Beth's Blog- showjumping in Fontainebleau, France
Showjumping - Part 1 one day you’re up...
Well I’m back from Fontainebleau and finally back in the swing of the normal life again… Fontainebleau was an amazing and I have come back with a lot more knowledge and experience. It was my first show abroad where I have travelled and cared for the horses.
Wednesday
We left on the Wednesday night at 7pm meaning we were travelling through the night; my job was being lorry DJ and keeping my sister awake! It was a long journey and sadly I didn’t get to see much of it as it was so dark outside…. obviously!
When we were at the ferry it was a case of checking the horses, squeezing down the front of the partitions to give all 6 horses more hay and offer them water. Whilst they are on the ferry we leave our ramp down so that they get better ventilation as it can get quite warm. We aren’t allowed to stay in the lorry whilst the ferry is moving so we went upstairs to the “Truckers Cafe” where we had dinner at stupid o’clock in the morning!
We got off the boat in Dover and it was then another 4 hour drive to Fontainebleau, it was getting very hard to stay awake and I felt like I was having a constant battle with my own eyes to make them stay open.
Thursday
We eventually arrived at 6am in convoy after going the wrong way a couple of times! We always take 2 lorries, one full of feed, bedding, haylage etc and 1 full of horses so that it
makes packing easier as it’s very expensive to buy stuff when you get to the show. We parked up and then went to assess our stable location and bed the stables down ready to bring the horses off the lorry. Luckily the stables weren’t too far from the lorry although it was a fair trek to the arenas.
The horses were settled into their stables and had a good 4 hours snooze before the vet checks. Each horse was taken up to the vet check and was trotted up, all 6 passed with flying colours. We all then had an early night before the competition started the next day.
Friday
Our class had been moved to a different arena due to the amount of entries they had received, the arena surface was great. Today we had a Speed Class; Dora was surprisingly keen considering she had spent the Wednesday night/Thursday morning travelling. Dora jumped brilliantly in the arena to finish 2nd behind another British competitor.
Saturday
Dora came out the stable squealing; I knew she was feeling on form ready for today’s class as we headed up to the main arena. Today was a 2 phase so the first 6 fences are jumped and then you go into the speed section in the second half. Dora jumped fantastically and we were in the lead by almost 2 seconds to secure our first win of the show.
We were presented with a beautiful winners rug, massive rosette, plaque and a cotton sheet and then we stood to our national anthem… it was a very proud moment.
Sunday
Today was the day of our Grand Prix, Dora came out the stable quite tired and laid back but I knew she would perk up quite quickly. My parents had travelled to France to see us today so the pressure was on as they had travelled a long way! Dora didn’t fail to amaze me as she jumped into the lead by over 2 seconds! I was early to go with 86 competitors in the class so it was a long tense wait watching everyone try and catch our time which proved impossible. We won fantastic prizes and got to stand to the national anthem!
R & R
We then had 4 days off competing which gave us and the horse’s time to relax and enjoy the county. My sister went home with my parents on the Sunday to go and ride the remaining horses at home. This then meant my cousin Ellie, my uncle and my friend Nicky and I were in charge of all of her horses. My uncle had the job of mucking out the stables, which was a serious job as 2 of them flooded dramatically in the rain which fell pretty much every other day! Nicky and Ellie had the jobs of waters and hays whilst I had the job of exercising them all, there were brilliant hacking facilities as well as arenas to school in, so each horse had about 30mins of work each. Once the horses were done we actually had time to go out and explore!
Read my next blog post to see how we did the following week!