Another Bronze and what a thank you

The FEI World Equestrian Games in Tryon, USA have concluded for the dressage team with a Team Bronze for GBR and an individual Bronze for Charlotte Dujardin.

We catch up with #supergroom and BGA member and Ambassador Alan Davies, (Team GBR groom to Charlotte and Carl), in his last blog from WEG.....

How things can change in a couple of days! I still can't quite believe that Freestyle stormed through the Grand Prix Special on Friday afternoon, looking like a complete pro and getting an individual bronze medal. What an amazing feat from a young inexperienced horse.
 
Del was a star as well with an unfortunate mistake keeping him just outside the medals, but we couldn’t be happier with them.

Luckily it wasn't as hot as it was on team day, but it was still humid so we still had to cool them with ice water, but they recovered much quicker. Freestyle got called for dope testing with all the medallists, and so did the riders.

People often think we must have massive parties to celebrate but that's not the case! By the time we had done prize giving and dope testing it was quite late so we got the horses settled and then it was time for bed as we had to be up early for the second trot up. No partying for us!

The top 15 who had qualified for the Kur all needed to trot up. They all looked fresh and well so that was good.

By that time there was already talk of changing the schedule because of the storms blowing in so after the trot up there was a series of meetings with the Chef d'Equipes and organising committee.

They tried several different options for moving the Kur but eventually on Saturday afternoon they decided best option was to cancel. It was a bit of a shock really but after everything the horses have done over the last 10 days it's probably better that they rest up before the trip home.

Our two have definitely performed fantastically well and we couldn't be more pleased.

The storm has moved in and we have torrential rain at the moment but it's not as bad as the weather forecast said it would be which is good.

As we were busy packing up the trunks ready to start loading tomorrow morning (Monday) I had a huge shock when Charlotte came to say goodbye on her way to the airport and she gave me one of the beautiful watches she won! It was a complete surprise but a wonderful one.

We have been through many highs and lows together over the years and to know that the team work behind the scenes is truly appreciated means so much.  

I hope everyone has enjoyed a little bit of an insight to my world I love sharing with you all what goes on behind the scenes. There are many grooms working really hard behind the scenes and so I’d also like to mention Lucy Scudamore who is out here helping me, as well as my team mates Sebastian Ulrich (Emile Faurie) and Claire Hinton (Spencer Wilton).

A big thank you to Liz Daniels for making my blogs look so good, and a big thank you to Lucy Katan and all at the BGA for their support. We are very lucky to have the BGA and I hope it continues to grow and that we can show what an important job we grooms we have.

It's crazy to think I'm writing this sheltering from the pouring rain just getting ready to fly the medal winning horses back across the pond so that I can get back to take all the young horses to Stoneleigh for the National Championships.

It goes to show that a grooms work is never done and we need to get the next medal winning horses ready!

Till next time,

Alan x

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Read Alan's previous blog.