Guest blogger from France: After Pau

Vicky has recently made the move to the South of France from Belgium and this blog has followed her up to Pau 4* and a leap into the unknown of life in France.  Previous entries:  [Part 1]  [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Pau Report].

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You may remember our season was supposed to end at Pau, but after an ignominious departure from the cross-country course after little more than 1km I felt we could do with a serious pick-us-up before we went into hibernation for the winter. So I paid heed to a leaflet that was being liberally distributed for a new international event over near the Mediterranean side of southern France called Le Pouget, which was hosting a CIC* and **, and entered as soon as we got home.

I set off Wednesday with none of the groupies that came to Pau, in fact I was on my lonesome the whole weekend! The team on site were very friendly and welcoming, helping me to unload and bed down William, and park up. Thursday morning was the vet check, and to my horror we were held again. I really need to think about approaching a deodorant-manufacturer about sponsorship if William’s going to carry on doing this to me, it’s certainly gives the adrenal glands a work out! Thankfully we passed, although 3 were not so lucky, which seems a very high number in a class of just 57. He worked well that afternoon, t-shirt and sunglasses weather no less, and I went and had my first look at the course which started fairly softly then built up the intensity of the questions. The terrain was flat but there were twisty bits, meaning hopefully the time would be tough to get.

Friday morning I lunged him a little in the smart white sand work-in arena, and the little bugger flung himself on the floor from a trot and rolled and rolled and rolled, much to the hilarity of the other competitors. He literally got sand everywhere from top to tail, including all over his dressage bridle! That afternoon we did our dressage, and the stable manager, the indefatigable Meg Bailey, offered to come and groom for me whilst on her 10-minute break! How nice is she??! She also videoed our test and said herself that she won’t be David Attenborough’s next cameraman, but it’s the thought that counts! Our trot work was rather stilted but the walk and canter kept us the right side of the 60 barrier, just, 59.5 leaving us in 40th.

Next day it was raining, and the ** jumped in the morning. The course wasn’t causing a huge amount of problems but the time was a bit tight and enough rails were falling. William didn’t warm up too well, but actually jumped very nicely and listened well in the ring, just a shame the jockey didn’t tell him to come back a bit more down a related distance where he just brushed a pole off an upright. 4 faults still moved us up 2 places. I went and watched some of the 1* slogging round in the mud, and their course caused plenty of problems, however amazingly in a class of well over 70 riders in not good conditions there was not a single fall all day.

That night the rain stopped and the next morning Pierre Le Goupil and his team were out fixing up the jumps and the parts of the ground they could. We were about 50th to go, so I was expecting the ground to ride quite deep and boggy, but to my delight William flew out the start box and across the first field, not even noticing the mud. He made light work of the first tricky combination, 4 a and b, which claimed many scalps, most notably dressage and show-jumping leader Karin Donckers with Lamicell Charizard. There is a video of us going through here on Le Pouget’s compilation video, we’re at 5 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MVLlGIDqR7I The next few questions went well, and we were pretty much on the minute markers. 11a and b was quite a meaty question I felt, a big, sloping table type fence landing downhill with a 90 degree turn to a corner, on anything between 5 and 7 strides. He really listened well and locked on to the corner, making it feel easy. Another combination and straightforward fence next to the stunning bridge crossing the river Herault followed, then a double bounce of steps up followed by 5 quiet strides to a triple brush going downhill again gave a great feeling. We went through the two part water on a mission, and he ate up the last few fences, coming home just 8 seconds outside the time. As it turned out only 3 made it inside, and we climbed to 20th.

We may not have set the world alight with our result but we both had big smiles on our faces at the end, and that was the whole purpose of going there. The event had a great feel about it, and I couldn’t help but look at the CIC* and make plans for Arodd to be there next year! I’m sorry about the lack of action pics, but it’s tricky when you’re sitting on the horse and have no-one to hand the camera to! Still, I hope you enjoy the photos I did manage to take, especially my favorite of William post-roll!

Thanks for reading,

Vx