JOE ‘S JOURNAL
My first trip abroad alone.
At the beginning of March we loaded up the lorry and prepared to leave for Spain. My Mum Laura, runs the office and she had arranged and planned for us to leave early on the Sunday morning and we would have two night stops in France and then in Northern Spain. Only there was suddenly a problem, we heard that the weather was changing and it meant that we didn’t think we would be able to cross the channel at the time we wanted to go. Suddenly our trip that was planned to the finest margin was not going to get off to a good start. All hands to the deck and the last items were hastily loaded, including enough food for me and Charlotte to eat on our travels, Mum shops BIG! Charlotte was Dad’s groom and our head girl. She now has several other jobs on her job description; she is now my travelling companion, navigator, assistant driver, groom, horse spoiler, cheerleader and occasional consoler. We set off to Dover slightly worried we weren’t going to get on the ferry, but we were there in time before they stopped horses travelling whilst the sea was too rough. Another hours drive over the other side in France and we stopped at our first stables just outside Calais. After the horses had had food and water, we settled down to a nice dinner and a good nights sleep. Early the next day we fed and watered the horses before setting off to our next stop. It was not a long day as these were our original stables which we had planned to get to in Le Mans from home. The same routine was repeated that night only this time we knew the next day was going to be a long one. At 3am the alarm went off to tell us it was time to get on the road again. It was a long way to Burgos in Spain around 550 miles away and at maximum speed of 52 mph a slow one. We made lots of stops to rest, feed and water the horses, although we can’t get them off the lorry in the services they can still relax. We also got time to have a leg stretch and caffeine hit. There are obviously tight rules on the hours each driver spends behind the wheel, so this gave me and Charlotte time to swap. As they say eat, sleep and repeat and so we did. Final day we were up early again and we arrived at the show near a beautiful town called Carmona just after lunch, plenty of time to set up in day light. All five horses travelled really well. One horse ‘Union Jack’, a 7 year old, has never been to a stay away show let alone out of the Country but because we didn’t rush he travelled really well. The following morning we had to “Trot up” basically a vet inspection for horses arriving at any International Show. They all passed without any problems and I had a sit on each one of them to make sure they were okay under saddle too. In fact, they were all wild so the journey hadn’t taken anything out of them at all.
I
The weekend started really well with all the horses jumping clear every day. I didn’t go against the clock as we were just getting started and I still had another four weeks of the trip to go. Lots of rosettes were hung outside our stables showing off our successes even with steady
took my HGV test in December in preparation for this year, so I was excited about getting going.
rounds. Charlotte and I celebrated our results with lots of Tapas. I had to fly home on the Monday morning to jump MS Amlin’s horse Floriane Z at a show on the Tuesday. She jumped well but with one fence down in the jump off. Next day I made a quick dash back to Stansted for a return to a much sunnier Spain. This week I had decided that I would try to be more competitive. Tornado Des Monts, owned by Mr and Mrs Garratt, had a great win. The third week Mum came out to support me; she arrived just in time to see me go into the
ring in the Ranking Class (this class gives you points on the FEI system) on Gunner, owned by Mrs Bas. Gunner was superb, jumped clear and we won. The following morning we moved 20 minutes down the road into an area called Pineda in Seville. It was at a big country club with a golf course and over 200 horses for it’s members to use. The facilities for the horses were lovely. Again, we trotted up successfully and all the horses were feeling well and ready for the two weekends ahead. We had mixed rounds, most were very good. Union Jack grew up
over the three previous weeks and where we’d started jumping the 1.10m classes we were now jumping 1.30m really confidently. Cacharel
60
MAY/JUNE 2019
For the latest news visit
www.centralhorsenews.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96
