Look, as a former resident of the US, I’d never want to disparage the travel times of the average US eventer en route to Kentucky, because I know all too well that it’s the sort of country where you can drive for roughly four hours and still not find a gas station and a decent sandwich. But flying a horse over the Atlantic Ocean? Come on now — even you experienced haulers who can somehow drive for 36 hours straight in a 24-hour time period have to admit that’s a really big deal. And over the last day or so, the European entries for Kentucky have been doing just that as they start their journeys to the Bluegrass State and a shot at one of the sport’s most prestigious titles. Let’s see how they’ve been getting on…
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25-year-old British rider Yasmin Ingham is making her first ever trip to Kentucky with debutant Banzai du Loir, an elegant French gelding who’s been tipped as one of Britain’s best young horses after winning the 2020 eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S title and the 2021 Blenheim CCI4*-L. He’s a tall drink of water in the airplane crate he’s sharing with two diminutive but talented pals: he’s flanked by Jonelle Price‘s McClaren, who finished third at Pau last year, and Sarah Bullimore‘s Corouet, who won individual bronze at the European Championships last season and steps up to five-star at Kentucky. Safe travels, boys!
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Yaz’s parents also got their trip to the States started in fine style. We’ll raise a glass to that!
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And here’s the view from the other side, as Banzai du Loir settled into his short quarantine in the US.
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Sarah Bullimore also filled us all in on how the last few weeks have gone as she prepares to send her tiny (15.2hh!) orange child on his biggest adventure yet. The future is bright; the future is orange!
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Do you reckon they get a bit of money knocked off the crate for a lighter load? Little McClaren and Corouet certainly won’t be contributing much weight (sorry, Banzai!) — look how sweet the pint-sized Kiwi looks before his departure!
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Also heading to the airport in the UK are Pippa Funnell‘s two rides, her own Majas Hope and S.H.E. Eventing’s Maybach, who we hope had enough time to buy a couple of those really big Toblerones from Duty Free before catching a flight out of Stansted Airport.
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Ireland’s Joseph Murphy took a break from packing Calmaro‘s overnight bag to deal with his own — and a delivery of trot-up attire from Dubarry will have filled his suitcase nicely.
You can also follow along with Michael Jung‘s Tokyo horse, Chipmunk FRH, who’s en route to Kentucky with #supergroom Lena Steger as we speak. Lena has taken over Michael’s Instagram Stories for the trip and you can follow along here.
We’ll continue to keep you up to speed on all the latest arrivals — not far off now until the week we’ve all been waiting for is upon us!
