Fifty miles on the Moors by horse - kit list

By Guest Blogger, Mary Thew.

Several people have asked me what kit I took, so here’s a full list!

We were away for four days, but only camped one night and stayed on a farm and a B&B for the other two nights. So I cheated a bit and dropped my tent and camping kit at the campsite ahead of time, to save Mojo having to carry it the whole way just for one night’s use. But if you had a really lightweight tent etc (I don’t, and I wasn’t going to ask my husband for the loan of his very expensive wild camping tent) you could strap it all to the top of the saddle.

Kit was split out across the two saddle bags – I used a fishing scale to weigh them every morning because the weight changed depending on what Mojo and I had eaten, and what clothes I was wearing. Heaving them on and off the saddle was a bit of a chore, but fortunately Mojo is unflappable and wasn't bothered by me dragging them on over his bum while standing on a  wall. 

Tack

Our regular Wintec dressage saddle with the stirrups taken off, plus regular dressage girth.

An extra big saddle pad that I made so that nothing rubbed. I wanted something made of wool so it wouldn’t rub or get grotty if it was wet or dirty. A folded woollen blanket would probably work, or just your favourite non-slip saddle pad.

Breastplate from Barefoot saddles.

LOMO Dry Bag soft sided Motorcycle Panniers, 30L per side. These attach together with super wide strong velcro, so I rejigged the straps so the bags sat over the saddle seat, and the front and back straps went around the pommel and cantle. I used carabiner clips to clip the front rings of the bags to the breastplate / saddle Ds.

A rear "girth". You can see this in the photos if you look hard enough. This was just webbing with clips that came with the bike bags and clipped onto the back rings of the bags. I attached it to the D on his main girth using a pelham rounding and a trigger clip. The strap was knotted to the pelham rounding so it was anchored under his belly, and it stopped the bags sliding to either side, or the rear girth from slipping backwards. Very unsophisticated but worked well and was critical for stopping the bags shifting.

Regular bridle (headpiece, snaffle, browband - no noseband or reins of course) and a rope halter underneath, plus an extra long leadrope and a lunge line tied to the saddle. You need a good long rope as if you're scrambling up and down steep sided bridleways etc, you need to keep a decent distance from your horse to be safe from being stepped on. 

In the saddle bags

I measured out enough Saracen recovery mash for 250g morning and evening and bagged it up in resealable freezer bags, one per feed. I also bagged up a scoop of salt and a scoop of Boswellia per feed. Most people probably wouldn’t need that but Mojo has a bit of arthritis so I didn’t want to skip the Boswellia.

A collapsible 20L bucket (brand is iGreely), £9.99 from Amazon. Very useful for feeding and offering water from a tap.

A knee brace! I have an iffy knee, so just in case. Perhaps I should’ve had Boswellia for breakfast myself….

Water bottle – one “normal” one and one with a water filter in the lid. There’s plenty of water on the moors so I didn’t fill them. I figured I’d fill the filter one from streams if I needed it.

In a dry bag – my wash kit. Toothpaste, toothbrush, soap, a little travel towel, and some moisturiser.

In a dry bag – rechargeable power pack, headtorch, iPad (only necessary because I said I’d write a blog as we went and I’m rubbish at typing into my phone) and case.

Pair of hoof boots for emergencies. Turned out I didn’t need these; his feet were fine, despite being barefoot behind, so I wouldn’t bother with them next time.

A spare pair of riding tights (nice and comfy for walking in) and some spare clothes for me. Woolly jumper, some thermals and loads of spare socks. Don’t do what I did and set off in old socks….mine had (as it turned out) almost gone through at the heel and I skinned my heel on the first day! Very silly.

In a dry bag – a cloth for cleaning boots and tack and some dubbin for my boots. Worth looking after your boots.

Flip flops for wearing in the evening (I was very glad of these)

In a dry bag – whatever food you’ll need. There were no shops on our route to buy lunches, so we took beef jerky, peanuts, those little individual packets of cheese, and sweets.

In a dry bag – first aid kit. A standard little hiking first aid kit with scissors, wound care bits and pieces, tape, bandages etc, plus dressings for blisters, VetWrap, Ibuprofen and Bute. I ended up using the VetWrap on myself to keep the dressing in place over the raw bit on my heel!

A fishing balance for checking the bags each morning. If I got the weighting uneven they slid sideways.

In dry bags hanging from the saddle, or stuffed into the top straps of the saddlebags

Hi viz covers for the saddle bags and hi viz vest for me for roads. The bag covers were cheap from eBay and did a good job. Just make sure you buy the right size to fit over whatever saddle bags you’re using.

My waterproof (my usual Mountain Equipment hiking one)

Gloves (Ejendals Tegera waterproof thermal work gloves – brilliant)

A Fiskars brush hook and a cheap folding saw in a leather bag so they were easily accessible. The St Aelred’s route mostly uses bridleways; you probably wouldn’t need these if you were doing a route that mostly used lanes.

In my pockets etc

Hoofpick, penknife, Jelly Babies (!) and some cash in a bum bag; phone in my pocket.

I wore a pair of Bareback Kentucky boots and they were great – really comfy – despite having basically chucked them on for the first time three days before we left (in general I would not recommend this approach!).

I also have a Barmah leather bush hat which is very practical and this being Yorkshire it protected me from both sunburn and getting soaked.

And last but of course not least, my trusty 1:25,000 OS map, marked up with the route and in a waterproof map case. Plus our Pilgrim Passport to collect a stamp at each church on the route.