This is my first blog for @horseyhottie and as she couldn’t come to watch the Goddard girls Bon voyage across the channel to compete for Great Britain at Lummen and Antwerp international shows she wanted the full download……..something that I am very good at! Much to @foxinthecots disgust! Opps windy pops just likes to pop up and say hi from time to time.
Lummen international is situated down a quite lane in Belgium’s countryside, where bicycles are the common transport, this week over 250 horseboxes descended. The flags were flying with over 18 nationality’s competing. @Miriam_Goddard had a great show with a 2nd and 3rd riding 'My Molly Malone', only being beaten by the reining Belgium national champion! I on the other hand, hit those bloody fences everyday, more superglue is needed the night before I think!
With over 1500 horses competing at the show, the only warm up arena if your not jumping in a class is around a giant pond that has fish the size of sharks in! A lot of people nearly needed there swim suits as over 100 horses worked around this pond!
Saturday night we headed to the show bar, which normally is heaving with everyone having a few quite drinks before the last day of the competition! However this bar was practically empty……we bumped into a friend who was heading to the local pub where the party is……we walk in to find all the top riders doing a Coyote ugly style dance on the bar!
After someone had attempted to break into the horse lorry one night after the show, @Miriam_Goddard and I decided that we needed to have a plan set up encase this happen again…….you don’t tend to carry to many burglar traps when going to a show so we settled for sleeping with a frying pan and sauce pan next to us so we could strike if someone came in!!
We then trucked onto Antwerp where we were joined by @foxinthecots & @cbutterfill. This show has a beautiful picturesque setting beside the port in the city centre. The ring is surrounded by hospitality dining, sponsors bar, ringside bar and grandstand on the other two side. The competition was very strong with everyone in Ferrari mode……. @Miriam_Goddard and 'My Molly Malone' were on top form to secure a 5th in the speed leg and 10th in the grand prix.
On the Friday night the feature class was the Six bar challenge were Robert Smith and Michael Whitaker tied to win, by clearing 2.15cm! Robert then went for the world record of 2.17cm for an extra £25,000 if he achieve it….he failed!
Once the jumping finished the fun began……each night there was a different band, from Boogie wonderland to a top DJ singer in Belgium…..who I can’t remember the name of but they must have been pretty famous as I have never seen the Belgium’s get so excited for a short guy with a blonde curtain style haircut!!!!
After a very successful 10 days it was time to come home, A trip that should take about 6.5 hours……..after being stuck in the Antwerp marathon traffic for 2 hours which was actually quite fun cheering all the lead runners on…….. They all perked up when we drove past! Back on the road after 10 minutes we heard a massive bang.......we have a blow out on the back inside tyre stuck on the side of the Motorway around Antwerp! 5 hours later with 2 new back tyres on, we were back on the road. On the 12.30pm ferry were we bump into the British vaulting team who had also been competing abroad. We arrive back at 'The Bronte Stud' Hampshire, at 4.15am, after a 1.30hr sleep we were back to reality on the train to work!
Hope you enjoyed @theelfontour.... till next time!!
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