London 2012 Day 1

So the day started at 2.30am in Valkenswaard, Holland. This was the training camp for the show jumping team. We loaded our gear (trunks, grooming boxes, freezers, feed, luggage) onto a freight truck which departed at 3am. We could only take limited amount of gear and fit as much in our trunks as we could. That was a challenge as they're not as big as we're accustomed to. The horses loaded onto a horse transport truck and departed at 4am.

This is Stal Tops, but it's not 4am. I took this photo in January 2012

Two grooms, Edwina's groom Sigrun, James' groom Ute, and our team vet, David Johnson, travelled with the horses in the truck, whilst me, and two other grooms, Matt's groom Mat and Amy's groom Marion, travelled in a car to London. The riders and Chef, Stephen Lamb, flew out of Amsterdam.

Next stop Calais, France, where we made the crossing of the channel to Dover in England. We boarded the very long train in our car at 8.50am. This train was pretty cool and we were kind of amazed at it, at first. The train travels under the English channel and took a total of 40 minutes. Wow so quick! We stayed in the car for the trip and I had my laptop so we kept ourselves occupied by watching a movie, well only half of it.

Getting on the train in Calais, France

In the train from Calais to Dover

After arriving in Dover, we had to go to the Equine Staging Facility (ESF) in Eltham, not far from Greenwich. On the way to the ESF we got a little lost on the outskirts of London as we got separated from our truck. We finally got to the ESF not long after our truck arrived. It was quite a procedure for everyone involved and mayhem at times to get all horses and gear checked truck after truck after truck! The officials at the site were very organised and had a good system going. So it all ran quite smoothly. At the ESF our horses were unloaded and checked over by the vets. Every nook and cranny of our truck was inspected by customs officers, much like going through customs at the airport. All our horse water was removed and emptied, coz it could be full of drugs or something dangerous...The driver's cab and bed was searched with a fine tooth comb. They were very thorough.

The undercover area of the Equine Staging Facility, Eltham

As we were loading to leave our freight truck arrived, much later than expected. Apparently the UK customs in Calais, France, unloaded all the gear and luggage and went through everything, they even tested something for drugs. All was good there, just a pain in the butt for the driver! All the gear was unloaded again at the ESF and put through big xray machines and the sniffer dog went over everything, sniffing for explosives. He was a black cocker spaniel called Brent and specialsed in explosives. Once our truck was loaded, all the doors were sealed and we could not open the doors until we were cleared at the Equestrian facility in Greenwich. If our door seals were broken, we would be sent back to the ESF and repeat the process all over again. We were all good though and I didn't hear of any other truck having to return to the ESF.

Our Olympic escort from the ESF to Greenwich Park

Finally we arrived at Greenwich Park and were able to unload our horses and settle them into the stables. We were stabled next to our Aussie dressage team.

Vedor arriving at Greenwich Park, with the Australian Jumping Team

So, the stables...all the stable blocks have been raised off the ground from about 1-2 metres. This is to protect the grass of Greenwich Park and to make the aisles level. The site on which the stables are located is on the side of a hill, so we have to walk up the rubber ramps to get to our aisle. The horses cope well with this. The main arena and warm up arenas are also raised off the ground to protect the ground and make it level. We had a wander to the main arena and it has a great atmosphere to it, even when it is empty. Such a fantastic location, with the National Maritime Museum (which looks like a castle) just in front and the city of London and the Thames just beyond.

The outside of the stables, elevated off the grass

We had a set back with some of our gear at the stables. We were told not to bring mucking out gear and feed/water buckets, as it was all provided at the games. Well there are big green tubs and that's all! So we were pretty much bucketless. This did not go down well with us grooms. The tubs we used for water, and there are wheely bins available for horse waste. The Aussie dressage team are kind enough to let us use their rakes and brooms and we had feed bins that were removed from our transport truck accidentally. We are very grateful for those feed bins.

Our freight truck, which was carrying our gear, didn't arrive until about 6pm, again later than expected. We got all the horses ridden and put to bed by 8pm, then it was time for the grooms to check into the hotel. The riders left Greenwich to head back to the athletes village at Olympic Park, about 25-40 minutes away, depending on traffic. The grooms accom is located within the grounds of the equestrian facility and rumour has it, it is better than the athletes village. We are staying in the Davonport House, right next to the Maritime Museum. All meals included, and the food is so good here. Major diet next week when I get back to Deutschland.

The Australian Team and Swedish Team aisle

You can imagine the company we're keeping. Riders such as Rodrigo Pessoa, Edward Gal, Anky van Grusven, Hans Peter Minderhoud, were the ones I was a little star struck by. Equestrian royalty.

That about wraps up the loooong day 1 at Greenwick Park in London. More to come on Day 2. Photos coming soon to Facebook. Thanks for reading folks :)