Polish Adventures Part 1: Junior European Eventing Championships

Henry Symington (photo courtesy
 of the lovely Fiona Scott-Maxwell)

Much loved commentator/controller, Henry Symington, is well known to many of us who event. He is the 'voice of eventing' on the domestic scene, providing entertaining commentary and ensuring our safety on course. He also commentates and controls internationally, and here he regales his recent adventures to Poland for the Junior European Eventing Championships.

For anyone attending the very successful Ian White Memorial class at Smith’s Lawn this year, who may have been remotely concerned that I wasn’t there doing my usual ramble at the prize giving – panic not! I found myself booked on a Wizz Air flight out to Gadńsk in Poland to be the English Commentator at the Junior European Championships in Bialy Bór. 

To my shame I know very little about Poland – apart from a few grainy black and white photos from World War II and news reports of Lech Walesa and Solidarity. I had imagined it as a rather run down cold country – how very wrong I was. Flying into Gadńsk, a massive ship building port on the edge of the Baltic, I was struck by how many lakes there were and how sunny and green it was. For sunny read hot, because during the week that I was there, Poland enjoyed somewhat of a heat wave with temperatures well up in the late 30s. So, I needn’t have packed the jumper, rain mac or water proof trousers, though I did get caught out once in Qatar. Bags cleared we - as in me and the rest of the English speaking officials - were met by our driver and taken on the 2.5-hour journey to Bialy Bór, .

In my capacity as Commentator/Controller I have, over the years, been lucky enough to be invited to a number of international events. I’ve learned that very often the journey to and from the venue is the only chance you get to see the ‘country’ as the rest of the time you are working on site. So, the journey passed quite quickly as I took in the sights.

Bialy Bór is set in woodland and has undulating ground with a beautiful lake. The venue was purpose built for stallion performance testing back in the late 50s to early 60s  and proved a beautiful setting for these Junior European Championships. As a Commentator, my first problem was going to be pronunciation of names: Gabriela Klimkowicz, Adrianna Szczepara, Mateusz Sarnecki and Hesteklewa Soeren Spaette (the last being a name of a horse) to name but a few – you can see my initial dilemma. There was nothing for it but to arm myself with a pen and paper and write each name down, phonetically, with the help of my Polish colleagues.

Having stumbled through the initial horse inspection (horses after their long journeys from all over Europe are checked over by a vet and judging panel to make sure they are fit to be 'accepted' into the competition - welfare being paramount) it was then onto the Opening Ceremony and Parade of Competitors. This was mainly conducted in Polish. However, I did have an English script which was handed to me about 30 seconds before the ceremony got underway, so, where appropriate, I spouted forth hoping that I was roughly talking at the right time.

Walking the cross country course it soon became apparent that this was a true championship course.The undulating ground and going would test the fitness of horse and rider. It certainly made this middle aged, slightly tight trousered Commentator puff!

But I jump the gun – dressage first.....

Read the next installment of Henry's adventures in the next Myrtle Musings coming soon!

If you've enjoyed reading this blog and would like to hear more hilarious tales from the commentary box, Henry is available for after dinner speaking, as enjoyed by the pony club, British Eventing officials and other groups. You can contact Henry on henrysymington.45@btinternet.com for more information.

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