Championnat de France 2015 - Day 3

Day 3 and it was even more of an effort to drag ourselves out of the tent at 6 to get going. We decided to pack all the camp stuff away as we needed to head off after Ali's second competition and there was no way I'd be able to do the drive too late in the day without falling asleep......

So it was back to the dustbowl. Was quite amusing that all these people who arrived clean and shiny were now starting to look like, well, people who'd spent 3 days camping and being around sweaty horses......I had rinsed through Ali's riding gear the night before but it wasn't looking too pristine!

We did the usual hanging around and faffing, although Éowyn was quite happy messing around plaiting the horses' manes (apart from Kinna's as she hasn't really got any).

Then it was away back to the monster ménage. We saw some more costumes on the way, and even a few attelages.

 Kinna got bored waiting whilst the kids did some archery warm up on foot and decided she's like to eat Carole's hair .....

The Poney competition on the second day was a bit different. Someone (presumably one of the Important Guys In Charge) had decided that they should do a Hungarian type thing, where instead of targets spaced out along the run on the ground which is what Ali is used to, there were 3 targets higher up, two of which are angled. (More on that here, if anyone's interested). Needless to say, this did not help improve her score, and quite a few of the kids ended up with zero runs. Never mind, all good experience.

Kinna was still pretty lively, all four feet are not meant to be off the ground at a mere canter ;-)

So Ali has the honour of being last at the Championnat. Or 13th out of 13, unlucky for some.......but she had fun, and it was a great experience. Unlike the drive back down to our place in the Dordogne, which was just long, even without any striking agriculteurs this time. Need a rest now!

Championnat de France 2015 - Day 2

So after the usual crap night's sleep in a tent (better than last time because we had an air mattress, but still not ideal as I was sharing with both the kids who are fidgety buggers) I was up at 6 to get sorted for day 1 of the competition. We had breakfast (remembered to bring proper tea bags this time so no thé pas bon for me), rounded up the horses, loaded them and set off back to Lamotte.

Obviously the car park was miles away from the event, and the trailer/lorry park was miles away from that, so it was back to the dust and dangerous cyclists again. It was pretty busy even at 8am and Kinna's teddy bear ears were flicking all over the place taking it all in....

It was also pretty warm already, Éowyn and the dog were running through the sprinklers to cool off!

We arrived back at the monstrous indoor school to find the usual chaos of yelling people, yelling horses, barking dogs and flying arrows just to add to the excitement. One of the Important Guys In Charge (wearing his official gilet to make sure we all knew how important he was) came over and opined that Ali's arrows were "too pointy" so we had to hurriedly scrape the points off on some concrete.

 

Then it was time for a quick warm up as they were in the first "pool" (the way they pronounced the English word made me think they were talking about chickens at first) and they were off. Predictably, Kinns wasn't too keen on going away from her friends into the dark recesses of the manege and did some suitable prancing about and snorting, but eventually deigned to actually go down the run. When it came to the cantering runs, she decided she'd rather gallop, and Ali found the wall at the end coming towards her rather rapidly.......!

But she managed to pull her up without running over any Important Guys In Charge or small children and at least the speed got her some time points. She even managed to get some arrows in the targets, including a 4

Still finished last though by the end of the first day's competition. But then she's had nowhere to practise in the UK (I'm working on that). Johan did better in the second "pool", Kinns had slowed down (a bit) by then.

 

And Carla on Quetsch did pretty well too.

We emerged blinking into the heat of midday and set off to yomp back to the trailer with the horses then go in search of food. Lots of fancy-dress dressage going on, like a quadrille but with various numbers of competitors. Some good costumes on show!

Also, sadly, a lot of gadgets on show, they even allow de Gogues for archery....

After lunch it was back to the nice cool manege for the Club 1 competition. Kinna had to come along and watch her mate Idaa strut his stuff.

Then we decided it was time for ice-creams. By this time Éowyn was flagging so I took her back to the campsite for a shower and a rest. Naturally she crashed in the car on the way back and was then bouncing around all over the place.........luckily they had some games to keep her amused.

 

No meschui this time so once the others were back we went out for a pizza and came home for an early night. Which would have been easier had some of our fellow campers not stayed up late drinking and yelling....even the bloody sheep on the farm were loud. I hate camping!

Championnat de France 2015 - Day 1

We've just got back from a manic few days at the French National Championships.  This happens every year at a purpose built Parc Féderal near Orléans in central France. As with everywhere in such a big country, it looks a lot easier to get to on the map than it actually is. Especially when the French agriculteurs are on strike, blockading roads with tractors and setting fire to roundabouts......

So it took us rather longer than planned to get there, most of the day in fact to get from Caen to Lamotte-Beuvron, just south of Orléans. A journey my satnav promised me would only require 3 and a half hours.......

But we arrived eventually, to find the place hot, dusty and packed. The Championnat is for pretty much any equestrian discipline there is, even horseback archery ;-) My fellow blogger Martine was there a couple of days earlier for the Equifeel competition. There was also western, TREC, endurance and hunter as well as the usual showjumping, dressage and eventing. Obviously there were horses everywhere, so you needed to get out of the way sharpish when one of them decided to object to leaving its friends/going into an arena/standing still to be mounted etc. You also needed to move out of the way of the hundreds of people who, unlike us, knew just how big the place was so opted to travel (when not on horseback) on various bicycles, golf buggies and even a few segways. And they didn't seem too concerned about doing things like looking where they were going.......

We met up with John and Carole from the stables and then went along to the briefing about the competition the next day. Well, OK, we stood around in the enormous covered arena where the targets had been set up and waited for the briefing to start.....luckily there was a lot of sand around to keep Éowyn amused ;-)

The briefing eventually happened, it basically boiled down to "turn up tomorrow ready to start at 9", and then we set off to find our digs for the next couple of nights. Turns out
we were camping on a sheep farm about half an hour north of Lamotte. Along with the gang from the Domaine de Gauchoux where we went to the archery competition last month. So the company was good, and so, as it turned out, was the food, since we'd arrived on the day they were having a mechoui (like a hog roast but with lamb). Lovely :-)