JOE’SJOURNAL
JOE’SJOURNAL Battling Brexit and EHV-1
story for lateronin this piece. Firstly, Iamvery pleasedto
A
announcemynew Headline Sponsor, Equine America. They will prefix the namesofmytop string of horsesand Iwill ride in their logo and colours. Secondly, getting out to Europe with
the joys of Brexit to battle with, new paperwork seemedtobeour first problem. We had beenplanning to go to Spain to
the Sunshine Tour sinceour last trip there in November2020. Ihad atrip there back in November where Ihad jumpedonmy first senior team, so it seemedanobvious placetostart this season. The horseshad had a break over the winterand despite lockdown without shows felt ready to go. ThenBrexit reachedits final stages, but
we (the horse industry) felt we had been forgotten! No one had anyclue what papers we needed. Firstly, Europe wantedusto retake our grooms and driver’s certificate whichapparently were not valid anymore, despite them being passedoriginally whilst we were in Europe. So, Charlotte Carley and Isat for a2hour zoom call to retake the test at a cost of £175 perperson. Thenwewere told that the test
our lorry had passed whilst were in Europe had to be retaken, but not in the UK. This time it had to go to Holland, Belgium or Ireland! The test was not the problem so muchas the cost we had to payadrivertotake it to Holland which took two days there and backand of course that meant the cost of two ferry journeys. You can see where this is going, the costs of Brexit were mounting fast. Thenwehad to arrange a carnet,
and official document to travel through Europe, Vets had to be arrangedin Calais (double the priceonaweekend) as well as Border Control to checkour papers. And of course, there was the normal stop overs to be organised.
It all seemedtoo expensive and all too
stressful in all honesty and I did start to wonderifwewere doing the right thing. Covid tests passed, we set off, first part of the journey went well, we stoppedand got the carnet stamped, whichtook a frustrating hour. Over the wateron the ferry and perfect timing to get to Border control and to meet the vet in France, only they seem to have no problem leaving horsesstandingonalorry for four hours for no reason at all. Otherriders had been waiting as muchasnine hours. It was so distressing and worrying. The horseswere given their breakfast and waterand were relaxedbut as arideryou make sure they are treatedlike gold dust so for me it was extremely hard not to get cross and chase the office upevery five minutes, I think they would have sloweddown evenmore if Ihad so Ikept myself busy as best as I could. Finally, we were given the all clear to
leave the docks and we were on our way, they travelled fine but whenwestoppedin LeMans that night Didiwas very tired. Charlotte slept outside his stable for the night in case he became unwell, fortunately
Above:Joe and little Romeo
Below: Equine America Gunner (Romeo)
OppositePage Top: Equine AmericaDon Diego de Plata
OppositePage Bottom Left:Equine AmericaCacharel in lap of honour
OppositePage Bottom Right: Equine AmericaCacharel
notheryear on and anotherrushhome from Spain. But that is another
he was fine and leapt onto the lorry the following daytohead to Burgos in Northern Spain for our next stop. One more night and onto the show at Vejernear Jerez. The five horseswere really fresh and
well the next morning. Igave them all alittle bit of light work and ahackabout the show. They all passed the trot up and were ready to start the show. Angelique was going to jump in the
young horse classesbut in fact Idropped herdown an agedgroupfor the first weekasshe wasn’t ready for those yet. By the end of the three-weektrip, whichis threeclasses eachweekend she was muchmore confident, and I felt happy withherinsome biggerones. She started the trip at 1.10 but finishedat 1.30 so Iwas really pleasedwithher. Equine America Kandleford (Tom) can
be very strong at timesand he was very happy to be backout at shows. This did cause a few problems for me in a few rounds, including breaking amartingale halfwayround one course. He had relaxedabit by the third week,and we jumpedsome really good rounds. Equine AmericaGunnerisalways
astarand was as good as ever, we are still the smallest onesinevery collecting ring but he still has no idea. He jumpedsome very classy rounds and Iwas really pleasedwith him. Equine AmericaDon Diego de Plata
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APRIL/MAY2021For
thelatestnewsvisitwww.centralhorsenews.co.uk
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