It is now 8pm Monday and we leave for Luhmuhlen, Germany in an hour and a half. Tempranillo (or Pea as she is known at home) is going to have a crack at the 4*.
Seumas Marwood and Wild Oats are coming along with us for the road trip and hoping to put in a good performance. We travel from the Dover ferry port to Calais in France and then head through Belgium and The Netherlands and then onto Germany. Hopefully we will arrive around lunch time on Tuesday. There are plenty of other Australians competing so it should be a fun week.
The last month has been a bit of a blur, I feel like I have been at home and between attending Badminton and Saumur and attending squad schools and one day events on the weekends there hasn’t been much time for anything else.
French events are always great fun with plenty of wine, cheeses, fresh bread and ham off the bone on offer. They are generally relaxed events and quite refreshing.
Graf Liberty stepped up and performed well in Saumur and was solid in all three disciplines. A costly rail bumped them out of the top couple. The weather however was a little mixed with heavy rain flooding the stable and parking area, truckloads of sand was brought in to try to drain the water away from the stables and in to the drain the helpful men were digging.
Saumur is a lovely location and they are very lucky in that the ground is mainly sand so it drained very well leaving the going on course quite good.
A bit soggy at Saumur!
On cross country night the organising committee put on a paella night with dinner, wine and all the dessert you could ask for on offer. The Australian team sat together and enjoyed the good food and a glass of wine from a local winery. It wasn’t long before the enthusiasts were out and asking for autograph. I was a little shocked when I was the first one at the table who he tried to hand the paper and pen to.
With my French struggling to say anything and he not understanding English it was a little hard to ask who exactly he thought I was, especially as Andrew Hoy was sitting just a few seats away and he not knowing who he was. We were very spoilt for Saumur and borrowed Alex Townsend's very fancy truck to take with us, a beautifully build truck by Equicruiser has everything you would ever need in a truck and is luxury accommodation for not only humans but the horses as well.
We have been joined by Hannah Walls who has come over with her horse and Alex’s horse to compete for the season and tackle the English weather. Alex arrives this week after competing at Melbourne Three Day. James (TS Jamaimo) has now commenced back into light work after his run at Badminton, he has recovered very well and has thrived off the fresh grass.
With WEG just a few months away the major topic of conversation at the moment is who everything thinks is in and who is out. The last Australian based selection event is done and won and am very happy to see that Shanghai Joe (Nugget) has won it in fine style.
He has always been a favourite of everyone’s who has worked a Bimbadeen and seen him grow up through foaling, weaning, breaking him in, to going to his first event and on to winning his first 3* three day event. Luhmuhlen is the last selection event for the Australian team and will be interesting to see who is in fine form across the week.
