Deben Riding Club
Royal Windsor Horse Show
13th May 2009
Report from Royal Windsor Horse Show -
Sue Westmore
It was with much excitement and just a bit of trepidation that we set off to Windsor last Wednesday to contend the newly created AmEquine championships for BRC members. Excitement as it was my first time competing at such a prestigious competition with Jerri, and trepidation as he’s not the world’s greatest traveller and gets upset when the horsebox is overtaken by lorries. Hmm, just the A12 and M25 to navigate then!
To help Jerri keep calm, we gave him Tempralax (allowed in competition) before travelling, and it certainly made some difference although he still got quite fraught towards the end of the journey which took about 3.5 hours. Luckily, I wasn’t competing until late afternoon so didn’t have to contend with any rush hour traffic, otherwise I think all our nerves would have been frayed before we got there. The parking for the Royal Windsor Horse show is just outside the boundaries of the Great Park and necessitates driving through the public car park which is littered with numerous speed bumps of varying degrees of severity. Despite crawling over them, there was one which caused an almighty crashing noise in the horsebox which left me wondering whether Jerri had fallen completely out of his skin or, indeed, off the back of the lorry! On pulling up, we found that not only had the camping stove fallen from its normal storage but the tail gate had also been bounced off 3 of the 4 pins holding them up. Fortunately, although Jerri was somewhat unnerved, and desperate to get off and away from all this scary stuff, we managed to lift the tail gates back onto their pins with the help of some strong stewards who, despite not seeming to speak a word of English, clearly understood our urgent gesticulations! My poor boy though had managed to scrape two large holes in his head, in spite of the lorry already being like a padded cell, so we’ll have to add even more protection to save him from himself. As soon as we’d all calmed down from this drama, we made contact with the Maces, as Joe was riding in the Junior championships and hence had a much earlier start time than us. Joe told us that Vic had been a little unsettled to ride and spooked a couple of times, as the atmosphere in the Frogmore arena was electric, and much more charged than at Lincoln.
We then took Jerri down to his day stable, which was situated close to the ring but miles from the lorries and necessitated going under Victoria Bridge and through a very tight security presence. Jerri was totally horrified and buckled his knees as he went through the tunnel as he must have been worried he wouldn’t otherwise fit. Poor mum who was grooming for me had to walk for miles laden down with the things I couldn’t take whilst I was mounted. We all then had a short break and enjoyed a restorative cup of tea back in the Mace’s lorry before getting Jerri ready to strut his stuff. Unfortunately, just as I was about to get onboard, the various mounted games teams came through which completely unnerved my poor horse giving me one small window of opportunity to jump into the saddle before his shredded nerves failed him altogether. Once I was on him, though, he took a big deep breath and despite his eyes being out on organ stops at the carriage horses being driven through the Park, and the military who started practicing their marching for the Tattoo later that night, oh, and the international dressage to music competition going on in the next door arena, he held his nerve (just about) for the most important 5 minutes of his life so far. Lots of pats later, we then rushed to get our horses loaded and on their way home before the evening performances started in earnest as that could have been one experience too far, and spoilt what had otherwise been a lovely day.
The standard of riding and quality of horses at this competition was incredibly high (much higher than I’ve personally seen at Lincoln) but the judges were completely fair in their marking, despite the presence of some extremely flash dressage beasts, and awarded the marks where they were deserved for good riding and not necessarily deep pockets. Joe and I both finished just outside the placings but I was certainly very pleased with Jerri’s and my effort, and definitely feel inspired to have another go at qualifying next year although, another time, I certainly wouldn’t go naively thinking that dressage day equals a quiet and peaceful atmosphere!
