Cranham 2008 Ride Report - by Jan Clarke
Many moons ago, when Methuselah was a lad Eric and I photographed an
EHPS ride where the route went up and over Cranham Common. I can’t
remember where the venue was, all I can remember is sitting high up on a
hill with the most remarkable view out over Gloucestershire. I
promised myself that I’d do that ride next year. Next year came
and went, and many others, but 2008 WAS the year when I got to ride
Cranham.
I was competing on my novice Eldoret (known as Elliott) and I was a bit
nervous (well a lot nervous actually). Never having done the ride
before I was paranoid about getting lost, I was worried about how muddy
it was likely to be, and knowing it was quite “challenging” I was
concerned whether he was fit enough.
We left very early as I’d heard it was the Fairford Air Show that
weekend and had been warned that the traffic would be bad. Worry
number one scotched; when we got to Malmesbury we started seeing signs
that the Air Show had been cancelled. With a traffic free run we
arrived about an hour and a half early for my 10.40 vetting, fortunately
this wasn’t a problem and I was allowed to vet and start early.
The venue is a huge grassy field with fabulous views to the West, and it
was especially lovely on this bright, sunny summer morning – a wonderful
change from the unrelenting rain we had been enjoying. I set off
just after 10 to tackle the unknown, with the thought of all those gates
thrown in just for fun. We got through the first three (one held
open for us) within the first half mile and they weren’t too difficult,
then we overtook Gloria Curtis who gave me a great big smile and told me
what a fabulous ride it was, and then we got into the woods.
We sailed along through Ebworth estate, and it was very similar to the
ground we train on at home (Alfred’s Tower woods) except Ebworth had
running water – and lots of it! We were nearly to CP 1 when Mary
Stubbs caught us up riding daughter Sarah’s mare and we kept company for
the rest of the ride. Mary was riding without crew as Steve had
managed to damage himself the day before, and as I was in the fortunate
state of having Eric out crewing for me (he’s normally photographing of
course) we shared him. Carrie Ann Dark also joined up with us so
we had double crewing as Roger and Ann looked after all 3 of us as well.
As we chattered our way along the miles just flew – clattering along the
hard tracks in the woods, splashing twice through that lovely ford,
passing through a couple of quite gorgeous chocolate box villages, some
sticky, muddy stretches (but nothing too bad), some wonderful cantering
sections, the tricky wooded section after CP5 (thank you Neil for
helping us across that busy road) and the final, wonderful, magnificent
gallop up Cranham Common (yes, we did really let them go and all 3
horses loved it).
Final vetting time - passed no problem and the vet said that Elliott was
the one she would most like to take home – Wow – I think he’s wonderful
of course, but I reckon I’m biased! When I went to collect my
paperwork I thanked Margaret for my lovely day and complimented her on
the marking. It was then I found out that many markers had
disappeared over night and Carolyn Edwards and Gina Harris had gone out
early with heaps of markers and remarked practically the whole route
with lots of help from Carolyn’s husband Rob – HUGE thanks to you 3!
A big THANK YOU to Offa’s Dyke for putting on such a super ride; great
venue, a challenging but achievable route with a variety of different
going, and friendly smiling faces running the ride. So….I waited
15 years to do the Cranham Ride – I’m not planning on waiting that long
again – I’m hoping to come back next year and have a go at one of the
longer classes.