Our journey to sunny Spain started last Wednesday, we drove to a holding stables 10 mins from Dover, after unloading in the pouring rain we got a few hours sleep before leaving at 5am to get the ferry. Unfortunately we had to wait over an hour for the next ferry but we got on board and bribed the horses with their first taste of haylage in the hope they would behave on the crossing. We had been dreading taking Lucky on the ferry as he is quite claustrophobic and can panic if he isn’t allowed out. As it turned out he took no notice at all and our full range of calming potions weren’t needed.
We arrived in Calais at 7.30am (8.30 french time) and hit the road for what would be a 1000km day! About half way through the day we needed another fuel stop only to realise that there are miles between services, so when we hit the red we headed off the motorway in search of a fuel station know we wouldn’t make it to the next stop. The lady at the payage said the next one was only 9km but it was more like 19km and being re fuelled! We didn’t dare to try to find the next one decided to sit it out and get some lunch and water the horses. Eventually we got going again and vowed to fill up as soon as we got down to half a tank. This was to be our longest day and by 9pm Bugs was starting to get distressed, hind legs trembling and very restless. We agonised over whether to try to stop earlier ,knowing that it would upset the journey plan for the rest of the trip but also not wanting to arrive in Spain with a horse that was good for nothing. We chatted to the transport agency and she encouraged us to keep going and eventually we made it to our first stop over in Bordeaux at 11.30pm, 18 hrs later! He had settled a bit thankfully. We arrived at the yard in complete darkness with no one there and found an indoor school so at least we could walk them. I managed to lunge Bugsy a bit who looked terrible, so tucked up and tight. Eventually we got to bed at 2am knowing the alarm was going off at 6!
From Bordeaux we headed towards Biarritz and the Spanish border, not surprisingly the boys were a little reluctant to get on the lorry. They travelled much better though, Lucky was amazing the whole trip, he didn’t seem to move from the moment he got on. Bugs was snoozing more and getting used to life on the road. The fuel stops we coming up more regularly so we were all much more relaxed until during my stint driving the mountains the lorry started losing power. The more i changed down the slower it went! At one point I was having to accelerate to get down hill. There are some seriously long tunnels and all I could think was ' not in the tunnel please'!
Anyway we made it down the other side and after a severve revving at the payage it seemed ok.That night we stayed in a place called Valladolid, the yard was the number one breeder of thoroughbreds in Spain and they had a super lunbge arena so at least we could work them again.
We left early again and headed towards Seville, the lorry started playing up again but we kept going after chat with our mechanic who ruled out anything terminal.The weather was very testing with the hurricane that was hitting Spain at the time. It was even on the british news!Poor Lindsey was in at the deep end, after passing her HGV onlt the week before she had to cope with wind, rain as well as being on the wrong side of the road.
The scenery is stunning on the way through Spain and we made it to the showground by 5.30pm, with a few hours unpacking ahead.
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