| Royal Festival of the Horse |
| 2010 |
| Well it was never going to replace The Royal but the organisers had put together a good range of classes and so we duly set off for Stoneleigh on the Thursday afternoon. 3 hours later than planned but fitting in stud work and shows is always a tight knit. We were pulled over by VOSA at junction 27 {half an hour from home}, were weighed, lorry and tacho checked and I was feeling very smug as the weights were fine, the lorry was good and I always use the tachograph. Unfortunately it wasn't marking the disc properly and so the very nice policeman fined me £60 and put a prohibition notice on the lorry and told I couldn't continue my journey until it had been sorted. Bear in mind I had 4 youngsters on board and 2 old mares {Viv and Di!!!} I set off back down the motorway to Exeter where we stopped in at the Volvo dealership who then told me that the tacho was working fine but I had put the disc in wrong! So now an additional 2 and half hours late we set forth once again to Warwickshire. By the time we arrived it was 11.20pm and the gates were locked. A call to the horse office dragged the poor guy down on his quad to let us in and we found our stables, all booked together but allocated in two different blocks. By now I really didn't care. Stephen and Clare came up early the following morning in the other lorry with the 2 mares and foals. When I entered 8 horses the timetable allowed for a very straightforward run, even an hour or so break between hunters and hacks and riding horses. Not so on the day. The hunters times had been moved back by 2 hours and so in fact we could have all come up in the morning,I wouldn't have been stopped by that nice policeman and I wouldn't have paid for stabling. Anyway..........whilst in the ring with the lightweight mare so the 1st class of the hacks and riding horses were going into the ring beside. For the next 2 hours it was like running a ****ing marathon. Amazingly the team pulled together and the added assistance of Matt Cadman somehow all the horses made it to the rings on time and we had a very successful day.Sadly what could and hopefully will be a lovely show was marred by very bad planning and ludicrous misjudgements. Empty car parks, extortionate entry fees and seating charges,stabling on gravel and parking on grass {Why????} and changinb of the time table post entry are all unforgivable. And wristbands. Why not send them out with the vehicle passes? We all had to go to the horse office to have our wristbands fitted, all 8 of us before we could even get to the loos. Come on Festival of the Horse, you are the same team as ran the Royal there is no excuse. As we had t o stay for the 2nd day and the Cuddy qualifier we stabled with Matt just a few miles away to let the youngsters wind right down and relax. Within a mile of the yard we had a blow out. Thankfully on a back tyre so we limped on and called out the breakdown guys who came out the next morning and fitted the spare for us. Remind me why we do this...please? Our results were; Lightweight Hunter Broodmare Coogee Bay 2nd, her foal 1st, heavyweight Hunter broodmare Big Bird 1st and Champion mare, her foal {Boris} 3rd. Hunter 2 year old 1st Tawstock Fedora{still unbeaten after 5 County shows}. Jane Ellis's hack won the 3 year old class and stood Champion Hack and Jane's 3 year Riding Horse won her class and stood reserve Champion of her section. 4 wins, a 2nd, 2 Championships and and a Res Champ. A very good day at the office. |
Langaller
Farm
Tel: 01626 836556 or 07812 103448