Showjumping on the Frence Riviera

One time when I visited my friends in France, they were holding a showjumping competition at their yard.

I was very lucky because I actually got to compete. It is a bit of a surprise to turn up at a yard one day and be given a horse and be told "We have show ... here, take horse, go jump". Luckily I don't have any pictures of my effort ... the horse was an interesting ride and over the third fence on a sharp left turn I managed to loose the reigns and my stirrups.

We then proceeded to do a 3'6" triple combination without our reigns or stirrups. The two most memorable things about the class were that I did not fall off, nor did we knock down any of the jumps. I regained control of my horse, but in doing so incurred penalties for crossing my path. We continued only for me to loose control again over the next double.

The saddest thing was that I think the horse deserved more, he was not a jumper by a long stretch, but even with this fiasco we had no jumps down. And although he was a rather ... shall we say "spectacular" ride when jumping ... If I hadn't of lost him we could of gone clear.

Well anyway we both had fun ... and we were in the ribbons in one of the classes.

Here one of my friends is being given a bit of last minute advice by his instructor, Denis Morand, who himself has done the Badminton three day event - In 1972 I belive.