Vaulters Cup - Munich - July 2004
We had all been looking forward to the Vaulters Cup at Munich for a long time; we knew it would be a big competition due to the constant chat about it at recent CVIs. Also the advertising for it, which had been about for about 2 years and of course the fact that it was in Germany, the undisputed heart of vaulting.
We set off on schedule at 6pm on Tuesday evening in the new lorry Nicki, from the yard, had bought 2 weeks previous for such trips.
We all packed in; Julie - chief driver, Lucy - navigator, Jon Blake - chief fuel filler, John Mc - tent maintainer, Sarah R and Lissy - our support crew and trainee individuals come to watch and learn.
All went well for about 2 hours when all of a sudden there was a strange rumbling noise. At which point all chat in the lorry cab stopped and the dreaded realisation that the noise came from underneath. We quickly moved to the hard shoulder on the M25 (near junction 10 - we could actually see the slip road!) and that was to be our home for the next 4 hours!
We made various phone calls and slowly got things sorted, the three main problems were a) getting rescued, b) finding a stable for the night, c) transport to Germany.
Eventually we were towed off the motorway and the nice man who organised our rescue lent us stables for the night. Wiltshire International Horseboxes were once again our knight in shining armour as they agreed to pick us up at 7am and take us to Germany. So early the next morning the faithful blue lorry, which took us to Saumur 6 weeks previous, arrived to continue our journey.
So the race was on, it was now early Wednesday morning and the vetting was Thursday. Our original itinerary was out the window and it was full speed ahead to Munich.
We got a lunchtime ferry and then made good time through France. We were planning on still making it to our rest stop but then we found ourselves at a standstill on the German ‘Autobahn’ and decided to pull into the services and sleep through it for the next 3 hours. As the drivers slept the vaulters enjoyed their one time to stretch their legs, made friends with some friendly motorists and managed to climb one of the huge road signs so they could see over all the traffic, apparently there are photos to prove it.
Finally we got going on the final stint and arrived at the competition at 5.30 am on the Thursday morning. We had to wave good-bye to our saviour horsebox and driver as they were booked back in England.
So we were stranded with a huge pile of stuff and no tent to put it in as it was coming with the twins, who were flying out. The group split in half with one lot sorting the horses so they could have a proper rest before the vetting later on.
The other half sorted the stuff best they could and put up the gazebo. This confused some of the organisers because they got concerned that about 10 people were planning to sleep under this one gazebo that had no sides, we later heard they were planning on putting us up in their hotel!
The twins arrived at about 11am so we set about putting up the tent, and were just in time as it then started to pour down with rain. John and Sarah R made a very good job of putting the centre ‘lid’ on the tent using their vaulting flying skills. And thanks to them and some on going maintenance by John though the week, we all stayed warm and dry.
The vetting occurred during another downpour but all went though fine. We decided to just walk the horses rather than train after their long journey, so we all had a well-earned rest.
The next day brought compulsories for all, in which Sarah excelled herself and showed us all how to do it with the best score of the Brits. Freestyle was the next day so we all had a break that afternoon to watch the teams in which SEVT again did us proud.
Saturday was freestyle day, we were all pleased, Liz pulled herself up to 18th place and qualified into second round. Sarah and Joey were just behind so qualified into the small final so they got to do their freestyle again. Lucy excelled herself with her first international score of over 7, even with a wobble in kur, but just missed out on the small final finishing 41st, with Ann just behind.
Jon did well on Tiny, a little bit tense and finished on a slightly disappointing score for the round of just under 6.5. All the boys’ marks seemed a bit low as Liz had a higher score than Ararat, which isn’t normal! But she did enjoy pointing it out to him!
Saturday night brought the gala evening where top 5 girls and boys and top 3 teams did their freestyle again. Ararat had just missed out on this but this allowed us all to watch. Kai from Germany was fantastic, but some horses took dislike to the spot lights and a couple of the young team members looked a bit tired, but I don’t think they were used to competing at 10.30pm.
Sunday morning was a mixture of upset and smiles, Bowler was spun, so Liz didn’t get to vault, but she still managed to move up a place as another vaulter had withdrawn. Sarah and Joey both performed brilliantly finishing 4th and 7th in the small final. Ararat was much more relaxed and once again wowed the crowd with his amazing kur.
The horses were picked up by a friend from Holland in the early afternoon to make the trip home. The rest of us had to fly back (which Liz R had organised for us at short notice from home – thank you again!) So we all left at 5.30pm to get to the airport on time and when we landed the Watsons sorted us out by picking us up at midnight from Stanstead and then putting us all up in their lovely new house (Thanks again Pam and Dick). The horses finally arrived home on the Tuesday afternoon and enjoyed some time out in the field.
Lucy BellSummary of Results
| Female Individual | |||||
| 1 | Ines Juckstock | Ger | Westpoint | Ruth Juckstock | 8.551 |
| 2 | Rikke Laumannk | Den | Milano | Sarah Dahl Laursen | 8.428 |
| 3 | Nicola Stroh | Ger | Pascal | Klaus Stroh | 8.197 |
| 17 | Liz Watson | GB | Bowler II | Julie McNally | 7.847 |
| 22 | Sarah Watson | GB | Grateley Limelight | Julie McNally | 7.650 |
| 26 | Joanne Eccles | GB | WHBentley | John Eccles | 7.563 |
| 41 | Lucy Bell | GB | Bowler II | Julie McNally | 7.022 |
| 49 | Ann Rogerson | GB | Zigourney | Helen Rogerson | 6.802 |
| Male Individual | |||||
| 1 | Tim Randy Sia | Ger | Belmondo | Elka Lensing | 8.284 |
| 2 | Kai Vorberg | Ger | Kolumbus | Kirsten Graf | 8.169 |
| 3 | Jan Bayer | Ger | Aladin | Svan Hanze | 8.117 |
| 8 | Ararat Martin | Spain | Grateley Limelight | Julie McNally | 7.556 |
| 26 | Philip Beasley | GB | Corado | Rebekka Eggar | 6.410 |
| 29 | Jon Blake | GB | Grateley Limelight | Julie McNally | 6.359 |
| Team | |||||
| 1 | Ingelsberg1 | Ger | Davidoff | Alexander Hartl | 8.278 |
| 2 | Horse Fitform Team | Ger | Tamino | Christiane Tepasse | 7.777 |
| 3 | Lutisburg1 | Swi | Viktor Leo Burnett | Moni Bischofberger | 7.762 |
| 10 | SEVT | GB | WHBentley | John Eccles | 6.927 |
