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Can we get there? Burghley Wrap up!

30/09/13

Join us as Animal Therapeutics Online owner Jo Shanahan (Schneider) takes us on a whirlwind tour of professional yards and competitions in The UK and Germany. Jo will spend three weeks interviewing and visiting the exclusive yards of riders such as Olympic team gold medallist Carl Hester, current world record holder and Gold Medallist Charlotte Dujardin, Eventing superstar William Fox Pitt, Australia Olympians Hayley Beresford and Wendy Schaeffer, and more. Amongst the events she will attend is the Burghley Horse Trials and Blenheim. Jo will bring news, tips, and training ideas back to Australia straight from some of the world’s top riders.

Join us as Animal Therapeutics Online owner and EQLife correspondent Jo Shanahan (Schneider) takes us on a whirlwind tour of professional yards and competitions in The UK and Germany. Jo will spend three weeks interviewing and visiting the exclusive yards of riders such as Olympic team gold medallist Carl Hester, current world record holder and Gold Medallist Charlotte Dujardin, Eventing superstar William Fox Pitt, Australia Olympians Hayley Beresford and Wendy Schaeffer, and more. Amongst the events she will attend is the Burghley Horse Trials and Blenheim. Jo will bring news, tips, and training ideas back to Australia straight from some of the world’s top riders.

Can we get there? Burghley Wrap up!

Stamford is a small town where I think it’s safe to say that Burghley is their main attraction of the year, the accommodation books out almost a year in advance and the restaurants are packed. So you think they’d avoid track works that might prohibit people getting easily to the town on Burghley weekend right? Wrong.

Rachelle (previously Wendy Schaeffer’s groom in Aus and now working in the UK) and I have a hotel in Peterborough, one town away. Saturday morning we arrive at the station ready to catch the train and after platform hopping for a while and asking several people we find out that trains aren’t running to Stamford today, so we have to catch a bus. OK, we can do that no problem, a slight delay but we get there alright. That evening we head to the railway station with our arms full and legs weary from walking the cross country course a few times, we pass a bus on the way there and jokingly comment that maybe that’s the bus to Peterborough, but no, they would be sticking to the train timetable and just replacing trains with buses right? Wrong again. So we got to know the train station and a group of fellow travellers that began to congregate there pretty well. The (next) bus finally arrives and we all clamber on, keen to get to our showers and beds. In our relief no one thought to check where the bus was going though (but you can see where this is going right?). We did check with each other, but while all the people in the bus were going to Peterborough, the bus actually wasn’t. We pass a bus coming the other way that clearly says Peterborough, and one smart traveller (not us!) thinks to check with the driver…luckily. After a mid-road bus swap we’re all on the right bus heading to Peterborough. Well at least the bus drivers got a good laugh.

The next morning we arrive at the station with plenty of time to spare as we’ve learnt our lesson! But no, it’s Sunday so the bus won’t come until lunchtime. Some quick calculations and we make the decision to take a taxi instead. I think it was a wise one

Final Day transport

We got there eventually! This was our final day transport.

A bit of our own cross country adventure

With all the excitement of course walking and watching Rachelle and I were keen for a bit of adventure of our own. With none of our own horses there to ride we switched to an alternative source of horsepower. Bring on the Land Rover Challenge!

Up close and personal

On the final day the course was opened for people (and local riders – that would be awesome!) to walk on the tracks and check out the jumps a bit more intimately. Here are a couple shots to demonstrate the size of some of these jumps.

I told you it’s a big ditch and brush!

Can you see me??

Rachelle and I pulled out all of our athleticism to jump up on the Burghley Bridge jump to sit on it. After we proudly reviewed our photos some other people thought it would be a good shot to get and easily walked up the steps on the side… they won the points for thinking there.

I love that you can see Burghley House through the trees in the background of the Burghley Bridge jump.

Wrap up

Well that’s Burghley for another year and a massive congrats to Jock Pagent for taking out the title and to all the riders who completed the course as that is a massive achievement in itself!