and away.

  (L) Leading Marv after his operation, (R) the start of the bonding Marv was now lump free and clearly a solid fighting character. The sad episode of the botched operation showed me an incredibly strong side to Marv’s character which would reappear early in the trip. It was now January 2007, and we both had to start our fitness training. One drawback, Marv had just had an operation leaving him with stitches and an inability to wear a saddle for 6 weeks. We could not wait that length of time to start on the miles, so it was bareback time for me. My second ever ride on Marv was at Sunnyside Farm, Marv had been confined to a few weeks box rest and was mad keen to stretch his legs. Fiona and I had managed a walk with Marv round the field a few days back, but we were literally towed round by him. He had energy and wanted to use it. There was no way I wanted to do another walk with him, as I could barely hold him. We didn’t know each other yet and he had been through some stressful times and needed to de-stress. When I jumped on Marv with no saddle and walked him out of the yard he was bouncing around like an excited dressage horse. It was all I could do to get him to the field in a jog trot, before he exploded into a fast canter putting in bucks for good measure. I managed to sit tight, grab a handful of mane and kick him on round the field. Luckily his fitness didn’t match his enthusiasm and control was regained. Marv had tried to throw me but didn’t succeed. That was the last buck Marv ever put in (with me).

  Fiona and I researched all the possible livery yards in the Gorebridge area before deciding on a yard called Mountskip (which was run by Sue). I paid extra for full livery and some exercise, as Marv needed to build up the miles while I was still at work during the week. We would visit at weekends and progressively increase the miles up to the planned 20 miles a day distance.

  (L & R) Out in rural Midlothian on our training rides with Fi With the physical training of Marv and myself ongoing, I had still to conclude planning of the trip and this was to include equipment and the route detail. On the equipment front, I was advised by Viv to use a customised saddlebag maker from Cumbria. I contacted the lady and discussed the dimensions of the front and rear saddle bags and the measurements of Marv’s back. After putting the order in the saddle bags were made (in ‘airborne’ maroon of course) and delivered only a few weeks thereafter.

  The most important piece of equipment was going to be the saddle. Marv came with a treeless saddle, which I felt would be unsuitable for the trip. That went straight on Ebay. When in the King’s Troop I was impressed with the design of the military saddle as so very few horses had any back complaints, despite all using the same saddle. I found out that a company still uses the military basis for making saddles. Free ‘N Easy is based in North England and owner Les was very knowledgeable about long distance riding and saddle making. I ordered a new Free ‘N Easy saddle for Marv, and the local agent came to the yard to custom fit the saddle. I cannot stress enough how good these saddles are. They have an adjustable flexible plastic pad system, which allows for an exact fit to be made to each horse, and also is able to be adjusted by the rider if and when the horses back muscles change with fluctuating fitness levels.

  With my Army training, I had decided right from the off that the trip needed a proper name. All military training exercises were named with something apt. To me this was an exercise as it required planning, specialist training and then execution. I chose Exercise ‘Long Trot’. Henceforth the trip would be referred to as such in my planning.

  In my initial concept for undertaking the trip I did not envisage raising money for charity, but soon after making the plans for my trip known, friends and family suggested that I should do so.

  I chose two charities: the International League for the Protection of Horses (ILPH), who are now called World Horse Welfare, and Cancer Research (for people who were not so keen on horses).

  I contacted both charities to let them know of my plan to raise money for them. Cancer Research accepted the application to raise money for them and sent a t-shirt. They recommended opening a Just Giving account. I followed their advice and started a fundraising page.

  The ILPH were very excited about the prospect of the trip, as it was directly relevant to their charity, but they had to be sure that my expedition would not contravene their strategy of protecting horses. I essentially had to show them that the trip would not contravene Marv’s health, so that the ILPH could actively support it. This I achieved by planning a sensible time to complete the distance, targeting an average of 20 miles a day with a minimum of every Sunday off. I would also be walking (leading Marv) daily if we were not trotting or cantering. It was standard military cavalry procedure up to the 20th century, to preserve the health of the horses by soldiers regularly dismounting and walking with their horses for a period during long marches. Riding a horse in walk is no faster than walking and leading, and walking and leading does help reduce pressure on the horse’s body. I perceived that there was no benefit to completing the daily mileage any earlier and so walking and leading a section of each day was an ideal way to maximise the chance of success.

  I set up my Just Giving account so that it had an ILPH donation page too. The ILPH helped enormously with putting me into contact with each of their relevant regional officers, who would meet me, see how we were getting on and assist where necessary (for example organising a farrier visit in Staffordshire).

  People started donating money as soon as the Just Giving site was open, and so there was no backing down thereafter. Just to be clear, not a single penny of the charitable donations went towards the funding, running or any expense for the trip. I paid for all expenses incurred myself (including horse pu
rchase, stabling during build up training, feed and equipment) and any donations went straight to the charities.

  With all the organisation required for the trip, I didn’t manage to create a great deal of PR for the trip. Luckily, Ian Fraser (a financial journalist, who lived adjacent to the stables next to Mountskip) did do a fantastic piece in the Scotsman for us. The ILPH ran some great stories on their website and also some local press coverage gained in a few of the areas I travelled through. This relatively small PR coverage meant that the majority of the donations came from people who knew me: friends; family; work colleagues and people who I met on my travels who, once I had met them and explained my trip, gave donations to me to put into Just Giving (in their name).

  My sister (a Sgt in the MET police) managed to organise the largest single donation (many £000’s) by running a hugely successful charity slave auction at work, including many senior MET officers. Many thanks Sarah.

  Early on we decided that a website would be a great way of monitoring progress, both for the build-up training and the trip itself. My friend Mark bravely took on the challenge of the website design and development. I did not realise until afterwards what an onerous task this entailed, as Mark devoted a huge amount of his time, first with me in designing the website and then latterly once the trip started, feeding in the weekly diary updates and photos.

  Other bits of kit I ordered for the trip were: a midge net for the north of Scotland; a rubber overshoe in case of a dropped shoe; an equine medical kit and a minimalistic plastic racing bridle which needed little in the way of maintenance.

  I had bought the local area 1:25,000 OS maps covering Gorebridge and its surrounding area, and we used these to plan our training. Every weekend Fiona, Maisie (the Parson Russell terrier) and I would drive out to the yard and head off on various planned routes of increasing mileages. As mentioned earlier, the first few weeks of this training involved riding Marv with no saddle as his stitches were still healing. I developed a very good seat and it was comforting knowing I could ride Marv for several hours without stirrups and with no incident. We luckily had the loan of another horse, which Fi rode to keep me company. We would plan the route to include a lunch stop, with a final goal of managing to complete a weekend in April of two 20 mile rides back to back. The lunch stops were great fun. We would find a spot of quiet track and rope off the track 20 yards either side, to allow for the horses to graze while we had our picnic. By now we had the saddle bags in action, and I was getting Marv used to them, by slowly increasing the weight inside them. One concern for the trip was the possible need for hard feed for Marv (especially in the far north, where there was little grass and only heather for some sections).

  The detailed route planning was done both at home late into the night and also at work during a period of night shifts. This involved meticulously scanning each 1:50,000 map and highlighting a sensible route for each day between already planned daily stopover locations. The main focus was on keeping off main roads, but also avoiding footpaths and hills where possible. Footpaths are footpaths for a reason, as I had discovered in training and later on the trip. They would be designated bridleways if they were suitable for horses, as they likely had either stiles, locked gates, were too narrow, steep, or crossed streams on bridges unsuitable for horses. I knew that the routes I selected didn’t have to be rigidly followed, but knowing that there was a planned route for each day meant one less thing to worry about. I didn’t plan the detailed route for the last two weeks (keeping a surprise element to the trip), but I knew in which village I would like to stop. To keep tabs on the planned days I made a trip spreadsheet, which captured each day’s start location, OS map numbers, miles travelled, finish location, and any accommodation and contact details known. There were many days already planned in terms of accommodation, predominantly in Scotland. The gaps in accommodation made the trip more exciting for me as I would then have to use my initiative each day to source a field.

  By the end of April the training was completed, the kit bought, checked and tested. Marv was fit enough and I was confident of success. A few days before the off we held a send-off barbeque at our house in Morningside for friends and family. I had ordered some maroon polo shirts with the ‘Long Trot’ logo on it for Fi, Mum, Mark and me, and we all wore them for the evening. It was great to see everyone and there was an energetic expectant air about the trip which buoyed me on.

  To get to the start point we needed wheels. I asked the lovely Sonya, owner of Sunnyside Farm, where I had bought Marv, if I could borrow her large horse box. The box was quite new and could take 6 horses. Surprisingly, she very kindly agreed.

  Day 0 (Travel from Edinburgh to John O’Groats - 281 miles) The day before the scheduled start we drove over early to the yard in East Linton to collect the loaned horse box for the long drive to the start. I was very nervous and was in a bit a fluster with the pressure of the trip affecting me. Despite the months of planning, I still had many concerns and was just keen to get started. In my anxiety I managed to slightly bump the horsebox coming out of the yard. Luckily I only had dented the pull down steps, but it still felt like a bad omen. Our good friend Mark had very kindly volunteered to drive with Fi and me up to John O’ Groats. We headed back to Edinburgh to pick up Marv and the kit. Once we had loaded up Marv we turned north and headed over the Forth Road Bridge (which I hoped to recross in a few weeks’ time). Mark and I took turns at the wheel, while Maisie took up a reclining position on the dashboard. I knew that reaching the top of Scotland was a long drive from Edinburgh, but in a horsebox it took the full day.

  (L) Loading Marv for the drive to the start, (R) Maisie on the lorry’s dashboard on the A9 We stopped just north of Aviemore for a leg stretch for Marv. He had a good munch of grass before being reloaded for the last push up the never ending A9. After Tain the road was ever so slow with so many corners and it followed the coastline like a roller coaster. We began to get large tailbacks behind the lorry, and so we frequently pulled in to relieve the stress of the other motorists. Finally, as we neared the signs for Wick we turned left heading inland off the A9, to facilitate the prepositioning of some (pre bagged) hard horse feed for the first day’s stop over at Mybster. We then reached the north coast of Scotland which looked particularly bleak and barren. In my quest to find a stable for Marv for the night, I had been very fortunate in being offered a complimentary night’s B&B for Fi and me, and a lovely stable for Marv. Mark offered to spend the night in the horse box snuggled up with the restless Maisie. When we arrived at the farmstead and were being shown the stable for Marv, Maisie raced ahead and went after the owner’s ducks. She was luckily prevented just in time from causing an embarrassing scene so soon after arrival. Once Marv was bedded down, the three of us headed to a local pub for the ‘last supper’. We were all quite subdued, partially from the long tiring drive and also because of the unknown days ahead.

  Week 1 (170 miles)

  Route showing night stops

  Week 1 (total 170 miles – 8 days as start was a Sunday)

  Day 1 (John O’ Groats to Mybster – 23 miles) Mark joined us for breakfast in the B&B and soon after it was time to get the show on the road. Marv seemed quite relaxed but alert. The weather was overcast and windy, but at least not raining. We drove the last few miles to John O’ Groats and parked the large conspicuous horse box in the deserted car park. There was to be no grand send off today. I was feeling quite nervous and impatient to start on the trip. I knew we had to mark the start with some photographs, so I quickly saddled up Marv and attached the saddle bags and dry bag behind the saddle. Marv was now getting restless as he picked up on my tension. I felt guilty that shortly I was going to leave Fi and Mark behind, as they had spent so much of their time and effort getting me and Marv to the start and on the trip in general. They had to spend the day driving the empty box back to Edinburgh.

  (L) Marv looking pensive at John O’Groats. (R) Trying to stand still for the start photo Frustratingly the dry bag would not si
t straight behind the saddle. I would somehow have to sort this out later, but I didn’t have the patience right now. Photos were taken with the John O’ Groats ferry behind and I quickly said my goodbyes. Marv and I rode off southwest and the adventure had officially started. I had only gone 1km before the annoying dry bag had slipped round and was hanging off again. I could see the horse box just leaving the car park so I called Fi and asked if they could drive over. Embarrassingly, I got off and took out a heavy horse blanket from the dry bag and threw it in the horse box. Far more relaxed as the kit now sat better, we said our goodbyes again and this time they drove off and I started the long slog south.

  The first day’s mileage was a reasonable amount. Strategically I had planned to try and be in Aberfeldy (near Pitlochry) by the second weekend to ensure we got some days off and this could coincide with Fi being able to join us. To achieve this goal we had to manage some long mileage days in the first fortnight.

  The next day was fairly straightforward. Marv kept looking round to where we had come from in a slightly mournful and longing way. There was not much to see as the land is quite flat and featureless in the north east corner of Scotland. We made good time and reached the first night’s destination by 1600. We were both tired as much emotionally as physically. First thing was to pick up the hard feed drop we had prepositioned the day before. Next was to get a field or stable sorted for Marv. I had nothing booked for night one. The location I had picked was just a small hamlet on the map. I asked at a bungalow which had fields attached, and the friendly occupant not only offered Marv a field, but also offered a bed for me. Result! We turned Marv out and he got his hard feed for the day. I was carrying several kilos worth of Dodson & Horrell Staypower muesli mix in freezer bags, but these would only last a few days. I could only hope that we could source enough food (grass) en route for him. I carried a small stove, some noodles, muesli and dried milk, which could also sustain me for a few days. Re-provisioning for both of us would be something I needed to think about daily.