Tina & George’s Italian Show Jumping Adventure
30yrs ago Tina Canton received a call up for the GB young rider eventing team, sadly it turned out it wasn’t meant to be as she had a bad fall a couple of weeks before Bramham so sadly never made it onto the team. After years of experience and a change of discipline Tina finally got that Team GB call up!
I was honoured to be asked to ride at the Veteran Show Jumping Championships in Italy with my own gelding, Bannagh Romeo aka George, whom I’ve owned since an unbroken 3-year-old, so it’s very special he was chosen and goes to show you should never give up on your dreams!
I only got the call up about 10 days before we had to leave – so it was a bit of a mad panic to organise everything. A team zoom call allowed us all to meet one another, helped us make some decisions and get organised; we volunteered to take our lorry Bertha and take another rider with us. We then compiled the packing list, paperwork and vet tests for travelling. I’ve travelled abroad as a coach and helped organise horses being shipped, but this was the first time taking one of my own.
The day finally came to ‘set sail’ and we met up with two of our team members in Dover to catch the early ferry to Calais. Despite our paperwork being correct and completed by a very experienced vet it was refused by customs! Thanks to our vet who drove down to Dover with copies of the paperwork and after discussions with customs they finally accepted our papers, and we could travel – a very stressful start to our long journey.
With the customs situation behind us we headed onto Dijon, then on to Nice catching up with the rest of the team and a final 11 hours of driving to get the event venue, Horse Riviera Resort, Rimini, Italy. Wow! What an amazing facility, fantastic stables, everything you could possibly need for horse and rider! We got the horses sorted so they could rest and we set-up camp.
The next day started hot! Lots of in-hand walking and a good stretchy school in the cooler morning and evening allowed everyone to relax and recuperate after the mammoth journey.
Wednesday was the official trot-up and all the horses passed, then we went on to do an arena familiarisation; we all had 90 seconds to jump a simple course of nine fences up to height, which resulted in all the horses jumping well.
Thursday was the first competition – a speed class with three of us being in the prize giving, standing us in bronze position going into the next day.
Friday was the team competition run like a Nations Cup – two rounds and then a jump off in the event of a tie. It was quite a challenging day, so warm, more a day for the beach or pool, not jumping two rounds of show jumping in a jacket, boots and hat! The horses all coped amazingly well and jumped superbly; we finished in silver position! It was very special to receive that medal and rosette! A team celebration dinner at a local restaurant finished off the day.
Saturday was a rest day for horses and humans! Sunday was the individual competition where everything you jumped counted towards the score – so it was all to play for. Uncharacteristically George had a couple of fences down, I think the heat was taking its toll and we dropped to finish 16th which was a little disappointing.
On Sunday we packed up the lorries to head home via Nice, on the high of winning a medal only for this euphoria to be dampened the next day when we had a braking fault on the lorry. So, we transferred the horses to the other lorry, limped to a garage and managed to get it repaired. All fixed we finally hit the road with George & Co back on board, heading to Lyon and then Calais we finally got home at lunchtime on Thursday!
It was a fabulous trip with memories and new friends made. To be on Team GB with George made me very proud, he jumped brilliantly, coped well with the heat and the epic journey. Dengie Alfa-A Original was the foundation of his diet throughout, feeding him a small amount prior to riding, as well as within his main feeds, helping to keep him fuelled and hydrated.
