3.30 Tuesday morning arrived and April and I were Portugal bound. Although it’s expensive the Eurotunnel gives you a great start in the first day of travel and we made it to the Showground in Le Mans by tea time. The horses were soon settled in to lovely straw boxes and April and I had an early night ready for the second leg of the journey to Dax in the south of France. The second day is easy, but a quite boring seven hours driving on the long autoroutes of southern France. It’s a nice easy day for the horses which is very important. Their well-being is a big concern on such a long journey, especially as they are all younger horses. But they have travelled together all summer and this time we travelled Askeaton between Heidi and Khalissy who seem to find one another irritating.

The third day from Dax to Salamanca in Spain is hard work.

It’s an exciting and picturesque drive up into the Pyrenees and over the border to Spain. But obviously there is a lot of gear changing and climbing and luckily the lorry was fantastic. We got a little bit lost before finding the perpendicular entrance to the stables in Salamanca, but well worth the climb for the view.

Having got the horses settled and had some supper April and I went for a sunset walk round the stunning city of Salamanca. Hopefully I will get to come here again I’m happier non-COVID times. Hopefully the shaky Spanish economy can survive this onslaught. It was heartbreaking to see virtually no bars or restaurants trading on a beautiful evening in such a stunning city.

We left at four the next morning for a fairly tough drive to Vilamoura. I was tired and very bored of driving and the first half of the journey was in total darkness which is quite disorientating when you have no idea where you are. We arrived at 2 and got our stables and shavings and hay in super quick time. As the horses seemed pretty bright and had travelled well I decided to ride them. They were beyond crazy. I had to get off both Askeaton and Heidi to lunge them, Khalissy was probably the best behaved. Once we were organised I collected my little car and found my little apartment and got myself organised. All ready for three weeks of sunshine and horses.

Vilamoura Champions Tour: The Journey