More and more people seem to recognize the wiggling ropes and orange carrot sticks of Parelli fame.  I’ve been a wiggler for seven years now and its fantastic fun.  For the first time in my life I have really learned how to keep a horse out of my personal space and at the same time to develop a great relationship with him.  And I’ve learned that it’s “way more than riding”. 

When I started, I learned from the Parelli books and DVD’s and travelled to the occasional clinic, which were few and far between.  There were only a couple of British instructors, but we were lucky enough to have some come from abroad to teach.

And then I thought I’d try running some clinics from home, here in Newmarket.  It started with one or two during the first year, and gradually it has become pretty well a once-a-month occurrence.  They vary from one-day, two-day, three-day to five or even six-day sessions. 

I’m not renowned for my cooking skills, but I manage to knock up pasta or quiche and salad for lunch on these days.  And usually all the people who come also bring goodies with them.

If they want to leave their horses overnight, I provide stables and paddocks.  I don’t charge for any of these services, but people like to give something back, so I keep a couple of collecting pots in the kitchen for MDIRF and the Parelli Horsemanship Fund.

I’ve met some wonderful people through this programme and it’s opened up a whole new world for me and my horses.

Summer 5-day clinic here, at Newmarket, with Russell Higgins, a 4 star Parelli Professional from New Zealand

Firstly, thanks to everyone who took the time to sponsor me and contribute to the Mark Davies Injured Riders Fund.

I’m back, alive and free from Malaria, Dengi Fever, Typhoid, Rabies, Hepatitis, Snake Bites…In fact, apart for a mental aversion to using the longdrops I came away pretty much intact (but thinner). And having foregone beer for 6 months (while I was in training) that first beer in Port Moresby was straight out out of the film Ice cold in Alex.

Papua was extraordinary. And the Papuans, despite enormous poverty and hardship are the friendliest and happiest people you could meet. Quick to smile and hard as nails (and that’s just the women!).

A hot, humid jungle, sleep deprivation (we were up at 4.30am every day) and appalling jetlag all conspired to making me feel as if I was hallucinating for the first 2 days. The trekking part was tough – a lot of ‘hills’ in difficult conditions. Tough, but do-able – having said that, I was glad of all the hours I had put in back home trudging up and down the 30 floors of Guy Hospital’s stairwell for hours on end. Every part of the jungle was an Attenborough moment – huge beautiful trees in virgin forest, butterflies the size of birds and birds the size of…well, I’m sure they were big. I didn’t actually see any birds through the canopy but I could hear the little darlings squawking up there. Somewhere.

Best moments for me were undoubtedly the informal ’sing-sings’ the boys did. The Papuans seem to have a natural bent to sing harmonies – and our crew of 20 Papuans would, of an evening, amuse themselves by a spot of communal singing. It was like going trekking with Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Heaven for me.

I should warn you that I took about 600 photos so here’s fair warning to get your excuses ready for when I ask you to ‘Come and see my Kokoda Snaps’. Sadly I can no longer duck out of weekend chores by claiming the need to go training. So it’s back to reality for me. Many thanks again to all of you who sponsored me.

Gus and his Papuan porter with the MDIRF t-shirts which have remained. A big thanks to Gus and everyone who supported him in is Fundraising. If anyone would also like to trek and raise funds for the MDIRF please contact Rosemary on rosemary@mdirf.co.uk.

My name is Rachel and this year I took on the challenge of running the Great North Run to raise money for the Mark Davies Injured Riders Fund. The Great North Run is a half marathon (13.1 miles) and is probably the UK’s biggest half marathon.

I have ridden since I was young, and am a keen eventing follower so I knew about the MDIRF before I signed up to do the Great North Run. I found out in February that I had got a place for the Run and decided that I’d do it to raise money for the MDIRF as it’s such a great cause because it helps people like me who ride and spend time around horses for fun, as well as professional riders.

While I was already a runner and member of a running club before I signed up to the Great North Run, I had never attempted a half marathon before. The thought of running twice the distance of my normal club training routes was pretty intimidating – I can’t say that I ever finished a training route with enough energy to run straight round and do the route again!

Despite my nerves about the challenge that I’d signed myself up for, I got on with my training and steadily built up the distances that I ran in my long run sessions each week. I was really determined to train hard and do the Run in less than 2 hours, and wanted to do my best for everyone who had sponsored me. I experienced all sorts of extreme weather conditions during my training, from boiling hot days with no wind to torrential rainfall, which made sure I was prepared for whatever the weather would be like on the day of the Run.

Luckily, the Newcastle weather on the day of the Run was good. It wasn’t too hot, and it only rained once. By the time it started to rain I just had 1 mile to go, so it spurred me on to finish quickly. The atmosphere from the start of the Run to the end was amazing and it was really inspiring to see so many people running for different charities too. There were people lining the entire route to cheer everyone on which gave me a huge lift and just added to the atmosphere of the day.

The best part of the Run was the last mile where the route turns down to the coast in South Shields. There were crowds of people, including my parents and sister, lining the roads and hearing them really helped me to get to the finish. I was thrilled to finish in a time of 1 hour 41 minutes and 32 seconds, which was faster than I thought I’d achieve. I also raised £295 for the MDIRF, so was even more thrilled to have raised that amount of money and not let my sponsors down. I know that the money I’ve raised will be put to great use by the MDIRF and I’d like to thank everyone who supported me by donating to this extremely worthwhile charity.