CVI** Saumur - Easter 2007
On the Wednesday morning Liz Reid, Sarah and Steph came to pick me up to start our 10 hour road trip to Saumur. We stopped in Rouen that night (after a ferry trip that was far too bumpy for my liking!) and we had our first experience of a provincial French restaurant. To our horror none of the waitresses spoke any English, yet we were managing well until Liz was nearly served up shark steak. Luckily a nice man on a neighbouring table pointed out what the waitress was saying!
After some typical overexcited vaulter antics we slept in a lovely etap hotel, where yet again no one spoke English (this wasn’t a problem for Sarah R, who had to practice for her AS French anyway!)
We arrived in Saumur on Thursday afternoon (feeling very civilized after our lie in!) Having said hello to the ponies and to Emily, Lucy and Julie who had been driving through the night we went for a run and to do some conditioning. The weather was fantastic and it was a great chance to dazzle the locals with our bright pasty English legs! After all this exercise we felt the need to put all those calories back on, so we all wandered into town for some yummy milkshake at a little french cafe. Sarah W and her brand new fiancé Andy (accompanied by her huge shiny rock!!) arrived later.
All the GB horses passed the trot up on Friday morning, and after a very interesting introduction for Cassie and Geoffrey to the competition arena (involving lots of clapping and shouting, which Cassie didn’t like very much!) we trained in the sunshine.
As the competition for the individuals didn’t start until the next morning I spent the rest of the day slowly getting drunk with Sarah W, Andy and Lucy on a very expensive wine tasting tour. Luckily we had the horsebox to take our crates back to the UK!
Individual compulsories started (very) early on Saturday morning. Lucy, Steph and Sarah W were on Cassie, who went very well for his first ever CVI**. After a quick changeover Sarah R went in on Geoffrey. He wasn’t too sure about the shapes made by the sunshine in the arena, but behaved wonderfully considering this was his first international too.
Freestyles were in the afternoon, with both horses behaving very well and gaining encouraging horse scores (Geoffrey even got a 7 from one judge!) The girls all went really well with Lucy in 23rd and Steph in her shiny new bright pink catsuit for her first CVI** in 30th, gaining some good scores and valuable experience for the coming year. Sarah W was gobsmacked (and secretly chuffed) to be in the top 15 going through to the 2nd day, not bad for someone who has trained twice since Christmas! Julie had even put the tack away thinking she wouldn’t have to vault again!
We all went out for pizza that evening. Julie, Emily, Sarah W, Andy, Liz, Sarah, Steph, Lucy and her 3 friends on a road trip, Gemma Walker, her boyfriend Don and I took up the better part of a restaurant.
Cassie (and Sarah, surprisingly!) coped well with the technical test the next morning and managed to stay awake for the 2nd round of freestyle. Sarah finished in 10th, with Joanne Eccles of GB finishing in 1st place, her sister Hannah in 6th, Lucy Phillips in 15th and Ricky Davies in 8th. SEVT juniors finished 2nd and SEVT seniors finished 2nd. A bunch of fantastic results for British vaulting!
Julie and Emily left with the horses before prize giving, as did Lucy B and her friends who were on their way to Paris to finally see the Eiffel tower after countless years of coming to Saumur! (This left me to be Lucy B and pick up her prize, how exciting!)
Sarah W, Andy, Steph, Sarah R, Liz and I got to go to the party that night. We danced the night away (keeping an eye out for unwanted fans!) and made it back to England the next afternoon.
I had such a fantastic time – I could definitely get used to coming to competitions without the stress of competing! Thanks to everyone for letting me tag along. Emzie xxx
