Intrepid's Dressage Day at Pau by Nobie Cannon

Another busy day here at Pau for Joe and I. Joe decided last night to ride Intrepid (Don) a bit before his 11:30 test, so we agreed that an 8:30 ride would be perfect to get him going and would still give me plenty of time to have him glamorous for his dressage ride. Eight thirty comes and goes, as does 8:45, and finally at around 9 Joe saunters into the barn, tea in hand, ready to ride. So off he goes to ride, comes back about forty minutes before he needs to be on again, and hands me the horse like neither of us have a care in the world. Meanwhile, I’m spinning like a top trying to figure out how to break land speed records to get this horse braided and halfway clean in a seriously short amount of time. Miraculously, we managed to pull Don together and he put in a lovely test for Joe. Joe attributes his nice ride to the Starbuck’s coffee he had this morning, I think it was most definitely Don’s supplements that did it.

After Don’s test, I took a quick lunch break at the competitor/groom’s cafeteria tent while Joe rode Cam. Note to American horse show organizers: delicious free food keeps riders and their grooms VERY happy which always makes for a better show.
This afternoon I wheeled the four star course while enjoying Joe’s commentary about the fences. In particular, I remember a gigantic brush fence that is literally as tall as Joe and his comment “Well, you’ve just kind of got to get them to it.” Nothing to it, obviously. Meanwhile I’m grinding my teeth and trying to figure out how to get my hands on some anti-anxiety meds and I don’t even have to ride it!

The rest of the evening was spent getting the horses comfortable and situated and getting everything set out for tomorrow morning. Let’s hope we can keep things running on time tomorrow, so as to avoid any grooming catastrophes. Keeping my fingers crossed that Camie will put in a good test for Joe tomorrow!

Nobie

SoCal is the Bomb by Jennie Brannigan

Greetings everyone from sunny SoCal as the competition really started today with the jog for the CCI*** all the horses were truly in good form as all the horses passed the first hurdle in a long weekend. The weather has been fairly unreal except for a fair bit of Santa Ana wind.

It's been pretty neat to be back home for the first ever CCI *** on the West Coast and I would lying say I'm not loving being back home. Nina Gardner flew in last night and she is very excited about the weekend. We ended the evening with the Calcutta party in which the three star riders were grouped in teams and auctioned off to the highest bidder. Allie Slusher, Imtiaz Anees and I were all on the same team and it was pretty awesome because we had a lot of people betting on us! Ultimately Nina Gardner won our team in battle between Galway Downs' brand new owners and her! Well Kelley Merrette, Nick Cwick and I are all getting sleepy here at Hawley Bennett's house. She is putting up a whole lot of people this weekend so a big thank you to her for that! I'll check in tomorrow!

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

A Kiwi Groom's Tale by Nobie Cannon

It’s jog (“trot up” according to the New Zealanders) day here at Pau! Despite some complications in the beginning, Joe and I are getting along quite well and most of the time I can even understand what he’s telling me to do.

After breakfast and morning chores, Joe took both of his horses out for some work while I sorted out supplies necessary to make Cam presentable for the inspection. Lacking some braiding supplies, we roared off in one of the Hot Wheels-sized cars they drive here in Europe in search of the nearest supermarket. We grabbed a needle, some thread, and a baguette (when in France...) and headed back to the show grounds to get Cam ready.

After some heavy scrubbing, polishing, brushing etc. and the loss of a few pints of my blood (ridiculously sharp braiding needle) Cam was ready to roll and had a nice, sound jog. Joe gave the two another workout and I’ve spent the rest of the evening cleaning tack, reorganizing, and finishing night chores. Don goes tomorrow late morning, let’s hope I can figure out which horse is which and have him ready to go by then :)

Nobie

Onto the Jog at Pau by Joe Meyer

Got up to another nice morning her at Pau and decided to give both the horses a flat school before the briefing. Don is still feeling a little hot and excited but hopefully by tomorrow he will have settled down but for me whatever happens with him this week will be a good learning experience for him as it is big atmosphere here. Cam is starting to feel good, but from experience with him if I try and do all the all of the hard movements early in the week it can make him a little bit tight. As much as I want to ride him more I know that by Friday things should be fine.

There are many more people here now and the lorry park is very full. It is starting to feel much more like a real competition. The briefing at noon was uneventful. The jog here at Pau isn't until 4:30 which gave me a little time between rides for a quick walk around the back loop of the 4 star cross country course. The fences all look jumpable - which is a good sign as sometimes on the first course walk some fences look impossible.

The jog was uneventful for Cam who jogged up quite nicely aside from the sideways spook at the flowers on the way down. I am not quite sure why the photo looks like I am flashing the ground jury as I wasn't - I'm saving that move for the Sunday morning jog if need be.

Tomorrow will be busier day. Don does his dressage test at 11:29 am and I will walk both courses as well as getting in some stronger work on Cam. Should be a busy day with lots of good news to report I hope.
Joe

Settling in at Pau by Joe Meyer

I went out this morning to find the weather was not quite as warm as I had hoped, but I was close to a t-shirt so not complaining too much. The horses seem to be pretty settled in to their stables. The stables here at Pau are nice permanent stables with very large areas for tack, which makes everything pretty easy especially when it rains which sometimes it can do here - with a vengeance.

I went through some of the tack, feed and bits and pieces with Nobie this morning and she is starting to understand some of the subtle differences of the feeding regime in the UK as opposed to the US. We tacked up the horses and took them for a nice long walk around the gallop track and onto parts of the cross country course that you are allowed to hack on and had a sneak peak at some of the jumps. Apologies for some of these pictures of Nobie and I, but we had to persuade a very large, dodgy looking security man to take the photos. I don't think he even spoke French let alone English, but once the camera was pointed the right way he managed to take this very bad photo that you can see in the album. We do think it is of us.

The rest of the day was spent sorting out the last bits of the lorry and going through lists of items that Nobie may need. I rode Don again in the afternoon as he was quite fresh in the morning - in a nervous, young horse sort of way. Cam felt good this morning so he was just allowed to have a session of my simple and user friendly magnetic blanket! With the horses put away for the night I called over to Andrew Nicholson for a visit and catch up. He, as normal, was a bit tired after driving all night on his own so left him to go to bed and headed to a well reviewed small Brasserie in downtown Pau which turned out to be a real find (see photo of amazing dinner)... we are loving Pau so far.

Tomorrow the competitor briefing is at 12 and the jog is at 4:30 and hopefully the course might be open for a quick walk in between (we are on French time down here).
Joe

First Day at Work at Pau by Nobie Cannon

Hi I’m Nobie. I’m an American rider based in Florida going to the University of Florida in Gainesville. I have been a working student for PRO rider Ruthie Harbison for several years now, but recently traded in my riding boots and baseball caps for stilettos and berets to study in Paris for the semester.

When the opportunity came about to groom for Joe Meyer at Pau for the week, I jumped at the chance and it being my fall break from school made it a convenient mini vacation. So after a long journey, we arrived at Pau on Monday evening around 7. After getting the horses settled in for the night, Joe was nice enough to cook for us! This was a welcome treat compared to the usual fare of midnight McDonald’s at the shows back home. Got to bed early, excited for the opportunity to be here at Pau as an insider.

Bright and early this morning, I set out for morning chores. After dumping approximately 100 pounds of supplements into each of Joe’s horse’s feed, I came to the conclusion that this man may quite possibly have more supplements than the entire Smartpak catalog stocks. I took the two horses for a nice long walk, all the while trying to find any distinguishing characteristics between the two identical horses-same color, same height, same age, same breeding. Oh boy.

When Joe came out, we took the two for a hack around the grounds and he worked in the dressage arena for a bit with Cam and then Don. Cam was treated to the magnetic blanket after his workout, and as a sidenote, I would like to point out that European magnetic blankets might possibly be even more complicated than American ones due to poorly translated instructions. The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning tack and feverishly trying to find some sort of brass polish to take care of the years of dirt and rust that had accumulated on every inch of metal that Joe owns. Either my former boss Ruthie is relatively obsessive about her brass or Joe is just really laid back. Or perhaps a little of both :) With that taken care of, I got the boys fed and settled into their pajamas for the evening and came back to the lorry to brush up on my less than stellar Kiwi English skills.

Note to PRO, please send a translator to Pau at your earliest convenience. What does “getting stuck in” mean?! A bientot!

Last Minute Preparations and The Trip to Pau by Joe Meyer

Horses
Sanskrit (Cam)- 11yr old NZ homebred by Silent Hunter. He has completed Blenheim CCI*** and Luhmuhlen CIC***, Aachen CIC*** and was 2nd in British Open Championships at Gatcombe this year. Cam is competing in his first CCI****
Intrepid (Don) -9yr old NZ homebred by Steal the Show. He was 11th at Hartpury CCI** in August and is fairly new ride to me having only returned to my yard in June. He has been gaining continued confidence all season and 'Don' will be competing in the CIC** at Pau.

Saturday morning brought me to Kate Lukas' for final gallops at LMEQ - a place I use often. It has a great 7 furlong uphill gallop and xc schooloing area. Don can be a little bit looking at water so need to get his feet wet while Cam is very confident so just went on gallops. Both horses did 3 times up the gallops as they were about to get on truck the next day and I always cut off a little bit of last gallop before they ship long distance.

Sunday morning was spent running around doing last minute jobs and packing truck while organizing yard for girls while I am away for the week at Pau. All was smooth so jumped in truck and headed off to my dressage trainer Richard Barret for a little bit of last minute tune up for Cams 4 star test and a little bit of last minute wind up for me from Richard (which Richard is very good at doing i.e. hands down, shoulders back and stop nodding your head!!!) Got back in truck and headed to Portsmouth to take the ferry to Le Havre. There are 3 different routes to France that we can use and they are Dover/Calais, Portsmouth/Le Havre and Portsmouth/Caen. When I am the only driver, as in this occasion, I would normally take the overnight boat which is an 8 hour sail from Portsmouth to either location in France. Its slightly more expensive, but cuts out a lot of driving time and you get to have a nice sleep in the boat in the cabin. Arrived at Portsmouth had some dinner (to avoid the marginal food on the ferry) and glass of wine in the lorry (in England we drive lorries, which are large trucks with living quarters and the horses all in one) while waiting on the docks.. We boarded the ferry and headed to the sleeping cabin.

Monday brought sunshine on arrival to France after a great sleep and smooth crossing. Had a great wonderful complimentary cappucino to help start the drive and we disembarked after giving the horses some water and breakfast. Managed to skip through customs and passport control (just luck!) and its been smooth driving ever since. A diesel and late breakfast (consisting of freshbaked chocolate croissants, ham and cheese baguettes and a plate of cheese and meats) stop earned me an extra 10 Euros for selling a half bottle of crusty looking licorish vodka that had been lying around in the back of the lorry for a couple years to some desperate Polish truck drivers who were stuck in the parking lot due to being unable to drive today, which was a bank holiday It was the sort of bottle that you would only offer to someone you didn't like, but they were very pleased for it (see photo of happy Polish truckers).

Horses have been traveling and drinking really well and we survived the Bordeaux ring road (which has been my nemesis for being in the wrong lane and receiving some serious fines in the past) we are now in the final 100 miles of journey to Pau. Arrival time should be 7 pm France time. Fingers crossed for continued easy journey through this last windy bit!

Until tomorrow,
Joe