EQUIRANDO!!

Keith_Beef

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w00t!

I got an email last week, a woman I know is getting together a group to attend Equirando, a big meet-up organized every two years. She's getting together a group of eight people, plus herself, to take a three day ride before the meet-up where there will be a variety of activities (working with cattle, hunting, horseback archery), much feasting, dancing, music...

I replied, that I'd be up for it, and she replied to me today.

I'm as happy as a sand boy.
 

Keith_Beef

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Woohoo! I think i’d be taking a comfy seat saver, though you may be made of sterner stuff

I've already done the three day trip that takes us from our home town to the meet-up venue, so that's not going to be a problem. Then there will be three nights in a tent, with all the activities.
 

Keith_Beef

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Hmm...

Apparently, one of the days is supposed to be a group ride with participants in costumes representing their regions or countries.

I was thinking about this while walking to the railway station this morning... What region or country would I represent, and what costume would fit with that? And would it be recognizable to other people?

First thought was a John Bull kind of look: Union Flag waistcoat over white shirt, riding breeches and boots, maybe a tail coat. I think I could make something from kydex to give my helmet a kind of top hat shape. I could also knock up some brown boot-toppers for my black boots.

330px-John_Bull_-_World_War_I_recruiting_poster.jpeg


Then, since I'm originally from Yorkshire, I started thinking about the Joshua Tetley Huntsman figure. I discovered a few months ago, that an almost identical huntsman figure was also used by Eldridge Pope, or Dorchester, too. There are variations in both Tetley's and Eldrige Pope's huntsman, so the two below are not the closest resemblance out there (I chose these two for being similar in size).
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Eldridge_Pope_Crystal_Ale.jpg

But the event is in late July, early August, and I wonder that a buttoned up red hunt coat would be too hot (and quite possibly too expensive).

Last thought was something from the English Civil War period. This is easy; I have a pair of bucket-top boots, shirt and jacket would be easy and inexpensive to get. It would also be a good excuse for me to get a suitable sword, a pair of pistols and a lobster pot helmet to go with my morion from my days as a pikeman. I wouldn't want to wear breast and back plate, but I think I could handle a buff coat, left open.


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I wonder, though, about the suitability of a historically correct helmet for riding.
 

Cortez

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I wonder, though, about the suitability of a historically correct helmet for riding.

I wear suitably historically correct headgear every day; still alive.

The only one of those outfits that say "British" to me is the first one; John Bull. The others are "just" huntsmen and the ECW get up perhaps wouldn't mean much to any non-Brit?
 

Keith_Beef

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Just got back home from Equirando about an hour ago. We had a great time. Including the team leader, there were seven riders representing seven different countries: Sweden, China, Russia, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, England.

We had three days of riding to get there. The planned itinerary was 107.5km, but due to a few "navigational incidents" I think we did something more like 125km.

Our team organiser decided to provide each of us with a long sleeved polo shirt quartered dark blue and a kind of pale blue-grey (I'm crap at colours) with our native country's flag embroidered on it (I took along a Saint George's cross badge that I tacked on below the Union Flag), along with a matching helmet silk so that we would look like jockeys.

The three days riding there were very interesting. Unfortunately China had to drop out of the riding after the first day; he'd broken his angle show-jumping a month ago, thought that he'd rested it enough to ride, but it turned out not to be the case. A friend of the team leader joined us for the second day and she took China's horse, but she couldn't get more time off work, and so from the third day I took that horse, and my original horse stayed at a yard where we had stabled them for the night. That horse was then transported to the campsite for us where we stayed for another three days.

China joined the driver in the support vehicle and enjoyed the big meet-up near Rambouillet, and on the second day there he rode in the big parade on one of the horse-drawn vehicles.

The archery turned out to be "Polish" style, not the Hungarian that I had been hoping for.

To get my horse warmed up for the archery I took him for a walk across the campsite, a trot up the lane to a different section and back again, then we did a very simple Trec course.

This was for me a landmark in my riding...

I was the only person in our section of the campsite. I tacked up my horse, put on my thick leather gloves to open the electric fence (just loops tied in the tape, because there were not enough handles :rolleyes:), lead the horse out of our section and then close the fence.

Then I walked him in hand out of the camping area and towards the arenas, through crowds of people and dogs, to find something to use as a mounting block, mounted up and did the warm-up. :cool: Independent riding is not so far away, I think.

There was no having a go at working with cattle... there was a demonstration of Doma Vaquera riding, instead.

Food was OK at the meet-up, but nothing remarkable. The toilets and showers were a bit frustrating...

Four people (China, Russia, Scotland and Ireland) left on Saturday night to make their way home independently.

Today was spent packing away our gear, and then those of us who were left (Sweden, Germany, England plus the support vehicle driver) to prepare the horses for being transported back to Maisons-Laffitte: two in in a trailer behind Sweden's car (that her husband drove to meet us) and the rest in a five horse wagon brought over for us. And also taking down and stowing away the electric fencing that we had used to make seven pens for the horses plus a security perimeter around our tents. I got a lift back in the support vehicle with a trailer behind, then helped unload the tack and the stables, then the saddle blankets, numnahs, feed and water buckets, electric fence posts and tape, and other bits and pieces at Sweden's house. Then finally back home with the support driver for a cold beer and a bit of a chin-wag between the two of us and my OH, to explain to her what the six days had been like

I don't have many good photos... I'll sort through them and see what I can post.
 

dogatemysalad

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Sounds like a great experience and some commitment on the riders part.China with the broken ankle has my sympathy, recovery and time out of the saddle, is frustratingly slow. Looking forward to the photos.
 

Silver Clouds

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It sounds like a fun event, and nice that groups of people arrive there having ridden in from different areas. The now extinct 'Riding' magazine used to organise something similar in England annually between about 1920 and I think the late 1950s, with individuals and groups riding to a pre-arranged site from all over the country. They used to publish main routes from each region to the destination to make it easier for lone travellers to meet up with others along the way. It looked like great fun, although the traffic must have increased massively since then so not sure it would be quite such a relaxing expedition these days! I look forward to seeing your pictures :)
 

Keith_Beef

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I didn't take many pictures, and a lot of them are blurry. Below are a few of the better ones, that don't show the faces of the guilty parties.

I should be getting another three hundred or so from the other members of the group, over the next couple of weeks, and maybe permission from the others to post pictures showing faces.


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Tied up to a high-line for a mid-day picnic.




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Through-the-ears shot of pne of the Etangs de Hollande, a series of reservoirs constructed to bring water to the Château de Versailles.



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Still by the Etangs de Hollande: Sweden checks her map (again), Russia straight ahead of me, Germany a little to the right.


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Entering the grounds of the Château de Rambouillet during the great parade. Our costumes are meant to resemble jockey's outfits. The letter E (for Equirando) visible in a heart on the rump of the grey (ridden by Ireland, a young girl of 18) means that the horse had passed its veterinary inspection on arrival at the meet-up.
She wondered why hers was the only horse that got a heart drawn around the letter; I said "because the vet fancies you"...
"Ew! That's just creepy! He's like, 50 years old!!"

We noticed back at the camp site that there were a number of horses with hearts, and they all seemed to be greys. So maybe it was just that the vet preferred greys to other colours...
 
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Keith_Beef

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