Barry Armitage
This day a year ago had been a day of reckoning for me with one of my worst ever tumbles from a horse. I wasn’t daunted though, no ghosts of falls past, just a line up of good fit horses and a determination, grim though I’m sure it would be at times, to chase the ghost of Harry Smith all the way to Grahamstown.
Last week Joe and I chased the ghost of Sir Harry Smith for six days, filming Series 3 of The Ride. This has been our most daring and demanding expedition to date, requiring input from many people and, now that the dust has settled, I would like to thank this huge group of people and horses who made the journey possible. So here goes….
Our wonderful friend, and barefoot distance riding guru, Laura Seegers offered Joe and I a riding lesson! I was thrilled at the prospect of salvaging something from a rather disappointing Saturday, and also a little nervous at having my rather ropy riding picked apart by someone of Laura’s stature in the sport.
Joe and I rode at the OVK Challenge at Piet van de Merwe’s Lormar Stud near Middelberg this weekend. A huge thanks to Piet van der Merwe for his hospitality, a fantastic event and for lending us his precious horses, it was well worth the drive.
I ride a mountain bike to keep fit for horse riding. I ride the same 25km loop almost every day. I know almost every dip in the road, every pot hole, and the quirks of every high speed corner, and I know when I am doing well or when my body is not quite firing on all cylinders. What I don’t know is which driver of which car is going to be a complete arsehole!
I am very proud of the new member of our family and I need to say well done and thank you, to everyone involved at my little company, Cloudjuice Productions, to our wonderful production partners, Cooked in Africa Films, to The Adventurists who organize the Mongol Derby, and to our fellow 2011 Derbyists, without whom there wouldn’t have been a race. You guys are this babies god parents!
A while ago Joe and I joined a German woman (and of course I can’t remember her name) doing one of Dominique van Zyl’s wine tasting rides at DelVera. We were riding anyway (our first ride since finishing Into the Unknown) and we all thought it would be a better experience for this tourist if [...]
Last Sunday dawned with my legs tight with stiffness from my 80km ride at Worcester the day before. This is a real worry as I am pretty fit at the moment, punishing myself daily on my bike to maintain my fitness level from Into the Unknown, keeping the body light and the legs strong, plus [...]
It’s an hour and a half’s drive from Durban to Mooi River in the lush green Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal. I arrive at Franco-C Saddlery to find that proprietor Ben Liebenberg already has his feisty little endurance horse, Blaze, ready and waiting. I’m here to test a prototype saddle for our Harry Smith ride in early [...]
Saturday was a big day: our first competitive endurance ride, in our attempt to qualify for the South African National Championships held every July in a little Free State town called Fauresmith, the Mecca of endurance horse racing in South Africa. We have been lured into the sport by the need to keep our bodies [...]
