Villasanta, Milan - CVI** - Easter 2003
Julie left with the horses on Monday the 15th April for Italy with Fred Parker and Wendy of John Parker International Horse Transport, a very posh, very large lorry. Our fellow competitors certainly knew the English had arrived. All the Squad were there when the lorry rolled onto the showground, they were a very welcome sight, they had already set up 'Camp' and it was all hands on deck to unload. Bowler and Tiny had travelled very well and trotted off the lorry to the stables.
Friday morning dawned very bright and warm for the Vet inspection, both horses looked wonderful and trotted up to the words 'accepted', not so fortunate was our friend Ararat with Welstern. Julie offered him a space on Tiny which he accepted, this left Tiny carrying six individuals.
The Team compulsories were on Friday afternoon and we drew 5th place out of 8 teams. They went reasonably well, still time faults in mill!!! but not so many. Bowler of course was perfect and got the highest mark in the Team.
Saturday was raining! not so good, after a cold night under canvas the Team watched the Individual compulsories and were very vocal in their support.
Ricky, Lucy and Ararat went first, Tiny was as good as gold, then Liz, Sarah and Ronald followed about an hour later. The judges marked hard and they were all low in the compusories. Their freestyles all went well and after the first round Ararat had pulled himself up to 2nd, Ronald 3rd and Ricky 9th for the boys. Liz was 8th, Sarah 18th and Lucy 30th out of 41 girls, the boys and both the twins went through to the second day.
The Team freestyle had a few mistakes, tempers got a little frayed and we ended the day in 7th place.
Sunday brought a new load of tension and expectations. Individual compulsories went first, they went better, the Individuals went straight to the Team, Tiny exchanged tack with Bowler and the Team went straight in (talk about rush, they had time for one mount each!)
Bowler yet again was wonderful, he deseved Mr Steinmetz 8's. The Team were almost foot perfect, Judge C marked it in 2nd place! We were very pleased then thrilled to see we had pulled up a place. We finished 6th on 6.337.
The twins and Ronald went in first out of the Individuals, highest place going last. The freestyle went better for Liz, but Sarah couldn't move her neck at all by now, her stands however were wonderful, it was as if she had an ironing board stuck to her back! Liz didn't quite make her ground jump, Tiny being 18.1 and Liz being 5 foot just doesn't help!
They were pleased, Liz kept her 8th place, Sarah pulled up to 16th. Ronald was very pleased with his freestyle and he finished in 3rd place.
Ricky and Ararat were just before Maud and Mattius from France, they both went well, Ricky had lots of compliments regarding his future from lots of different people, he kept his 9th place. Ararat's freestyle was very artistic, very difficult for Tiny to take but she was a superstar. The crowd roared their appreciation, our friends from Holland and the new Ricky fan club from Austria were very supportive.
We were very pleased with the end result, the squad had worked extremely well together. From the Drivers to the tidier up to the trot up queen to the coaches to the vaulters and of course the most important members of the Squad, Bowler and Tiny, Mr 8 and Miss 7.5 Well done to everyone.
We managed to find a nice restaurant just around the corner who said 15? no problem and we had a lovely meal, Fred and Wendy came along too. Back to the showground the kids piled into the hire cars and Melanie and Ronald headed off for the airport, no sleep for anyone, they had to wait for the plane to get an hours sleep, Pippa and Emma slept through take off and landing!!!
Julie went home with the horses who finally got back to Fen End on Wednesday, they had a lovely time in the field until the rain started, then soon wanted their warm stables!
Summary of Results
| CLASS | NAME | HORSE | COUNTRY | SCORE |
| TEAM | ||||
| 1 | A.S.E La Fence | Adenauer | ITALY | 7.53 |
| 2 | RV Buren | Ravenna | GERMANY | 7.18 |
| 3 | RV Nethegau Brakeli | Pasternak 13 | GERMANY | 6.88 |
| 6 | English Vaulting Squad | Bowler II | GREAT BRITAIN | 6.33 |
| MALE | ||||
| 1 | Matthias Lang | Farceur Breceen | FRANCE | 8.72 |
| 2 | Ararat Martin Ruiz | Grateley Limelight | SPAIN | 7.23 |
| 3 | Ronald Van Cronenburg | Grateley Limelight | HOLLAND | 7.18 |
| 9 | Ricki Davies | Grateley Limelight | GREAT BRITAIN | 6.5 |
| FEMALE | ||||
| 1 | Maud Bousignac Dumon | Brion Babiere | FRANCE | 7.93 |
| 2 | Ines Juckstock | Czambul | GERMANY | 7.92 |
| 3 | Chiara Posenato | Unor | ITALY | 7.72 |
| 8 | Liz Watson | Grateley Limelight | GREAT BRITAIN | 7.18 |
| 16 | Sarah Watson | Grateley Limelight | GREAT BRITAIN | 6.67 |
| 30 | Lucy Bell | Grateley Limelight | GREAT BRITAIN | 6.01 |
