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NOVICE SHOW JUMPING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2013 - Date posted 27/08/2013

Having never been to the Novice Championships before, we weren’t quite certain what to expect, but we were pretty confident it was going to be an amazing and exciting experience, even though we had a team with two reserves that had it all to prove jumping consistently at qualifying level, let alone at Championship level against some very accomplished teams with serious horsepower. We had plenty of time to anticipate what was in store for us as the traffic on the M6 swiftly went from Irritatingly Stop- Start to Absolutely Atrocious, followed by Going Nowhere as an 18 ton gearbox fell out of a lorry which caused an 11 mile tailback!



Fortunately Calico and Patch were already on site and happily in their stables, and Cosmo and Smig arrived at about 9pm, whereas poor Jane got well and truly stranded and had to go off piste to try and find accommodation for the night as there was no guarantee that if she had stayed on the motorway she would have actually made it for our 8.00am course walk. Thankfully she did manage to get on site the next morning by the appointed hour, and as ever we were immensely grateful for her dedication and commitment travelling all the way up to make sure that she was there to support and guide the team, when it must have been extremely tempting to turn round and go home!



Millie and Izzy very enterprisingly put their waiting time to good use by getting our stables ready and also cunningly blagging a spot by the stables for our lorry. Smig and Cosmo were settled down for the night by torchlight and by the time that was done we discovered that the lack of available light and persistent rain had not prevented our tent from being put up in record time and we were ready to recharge our batteries with a good night’s sleep.

An early start the next morning (thankfully it wasn’t a loose horse trotting round the tent causing the rest of the stable block to shriek and clatter even more than they had been doing all night) meant tha