A YOUNG horse rider from Gidleigh defended her title at a top endurance race in the Brecon Beacons in Wales last weekend.
Robyn Petrie-Ritchie won the Man Versus Horse Marathon event sponsored by bookmakers William Hill, which has built up a reputation as one of the toughest endurance races having been run for more than quarter of a century. The race was held over a 22-mile course in the Brecon Beacons last Saturday.
Nineteen-year-old Robyn who is a student at Okehampton College won the event last year on horse Draimghigha Shemal ? a name combining Scottish dialect and the Arabic word for ?desert wind?. She returned this year on the same horse and was delighted to win again.
?I can?t believe it. I really didn?t expect to do it for a second time,? said Robyn.
She said her horse had been ?amazing? and had covered the course faster than she thought possible, averaging around 12-miles an hour.
The endurance event pitches marathon runners against horse riders over a challenging hilly course which climbs to a height of 3,000 feet.
Among those who Robyn and her charge beat home was an experienced marathon runner and Royal Marine who had recently returned from serving in Iraq.
Robyn finished in a total time of two hours and two minutes, including a vet check stop during the event, coming in two minutes ahead of the next horse, and eight minutes ahead of the fastest runner.
?I knew that it was going to be quite difficult,? she said. ?but it was pretty much the same course as last year, and I remembered parts of it,? she added.
Robyn said she was hoping to step up from intermediate category endurance riding to advanced category, improving her chances of being selected for the Great Britain junior team, which competes in endurance events all over the world.
Robyn is a former member of Mid Devon Pony Club, whose first riding experience was at the age of two.