The jam-packed lorry, ready to go.
Was a very busy day! I hacked and did a little flat with the Woodster. He felt really good after his gallop the day before. Not tired or stiff, just happy. 🙂
I packed up all my stuff and AM packed all Woody’s gear. The vet came to finalize the horses’ papers around 5:00 p.m. Had to drop off the rental cars as well. Max and the grooms did a fab job of filling every nook and cranny of one lorry to fit all our gear. The horses traveled on a separate lorry.
At 7:00 p.m. we were on our way down the drive of Maizey Manor for the last time and off to the ferry in Portsmouth. Took about 1.5 hours, most of which I slept in the lorry on the couch. I have to take motion sickness tablets that knock me out pretty much. Have to take them two hours before traveling so I wasn’t much use to anyone. Especially when we got to the ferry and poor Clayton and Jackie had to spend an hour at the ferry ticket booth trying to organize all our tickets etc. So finicky! Even though we are all going on the same ferry the lorry’s are only allowed four people to load. So Hawley and Jess had to be escorted to Dr. Ober’s car, which was already on. They made Christiana buy a ticket for little baby Luca. They lost one of our pieces of paper (temporarily) and tried to say we hadn’t given it to them…yikes! So checking in took the better part of an hour with us all standing outside the office twiddling our thumbs. Thankfully they got it all organized for us. 🙂
The accommodations on the ferry.
The horses had no trouble. They just stay on the lorry with the ramp down. We went upstairs for a quick meal (as it was 11:30 p.m.) and off to bed by midnight. It looked like the titanic inside. Very cool! I took pics. 😉 My phone ran out of batteries though and there was nowhere to charge it. 🙁 Four people to a cabin (fold away top bunks) and a bathroom with shower.
4:30 a.m. soft music plays in all the rooms to wake you up. No one told me France is another hour behind, so I think it was actually 5:30 a.m. (France time). All you need to know is I barely got four hours sleep. 🙁
Met everyone at the cafeteria for breakfast. Lovey cheeses and croissants. I resisted the chocolate filled ones. 😉
Getting off was easy we all loaded back into the lorry’s (including Jess and Hawley) and off we went. The grooms plus Max went on the lorry with the horses, Jackie drove. The riders all went on the lorry with equipment and Clayton drove. Another 1.5 hours (most of which I slept) to the show grounds.
Nice view from the ferry.
Unloaded in the rain, of course! Very nice stalls, which is more than I can say for my room for the week. It’s called a snooze box. Think I had more room on the ship! I do have wifi. 🙂
Today Woody looks like he just wants to hand graze and catch up on some zzzzz’s poor guy. Team meeting at 6:00 p.m. tonight to find out what the rest of the week has in store for me. Will post more as it comes. For now I need a short nap!
