Sadhira, Maggie Pattinson and Katy Willings

We are delighted to support the talented young mare Sadhira, bred by Maggie Pattison.

Ridden by Kate Willings, Sadhira is bred in the pink for endurance and in their first season in 2011 they completed 3 CRs up to 42kms and were on the winning SE team at the Berkshire Downs Southern Championships, as well as the English Novice for the Home International at Red Dragon. Kate and Sadhira were awarded a Gr1 at Windsor in July, completed the pleasure ride at the Golden Horseshoe in the spring and will upgrade to open for 2012. Katy and Maggie's aim was to keep Sadhira's mileage low in the first season, it was all about experience , learning and enjoying.

On Pure Feed, Maggie comments “Endurance is a sport that requires slow release energy. We need the horses to enjoy what they are getting and we want them to keep eating when fit and running. However, as we all know fibre is so important and so for me finding a fibre based, highly nutritious and palatable feed was a win on all counts. So often people believe they can keep putting high energy feeds in, and end up with severe problems ...Pure Feed provides slow release, continuous energy that these horses need and enough condition to convert to muscle power. Sadhira is on the Pure Condition. As a young, growing youngster starting her career she needs the nutrition of a complete feed, the ability to keep weight on, make and keep muscle and stay sane - she loves it and is thriving. The other girls are currently on a Pure Working, Pure Easy or Pure Balance, depending on their individual needs, and all look fantastic!”

Maggie Pattinson: lifetime of horses across many disciplines, I no longer compete over long distances following a serious road accident several years ago in which I lost my top horse and me and my novice horse were badly injured. However my passion for fitness of horse and rider was very much intact and I now coach and train endurance combinations at all levels, both individuals and Teams . I am Chef d’Equipe for the English Home International Squad, Coach & Trainer for the Mongol Derby and design bespoke training programmes for clients based on their abilities and ambitions.

As Chef for the HI Squad I am always delighted to look at and work with Young Rider combinations – I need Team Players who are really looking for a partnership with their horses – who “respect” their Parents, often Crew and Bankers! And most of all who want to learn – we’ve already had some great combinations including Kelly Murray & Latofa Mandell who came to Ireland as our novice and was also a young rider in 2008, they successfully completed their first FEI Ride last year – the Murrays both 2 and 4 legged were a fantastic team and I know they’ll go far.

I love to make training and competing fun and challenging for all and pride myself of finding the “ buttons and switches” to get Riders, Horses and Crews working easily for optimum effect!!

Training should be SMART – Simple, measurable, achievable, recorded and timely making competition the same SMART moto.......

I have ridden since before I could walk and focused primarily on dressage during my teens, when I was on the British Pony Dressage Team for three years with Forester's Gold, winning 2 team medals, and the Premier League, and finishing 5th at the Europeans Champs in 1998. Forester's Gold was sold on to Laura Bechtolsheimer and made several more championship appearances. I was shortlisted as a Junior on Linda Turnbull's Cassanova XS in 2000, too. I have trained horses from 3 year olds to advanced level dressage and competed up to Intermediare 1. Having finished my degree at Oxford University I sold my last remaining horse and embarked on a career in a suit, riding occasionally at weekends.

I got back in the saddle in 2009 when I entered the Mongol Derby, the world's longest horse race. As someone with no endurance riding background I knew I would need some help to prepare for this adventure, a 1000km horse relay race across Mongolia following in the hoofprints of the messengers of Chinggis Khan in the 13th century. I asked Maggie Pattinson for some advice and she was amazingly generous, sending me on several training rides with her pupils and clients who lent me some wonderful horses and let me get a feel for 'race pace' and how to preserve a horse over a long distance. With this new understanding of and respect for endurance riding I completed the Derby in great shape and my horses came in full of running.

Having seen me ride all summer and complete the Debry, Maggie offered me the ride on Sadhira, then a 4yo just being backed, if I was prepared to do the work with her. She is bred in the pink for endurance and it has been a pleasure to learn together, and also to use the knowledge I have of training young horses for dressage to help her develop as an all-round athlete and a wonderful riding horse. The speed part comes from her!

In our first season in 2011 we have completed 3 CRs up to 42kms and been on the winning SE team at the Berkshire Downs inter-regional event, as well as the English Novice for the Home International at Red Dragon. We were awarded a Gr1 at Windsor in July. We also completed the pleasure ride at the Golden Horseshoe in the spring, and will upgrade to open at the end of the year.

I also have the ride on a dressage horse, Elite, who I sold over 10 years ago before going to university and who has now been given back to me! He is trained to Grand Prix and we are having lots of fun getting to know each other again. I am hoping to get back in the dressage arena after all these years, next year.

Katy and Sadhira representing England at the Home International in Wales. Photo courtesy of West end photography.