"It seemed like a good idea at the time!" Event Director of Houghton International, Alec Lochore looks on nervously as his car collects a few extra wheels in the shape of witches' hats
What do eventing riders do in the evening after the dressage of a Nations Cup competition? Have a beer of course, chat with friends ........... and drive a car blindfold
In 2016 the team at Musketeer Events decided to organise a little party game to add to the conviviality of the FEI Nations Cup and came up with the idea of getting two members of each team to take part in a driving challenge around a small course in the show jumping (in front of the bar of course!) at the end of Friday’s competition.
Teams from Australia, Britain, USA, Netherlands, France and New Zealand were joined by a team representing the international officials, each having to navigate a course of witches’ hats in Event Director Alec Lochore’s Subaru
Sounds easy but the tricky bit was that the driver was blindfold and relied on his partner to direct him or her around the course. Some had an advantage – the USA’s Liz Halliday is a professional rally driver as well as eventing rider, the French had a lot of support from the crowd and the married couple – New Zealand’s Tim and Jonelle Price – should have had good communication but .............
The master of wit, Henry Symington was the (multi lingual) commentator and unbelievably the Germans won again, despite protests that they had navigated the slalom the wrong way (Chris Bartle must have been giving them driving lessons too!)
It was a fun event that showed once again how crazy eventers (and eventing organisers) are – watch how it all unfolds in the video below and make sure you don’t miss Jonelle Price’s annihilation of the course towards the end!
Josefa Sommer and Peter Thomsen of Germany were the champions!
