Last weekend we headed once more to David Broome’s Event Centre, for the Welsh Championships. This is the event that HorseHero came to film last year and we were hoping for a similarly spectacular win – they were clearly our lucky mascot! (You can watch the video on the site.)
I finished work on Friday afternoon and made the delightfully short trip to Chepstow. It has been a while since the Shropshire team had been out together as there have been many International and Individual events recently. It was nice to park together and get our little camp set up with gazebos lashed together, chairs, tables and patio heaters! Blue has become very confused at this showground. As we have been there so often recently, he cannot remember which stable he is meant to be in. On Sunday morning he tugged me to the stable he had had during the European Championships!
The competition was hotly contested and Berkshire were hoping to continue on good form as they have the last two competitions they have been to. However there were many teams aiming to stop them in their tracks. This was the biggest Mounted Games competition that has ever been held in the UK, with 82 teams competing throughout the age groups! This meant early starts and late finishes.
We settled into the games over Saturday, trying some new orders, such as our Hula Hoop running order (also known as the tyre race). Two riders leave the start line together, the first jumps off runs to a tyre, goes through the tyre and then vaults back on the pony as the second rider leads it forward to be in the best position. The riders cross the top line, where the second rider turns and is led back down the arena by the third rider. This continues until the forth rider gets to the top and is led down by the first rider.
I took the first rider position, as I am back vaulting now following my surgery and had managed to do it at the Individuals World Champs’, and as the race progressed we were keeping contention with the fast, strong teams on the ground, rather than our lagging behind them which we typically do in this race. Steve was the last rider and this meant I was leading him down the arena last. I took control of his pony Gamble as he leapt off and ran to the tyre. This is where it all ended, as I came through with his pony too quickly; he was still coming through the tyre and as I shouted random words to speed him up he shouted in return that he didn’t have his horse – I thought he was shouting because he did have him! I was riding for the line, and as I glanced back I saw Gamble galloping along behind me and Steve stood in the middle of the ring with his hands in the air. WHOOPS!!
The rest of our competition on Saturday was uneventful and we gathered the points to keep us in a comfortable 3rd place overnight, meaning we had to do something very bad on Sunday morning to ride ourselves out of the final. This left us to enjoy Saturday night. The Welsh had organised a fancy dress competition with the theme dictating that you had to dress as something beginning with the first letter of your county team, so S for Shropshire. We were a little late in participating and a last minute effort of felt tip pens, bin bags, tights and pants saw us transforming into superheroes! If done properly this can be a great outfit, but when homemade it becomes a little daring!
Yorkshire put in a lot more effort on the costume front and had made a rather large yellow submarine in which the whole Yorkshire team and a few supporters actually fitted inside. Spectacular, but not so convenient for socialising, drinking or dancing!
Sunday morning came around much too quickly but we put in a solid performance to secure our place in the final. The final didn’t start as we had planned as errors crept in and we seemed to be off of the pace a little. However, after four races, we pulled our fingers out, picked up our pace and stopped making the errors. We had given ourselves a lot to do, but each race we worked away at the leading teams, Berkshire, Monmouth, Leicestershire and Warwickshire. Berkshire had an unfortunate collision between two brothers Andrew and Chris (known to friends as Bad Webb and Good Webb), which put Andrew out of action and Chris’ pony Will on the sidelines (nothing serious, I’m glad to report). Chris rode his brother’s pony for the rest of the final, but it shook their concentration and they fell behind.
The Hula Hoop race was three races from the end and we stuck with our new order with me promising not to leave Steve without a pony! We won the race, taking us one point behind the Monmouth team; however an Assistant Referees’ flag was raised. We were not concerned as we were all happy we had been over the change over lines and hadn’t got anything wrong. However, to our great surprise and anger we were eliminated for a line fault. The whole point of assistant referees is to see errors which the referee may not see. The referee has to trust their assistants and as there is no camera on the top line on which to check the call, we were eliminated and got 0 points instead of the 7 we would have had.
Going into the final game four teams could still win the competition, Shropshire, Monmouth, Leicestershire and Warwickshire. ‘Joust’ was the final race, probably the fastest race in Mounted Games. As Steve took his change over, the top of the lance snapped. With flying handovers at great speed the plastic lances get whip-lash and the lance must have snapped where it had weakened from repeated use. When equipment breaks it tends to be where you are holding it, not two foot away! Steve took a look at the very short piece of plastic in his hand and kicked on. I took the final change-over, and we managed to come second in the race. There was then some debate by referees and officials if we would be eliminated for breaking the equipment! I was on stand-by to fight the case that we were able to continue with the race, and that the equipment was sub-standard, had they had chosen to eliminate us. However they saw sense! So I went to give a late congratulation to Monmouthshire who had taken the overall win. We came third, behind the Leicestershire team, just four points away from the winners.
Third place with an elimination in such a close final was still a good result, and we have positive points to take from the weekend, like our new, greatly improved order for the tyre race (the one where I don’t leave Steve waving at his pony’s tail, that is!).
We have Cock of the North this weekend, a big competition held by the North of England committee, before the main Intercounties Championships, and so it is our last run out before the big competition over the bank holiday weekend. There will be lots more games to be played and fun to be had, but hopefully without any lost ponies or broken equipment!