Life on Atlantic Tour

We arrived and now were are here  in ‘Sunny Portugal’ . . or this year so far its not quite so sunny Portugal!

After an eventful few days in the run up to leaving we eventually set off one day late due to adverse weather conditions in the English Channel. Horses, ferries and 100 mph winds just do not mix and after we were told no ferries would run for at least 36 hours we finally got booked onto the Eurotunnel and were able to leave.

The horses all travelled well, our convoy of three lorries stopped three times en route, Le Mans and Dax in France and Valaddodid in Spain before climbing over the mountains into Portugal and arriving at the show.

En route my job is leaning out of the lorry to pay the tolls (on the passenger side in right hand drive lorries!), keeping the horses well fed and watered and then looking after them at the stop offs.

With one stallion, four geldings and five mares travelling we had our work cut out but allowing Laura, Julie and Michael to sleep during the stop offs is essential as driving safety has to be the main priority.

After a couple of days rest the horses all passed the vetting and jumping started last week. We have had an amazing start to the show notching up seven wins to date and several high placings.  The young horses in particular seem to be on very good form and are enjoying the warmer weather on their backs. I have received a lot of compliments on my horses’ turnout – I take pride in them always looking immaculate when competing. 

The day to day routine at the show is busy but although I am the only ‘Groom’ everyone on the team chips in and does their bit whether its mucking out, watering, cleaning tack, washing off or hand walking/grazing. 

Our days start at seven but we have usually finished jumping by four or five pm and its lovely to have a sit down in the evening with friends for a drink or two. There is a good social scene at the show and it is great mixing with the other grooms and competitors from the twenty or more nationalities represented at the show.

This year we bought along ‘Justin Beiber’ who travelled with us and helps out!   It is all in a good cause as he ‘blogs’ on Social Media, Facebook and Twitter  – I think we have been keeping a fair few people amused with his antics.  Do have a little look as it is all in a good cause – we even gave Portuguese TV an interview this week!

Anyway best crack on with some work as we want to keep up our winning run.  The sun is coming out and hopefully the weather will improve as the tour continues.  Will update soon   . . . . . .