In at the deep end - event groom, Crisy, travels to Samur

I’ve now officially groomed at my first event and although it turned out to be more relaxed than I expected, there’s nothing like being thrown in at the deep end! We set off for Saumur 3* in France with one of Sarah’s top horses, Lilly Corinne.

We arrived in Dover ready for the 2.20 am ferry to Calais. On board, Sarah told me I had to experience a ‘truckers breakfast’ (a full English at any time of the day). My body clock was too confused to protest to the food so luckily it stayed down even though I forgot my travel sickness tablets! From Calais, it was then 7-hour drive to our destination and I really don’t know how Sarah stayed awake. Given I dozed on and off in the passenger seat, I really didn’t do a good job of helping her!

Lilly settled in her stable while I unloaded the lorry and tried to make sure I knew what was going on. Luckily I had a few days to get used to everything, and practise things like plaiting and quarter marks ready for the trot up. The other grooms were really friendly and helpful which calmed my nerves, and by the time the dressage came I felt fully prepared. Unfortunately, Lilly didn’t get a score that we felt represented her test. She scored 50.7 despite performing a good test with no mistakes, and only slightly more tension than she had whilst warming up.

Photos kindly supplied by Sally Dundas

Cross country day was a challenge as I knew I needed some help to ensure all the tack and boots were put on perfectly. Thankfully, Sarah was more than happy to help and show me how things needed to be. Sarah and Lilly looked fantastic in the warm up and set off full of excitement. Hearing over the loudspeakers that she had a refusal at Fence 4 was gutting as Brett (Sarah’s husband) had explained she would retire if she had any problems to save Lilly for Bramham in a few weeks. Brett took a bucket of water and set off to meet her whilst I stayed at the finish with the rest of our things. I then heard that she was clear at Fence 9 and going strong! At this point I had no idea what to do as Brett was no longer there, so decided I would just stand and see what happened. Luckily Brett reappeared, also looking confused. Shortly afterwards, Sarah and Lilly finished, flying over the last fence and looking incredible. They finished 10 seconds within the optimum time even with that refusal. In the madness of cooling Lilly down we were told that there was some confusion over whether the refusal had happened – apparently, Lilly had jolted slightly coming into water but then caught sight of the next fence and jumped as normal. Yogi Breisner and Brett’s’ parents went to Fence 4 to look for themselves and see if they could find any video footage or a witness so they could appeal. Sadly, no luck, that was the only fence on the whole course without a camera and despite appealing the decision, the 20 penalties remained.

Sarah and Lilly Corinne in action

The next day, Lilly had a great show jumping round, only knocking one pole. Sarah was really pleased with their performance. Without the 20 penalties they would have finished on a fantastic 54.7 leaving them in around 7^th place, but their score was 74.7 which left them 22^nd out of 26 and not the result we’d hoped for. However it was still an incredible run for them with many things to come away pleased with (except for the lack of prize money!).

Overall I had  a bloody amazing time!!! I loved the extremes of calm and quiet to absolute madness and felt proud to be part of such a great team. The journey home was just as tiring and we arrived Monday morning at 5.30am. After putting Lilly to bed, I went to bed for 3 hours sleep before getting up to start all over again. You certainly do need to love your job to do things like that.

My ‘slap around the face’ moment from the whole experience was going out for dinner with Sarah and Brett and being joined by eventers, Sam Watson and Paul Tapner, their wives, and the owners of one of Paul’s rides called Up In the Air. I felt like I had won some sort of VIP package to meet all these top names! 

Kathryn White is owner and director of Cathean Ltd Medical and Copy Writing Services. She is a published medical, copy and equestrian writer with a passion for creating compelling text in collaboration with her clients. Her customers include pharmaceutical, healthcare and equestrian businesses across the world.