National Riding Club Championships, Warwickshire - 8/10th August '03

It was with mounting trepidation that we watched every weather forecast leading up to the championships in Warwickshire.
Each report was more ominous than the last, as the weather girls cheerfully forecast a heat wave, and the bookmakers shortened the odd on the hottest temperatures since records began. Unfortunately for us they we only too accurate!

Our preparations included administering electrolytes to horses and humans for a week prior to setting off, filling fridges with ice bags, and buying huge amounts of bottled water.
Disappointingly for Frankie and Hamish the precautions were not enough to save him from a sudden attack of colic, on Saturday morning before his dressage.
The vets were quickly on hand and Hamish was moved from the temporary stables to the cooler, brick built vet box and we were greatly relieved when he recovered.

So then there were 3!

Hank performed admirably in the dressage and was described as ‘a very attractive horse’ by the judges. His show-jumping has been improving steadily this season, and with 2 down, he finished on the day 48 penalties.

Steel was on next and with Tina Hazlem’s words ringing in my ears (and fear of the repercussions if it wasn’t better than normal) we managed to get a reasonably good mark amidst some smart company.
She jumped a good round in the middle of the afternoon (just as the temperatures reached 100° to break the record!!) but tipped the last fence, so finishing on 42

Vikki produced a inevitable good dressage of 39, but then disaster struck in the show jumping, when she made an error of course and was eliminated.

And then there were 2!

Under these circumstances and with the temperatures still in the 90s after 5pm. Mugs and I were struggling to make a decision about whether or not to call it a day. The team was out, and individually we were only looking at minor placings assuming all went well XC.
Sunday dawned, and although it was bright, there was change in the air.
We decided we would run, and were promptly rewarded by being forced to compete during the most incredible electric storm, forked lighting, deafening claps of thunder and torrential rain,!

Hank was brilliant and skipped round clear just outside the time.
Steel pecked after No 7, and had not recovered in time to jump the next fence, I then tried to make up some time by taking a technical direct route, and we missed our line into the middle part, however she jumped everything else well including the tricky coffin combination 2 from home.

It was a shame that the odds were against us this time, but we had great fun amidst the disasters, and have to say a big thank you to all our helpers and agony aunts!