Monday 22nd - First day of the Adventure to Tarbes!

I got up nice and early as I had a lot to organise before we left on our first leg of the journey to Hythe. Firstly, I went to the yard to feed Czarko and put him into the field for a couple of hours to stretch his legs before travelling to the lairage. I then had a few things to pick up such as some fresh apples and carrots to spoil Czarko with so I headed down to my local Sainsbury’s for some last minute shopping. While I was there, I managed to spot a new bikini that I just had to buy and also converted some pounds to euros.  

I then drove back to the yard where I got to work on bathing Czarko so he was squeaky clean for his adventure to France. It took me an hour or so to bath him and pack everything into the back of the trailer and then another half hour to make sure there was nothing I had forgotten! Finally, I was sure there was nothing else I could sqeeze into the car nor trailer and got Czarko loaded and were on our way by 11:00.  

Our journey to Hythe was very straight forward with one stop at the services and we arrived at the lairage at 3pm. We were the first ones there so had the first pick of the stables that were reserved for us. The stables were very spacious and the bedding very deep – Czarko was impressed and settled in very quickly.

 

 

Penny was the next to arrive with her horse Lucy an hour or so after us and while we were waiting for the other team members, we made good use of the tea and coffee provided. Eventually, everybody had arrived and the horses were checked by team vet Georgina and team farrier Glynn. It was when Georgina arrived that we were made aware of the fact that the other two team members Brett and Kate were not to be travelling with us due to their horses sustaining injuries. This was shocking news and set us all back however we pulled together and just accepted – it’s all part of being in the horsey world!  

Once the horses were walked, fed and put to bed, we all headed back to our accommodation (or tents for the Theodorous) and tried for an early night. Much to our disappointment, this was not to be! We had an almighty lightning storm what seemed to be directly above us and within minutes the streets were flooded. The constant banging of the thunder and the drumming of the rain woke me up at 2am and was enough to keep me awake for an hour or so. It was all very exciting for those of us that were in buildings and watching the display out of our window, however I’m not sure it was something quite so thrilling for the Theodorous who ended up soaked through!

 

 

This photo was taken on my phone at 2am when I woke up. The lightning storm was so bad that it lit the sky up like this to make it look like day-time when it was actually pitch black.