CVI** Nitra - July 2004
After only 2 days of recovering from the eventful trip to Munich, 6.30am Wednesday found me and Lissy back on the way to Stanstead, but this time to fly to Slovakia. We met Jettie there and were on the plane by 9.30. We arrived in Bratislava a couple of hours later, and Martin picked us up and took us to our hotel, the ‘U KRBA’. 3½ years with EVS has really taught me how to slum it, so when Lissy and I walked into our room we were amazed. Proper beds and a decent shower at a vaulting competition, what a luxury!
Later that evening we went down to the restaurant for dinner. There we found Martin, his girlfriend Veronica and Mari Inouye. They were all really friendly and we had a nice meal. It was great meeting Mari because she is really nice and a very good vaulter (she won the whole competition!).
On Thursday we went to the competition site and met Tomm, the horse we were borrowing. He looked very nice, though a bit short compared to Bowler and Tiny! Unfortunately we couldn’t train on him that day because our lunger was busy. Instead, Martin trained us on the barrel. We then had the rest of the day to ourselves, but we didn’t do much because it was too hot!
On Friday we found SEVT and helped them unpack their horsebox. They immediately made us feel like a part of the group, which was great! In the morning Lissy and I had a very short training on Tomm, but most of the day was spent lying around doing hair, running though sprinklers to cool down and throwing each other in a paddling pool (I got very wet from that!). SEVT kindly fed us at lunchtime as Jettie was very busy in the office and we didn’t want to disturb her. The trot-up was fine, every horse there passed. Afterwards SEVT were training on Big Yin and Jay and invited us to join in. We, of course, said yes though it was weird vaulting on their roller.
On Saturday the competition actually started. Lissy and I were up bright and early and ready to go for 9 o’clock. If it wasn’t scary enough, competing for the first time as individuals, we also had to run in as number one and two! The feeling before we went in was horrible, I felt so sick! But as we ran in we had so many cheers (and even a 'Tally Ho'!) from SEVT that it felt much better. Once we were in there I even started enjoying myself! Our compulsories went fine with no major problems (though I bowed to the wrong judge on the way out!).
After that excitement we sat and watched the rest of the compulsories, individual and team, cheering for Joey, Ann, Lucy and both the Scottish Teams when they ran in. Then suddenly we realised there was only an hour to go until the freestyles! We quickly changed, had a banana for lunch and started to warm up.
Everything seemed to be going ok in the practice ring, except the pad was very slippy so we sprayed it with hairspray (which didn’t help at all). Then 2 minutes before we ran in I was putting my catsuit up and the zip broke! Luckily Jane Eccles had some safety pins so I didn’t look a complete fool but I still had bit of a panic. Luckily, when we got into the ring I completely forgot about it. Lissy’s freestyle went well and she ended up on a score of 5.9. My freestyle was going ok until the bell went. I slipped on the pad and fell off. But I still got an overall score of 6.233 so I was happy.
When everything had finished that day Lissy and I went back to SEVT’S hotel to get ready for the ‘Country Ball’. We had pizza for dinner then went back to the arena for the party. When we got there nobody was dancing but as there was almost 20 of us it didn’t matter. Although the music wasn’t great it was still a very fun night out.
The next day Lissy and I weren’t competing so we didn’t have to get up as early as before.
Most of the day was spent watching everyone in the 2nd round. Then in the afternoon it was the prize giving.
After that SEVT invited us out to dinner at Pizza Hut. I said yes but Lissy stayed with Jettie. I had lots of fun that evening but definitely drank too much Coke and ate too much Pizza! Lissy had a good time with Jettie too.
The next morning we were up again at 5.30 to come home. It was really nice of Jettie to take us out there, we really enjoyed ourselves. Also thanks to SEVT for feeding us and making us feel welcome. Thanks to our lunger for lending us her horse and to Martin for sorting it out for us. Thanks to Julie too, for training us and getting us there. We had a great time and hope we can do it again.
