The Day is Upon Us

Saturday 4th September
 To the competition we go! Luckily Anne and I were the third and fourth riders out of us Young Riders, so we got an hours extra kip, so we were allowed to get up at 5.45, what a treat! So off we went to breakfast, managed to eat a bit of yoghurt, but I'm always rubbish at eating properly before a competition, then left for the stables at 6.15. Becky was already long gone down to the map room, and Sarah was just preparing to go. Anne went off about half an hour later, so I still had some time to kill and try to de-stress with Julia, which was surprisingly effective, however the nerves still kicked in whilst waiting outside the map room. What was also very prominent in my mind was the fact that at the judges briefing, a piece of paper with the legend on was produced for the Chef d'Equipes so that we could see what the paper was like. It turned out it was very shiny, and gel pens (which is what I use for map marking) would smudge if rubbed immediately after application, I was therefore very consciously making sure I didn't move my hand over my route, and took extra whilst checking the route again. But despite this, all was well, and after negotiating the first 100 metres or so, which is always the worst as everyone watches you leave, I was well on my way for a brilliant day out.  Luckily the rain that had started whilst is was tacking up, had stopped by the time I left, and then it didn't rain heavily again all day, I was most pleased about this.

Despite the pressure of riding in the championships, I had a really great day out, with an amazing ride, I was pretty confident with how it had gone, although I knew I may have various time penalties as at one point there was a fair bit of bush-whacking to do, this always puts me off, as I'm so used to English tracks actually being on the floor when you want them to be. However I did end up coming into one of the checkpoints wrong, this was purely down to me not seeing how the route was marked properly on the master map, I rode what I had drawn, it's just a shame that I had missed a shortcut through a hair pin bend...Other than that I was pretty happy with how the day had gone, and arrived back to find everyone else back safe and sound. We did have the opportunity to ride past the main arena and receive a glass of champagne and some applause, I didn't partake in this event due to the short time frame between finishing and having to vet again.

I managed to get a bit of a sit down, and had a bit of food before heading off to the PTV to walk it again, just to get a bit more of an idea about how I would, in theory, ride it on Sunday. Then we ate some food, and mooched around waiting for provisional results, and rewarded we were, they showed good things for us, we were 5th as a team, with Becky in 4th overall, which was very impressive, we were all pretty happy with how we had done, and expected the results that were shown. Then off to check the horses, then bed for us as we were all reasonably knackered from out day out.

We like to be patriotic

Off to a flying start

Friday 3rd September
The day began with more purpose today, we were up earlier than usual, went for brekky, then headed up to the stables. We then took the horses out for a small walk to loosen them up a little, Becky and Sarah went for longer walks, then hosed of their horses legs, and then we began on the brushing, and washing of Hank in preparation of the vetting and tack check, he seems to have an affinity for stable stains... After preparing all our kit ready for inspection yesterday, and ensuring we had all the essential kit, and anything extra we might need, everything was sorted. We headed down to the vetting at about 9.30, all looking pretty good in our matching kit, all kindly provided by Horseware and the chaps by JustChaps , and not-quite-fitting rug that belonged to Harvey. We all passed the vetting, after Harvey decided that he couldn't possibly be more than a few metres away from Lily, and despite a bit of a confusion as to whether flu vac should have been updated within the last 6 or 12 months, due to a mix up between FITE and FEO rules, turns out 12 was fine, but 6 was recommended. We then hurried up to the tack check with all our kit, and all was well, however I found later that my bridle hadn't been given a tag, these were to check that we used the same tack for the Saturday and Sunday, but this was all sorted later with minimum fuss.

Anne, Becky, Sarah and me waiting for the vet check

The key to key Team success = Chocolate

We then rode out again, and I found a fantastic place to practise my paces, mainly canter, and had a lovely walk down by the river through a wood, and met a friendly farmer who directed me through his farm. I was then going to wander down to the PTV practise area, however I met Sarah and Becky on the way back from their, and they said that it was pretty packed, so we all just trundled back to the village. Lunch was then in the the tent by the main arena rather than the barracks, so that was a bit easier, we then went to the supermarket, literally across the road to stock up on comestibles for our challenge tomorrow. And back to the barracks we went whilst Cheryl was at a breifing and having the official course walk, we had a bit of a chill out and relax, then went back to the village for an early supper and met Cheryl to go and walk the PTV, it was an amazing course, and clearly a lot of effort had gone in to, and I was getting pretty excited already about riding it. Then we headed back to the barracks for an early night in preparation for some very early starts tomorrow...

The Mystery of the Invisible Paths

Thursday 2nd September
Had the usual routine of awakening, breakfasting, driving, and then riding, but this time, it wasn't raining! Hurrah! And on my ride I was allowed to see some brilliant views (which I very much miss, still). We all went separate ways on our rides, and Anne was treated to a lesson by Hanks owner, an 'old boy' to the max, who didn't speak a word of English, however it was discovered that to make the horse work properly, basically Anne had to do the opposite of proper riding...seemed to be effective advice though. After this, we headed back to the barracks for food and rest in preparation for our afternoon trekking excursions. We all had to pick on the map a place we had either visited upon a horse, and wanted to secure how the lay of the land compared to what the maps portrayed, or somewhere that looked interesting on the map. We picked places in four different directions after much deliberation, and set off on our journey. Becky was first in the Torture Truck (Rob's car) and successfully navigated us all to the top of a mountain, with a miniature ski resort and absolutely beautiful view, which isn't justified in this photo...

After discovering all the tracks concerned, we wandered back to the car, and experience not only orange rabbits, but also a couple of free roaming black piglets (which may have just made my day), and some friendly men cutting wood. I then navigated us to a bit of woodland to see whether some tracks were where they should have been...and they were, however a lot of deliberation occurred due to a lack of research on our behalves as to how wide the track on the ground was, and what we had interpreted the track to look like from looking at our maps. This proved very useful, as we then all had a good look at the key to clear up any confusion, and we decided that the Austrians were foolish in their Ways of the Track. It was then Anne's turn, and she took us to a delightful place, a lovely little house perched on the side of a hill, with a pretty brook running by the drive, so naturally we sampled the water, as we were most averse to the carbonated water owned. This water was certainly 'Mountain Fresh' it was deliciously tasty and clean, and as a bonus, all the tracks were correctly placed to match our map. Then we voyaged on to Sarah's location, where a couple of Senior riders had ridden a few days earlier, and discovered an interesting discovery. This consisted of a sunken road, that was happy and nice, until it was cut by a big logging track which wasn't on the map, at initial lookage, the track seemed to carry on vaguely the right direction of the sunken road. After some more conflabing, we found that the sunken road actually carried on between the hairpin bend of the logging track, and wasn't passable. This reiterated to us that the tracks on the map were generally quite accurate, however there were a fair few that weren't on the map, so counting our paces was going to be imperative for success!
As we got back later than we had anticipated from our excursion, we didn't have a massive amount of time to ride out, but Becky and Sarah wandered over to the river to cool horses legs, and I hand grazed Harvey for a while. We then decided to be extra keen, and take our tack back to the barracks to clean it all, this ended with a very aromatic room, but all for a good cause. We consumed a bit of a late supper, headed back up to our room to chill out and relax, and had a pretty early night.

A Stroll in the Dusk

Wednesday 1st September
Same routine for us again, and no rain! This was most welcome. We all headed off in different directions to do a bit more exploring, I managed to encounter a rather impassable cattle grid, and then a uncrossable river, this meant I had to cut my ride shorter than I had hoped, but I did go and explore the ruins of an old castle, which would have been a prime piece of Real Estate in it's day, the view from it was quite spectacular. 

After a second ride, we checked out all the roads through the village on foot, just to do a bit of exploring to see how it all looked. After discovering what looked like a church to our English cartographers eyes, was actually a shrine, we decided to check out all the different types of shrines we could see in the adjacent areas on our maps, they were very useful as way markers during the Saturday ride.

We headed back to the barracks to prepare ourselves for the delights of a Team GB meal out at a local restaurant providing us with local dishes, it was an absolutely amazing meal. It started with an offer of beer, clearly a good start to a night, then on to homemade goats cheese and pâté with various breads. We were moved on to another homemade cheese with a bit of salad garnish and ham, next was pumpkin soup, possibly, no, definitely the best soup I have ever had. The main was either a choice of stag, or fish which is only found in some areas of deep water in the Alps and in Scotland (I believe), I chose stag, and it was certainly a taste sensation, and I was suitably stuffed. Yet I still had to manage to ice cream with a blackcurrant sauce, oh such a difficult life I lead! It was a very wholesome and scrumptious meal, and all certainly seemed to enjoy it, and it was nice to get to chat to the rest of the team.

A table of Joy

More than rain fell

Tuesday 31st August

We awoke to rain. Quelle surprise! We consumed a

Anne and Hank

delicious breakfast, then trundled up to the horses, we all departed in different directions, and went out for a longer ride than yesterday. I managed to come across a fair few locked gates, which somewhat hindered my progress as a pioneering new age explorer. However I did see what could have been some nice views, however the low cloud decided these views were not available for viewing, but it was still a very nice ride, Austrian terrain is proving much more interesting than England can provide. We then headed back to the barracks to consume some delightfully tasty duck breast, and had a delayed siesta due to Julians horse, eventually, being diagnosed with azoturia, which wasn't the best of news. Eventually we headed back to the stables after a long game of darts and listening to some brilliant tunes, and the Young Riders went out en masse to put the horses over some jumps and to do a bit of schooling, Harvey was definitely having a fantastic time. All was going well, until Merlin/Hank, decided that actually he didn't really like the idea of cantering and managed to put in a very hefty set of bucks, which eventually managed to relocate Anne to terra firma, much to our surprise. To this Julia responded by getting on, however this ended with Julia on the floor twice, Anne managed to get him working, seemingly, a little better, and no more catastrophes occurred, however doubt was cast over whether the horse was appropriate for the competition. After the end of this silly game, we all headed back to the stables, in the rain, without mishap, settles the horses again and went back to the barracks for munchies. We then went down to the common room downstairs, relaxed to some music, and experienced the joys of an Austrian fridge, then the time came when the collective smell of us became too much, and was rather pungent, so we trundled off to the showers. The Portuguese joined us in the drinking of exotic beverages, and even brought their own supplies of their local brews, however none of us consumed any of it, as we all wanted to be on top form for the weekend.

Willkommen in Österreich

Monday 30th August
Rain. Basically. Oh, and multiple tunnels later, we arrived. And it was raining, did I mention that? We would have been welcomed by amazing mountains, which were discovered when the rain departed, but alas, we couldn't really see them on our arrival. We drove straight to the stables, which were in a little field in the middle of the picturesque and unassuming village of Stefan ob Leoben nestled between the mighty mountains, there were only 3 stables/tents up, the rest were still being assembled. We were the first nation to arrive, closely followed by the Canadians I believe. The horses had already been settled in having already arrived earlier in the day, and seemed quite content, but most curious to the goings on. After a bit of a sort out of all the kit, and purchasing hay, straw and shavings, Sarah and I headed out on our trusty steads to explore the local area, on our travels we discovered a haven of PTV practice obstacles and jumps, obviously recently cleared for the use of competitors, just ashore of the raging and furious torrents of the Mur  River. These proved rather useful, and eventful in the coming days.

When we got back, Becky had arrived with her pony as she had driven over separately and not used the horse transporter, and Anne had arrived with Julia (our "assistant Chef d'Equipe", and former Young Rider). Annes hired horse, Merlin, more commonly known as Hank the Tank, had also arrived, so they met and gret each other.

We were then told that we had to have ID Cards to get us into the accommodation, which was at the nearby Army barracks, however, due to some printing error most people seemed to represent some creatures from another planet, much to the amusement of us, and Annes was especially flattering...Eventually we headed off to the barracks, and were greeted by some rather lovely and not so subtle yellow buildings, which made them easy to spot whence among the mountainous terrain. We then dined upon delicious Austrian cuisine provided by the local supermarché of cheese, meat and bread.

That evening we settled ourselves in, getting to know the local brews and sampling the delights of the common room area in our block, which was utilised by all, leading to English domination. Mainly because Portugal, Spain, Italy and Algeria hadn't yet arrived, and we were sharing our block with them.

St Stefan ob Leoben looking pretty

Home sweet home...maybe

Well, my original plan obviously didn't work, which was that I would try and keep you all updated whilst we were all in Austria, so I shall just have to tell you all about it now. 

I arrived home yesterday, after a much delayed journey due to the horse transporter deciding to break, so the horses stayed in Frankfurt (where they stopped for the night to give the horses and drivers a break) for a while longer than anticipated. I shall divulge more info about the past week
in the next few installments, but for now I shall leave it short and sweet, however I will let you know how everyone got on.

The individual results for the Seniors, and the teams can be found here and for the Young Riders, here.

I think everyone had a really good week, I know I did. It was definitely a lot of fun, and even though we didn't do as well as we had hoped, considering it was the European Championships 6th is definitely something to be proud of!

One of many amazing views that were gratefully espied