Where in France is best for affiliated showjumping?

[Scotland]

Hi, I am moving to France for 4 months, July to October, and will be taking one of my horses with me. I jump BS and will register with the french showjumping association. At present I am able to live anywhere in France so would like to move somewhere that is close to a number of good showjumping competition venues and ideally livery my horse at one of them to save travelling to shows all the time.

Does anyone have any suggestions of where is good? I have been spoiled in Scotland living within a 60 mins drive to 4 top BS competition centres and am hoping that France will be able to supply the same.

If I were to choose a location in France then I would be choosing Pyrenees/Atlantique or Lyon but it is important to combine location with showjumping so all suggestions welcome.

Many thanks! Nicola

 

[JCWHITE]

Hi, lovely to hear you are coming to France, you may already have seen the FFE website.
You may be able to do a search for the regions you mention, and see a fixture list, and also past competitions.
We have only positive experiences of the scene, in our part of the world, South West
I am happy to help you with further info by pm .
Good luck!

 

[Scotland]

Thankyou JCWHITE I really appreciate your response and will PM you.

 

[sunnyone]

Hi Nicola,

I have to say that I am a little concerned that you have left asking this question so close to a potential departure date as so many people will have taken any potential opportunities ahead of you. It also reduces the amount of time you have available to plan for your own needs.

That said I suggest you try this site: http://www.cheval-aquitaine.com/calendriers-concours-telechargements-6.html

which gives you the calendars for each of the disciplines and therefore a flavour of where you may wish to be. However it has limitations at it doesn't give you the actual locations of the events e.g. If you view the CSO calendar Marmande has a 3 day jumping show at the beginning of July. I know this is held in a public park near the town centre, the jumping surface is laid 3 weeks before the event and taken up again afterwards. Classes can have 130 entrants.
Montpouillan, later in July, is actually a tiny village a few miles from Marmande with a post box, a primary school and nothing else. The club hippique, where the event is held, is well outside the village and imo only equates to a fairly standard UK riding school facility with an indoor and outdoor school and a number of stables + paddocks. They only do full stable livery with turnout, which I believe is 320 euros per month.
If you wish to PM about your plans etc please do.

 

[Scotland]

Hello Sunnyanyone, thankyou for your reply. I travel the globe working so this is actually considered "planning ahead" for me. Thankyou for your suggestions. This year I think I shall stick to the National competition circuit in France and jump in Amateur affiliated competitions. I shall certainly have a look at the suggestions you have made, and link you have provided, and may take you up on your offer of PMing you. Thankyou once again! Nicola

 

[ReggieP]

As JC proposed the FFE site has a comprehensive lists of all competitions in all disciplines. The French system for registration and entering competitions is extremely well organised and structured and managed through the site.(something the UK could learn from).

Most competitions in France (probably in excess of 99%) are affliated and run via the FFE.

Note that to compete in france you must have obtained the relevent "galop" exam. For amateur it will be galop 7 ,and your horse must have recognised breed lines to be registered incompetition. Some competitions are open to a non recognised breed lines, but there are few of these and they are at a much lower level. All details are on the FFE web site.

 

[Scotland]

Many thanks Reggie P. Really useful info re: the Galop exams. Horse registration should be OK but will have a close look to ensure I don't fall foul of any compliance.

 

[Booboos]

As above the ffe site has all the info you need and you can find a livery yard by looking at the ones that tend to host a lot of competitions.

I don't want to be the voice of doom and gloom and maybe other people have had better experiences but there is no way you will have completed all the rider and horse paperwork and registrations within four months! It might be a lot faster to try to compete as a foreign rider on a guest license.

 

[joosie]

Would you consider going further north? I work for a showjumper in Normandy and the scene is buzzing up here. We have a high concentration of venues in quite a small area and there is a choice of 3 or 4 amateur shows most weekends. Normandy is the hub of the country's sports horse breeding so the competition scenes has had a lot of money put into it, Normandy is also hosting the World Equestrian Games next summer which gives an idea of how good it is here. Incidentally my boss has livery space on her yard at the moment We compete 4 days a week and have about 20 venues within 90mins' drive...

 

[Scotland]

Hi Joosie, wow, you certainly are in the "middle" of everything there! Perhaps you could PM me your yard's details? Thankyou again. Nicola

 

[Scotland]

Booboos, I agree and am processing my National Permission request from BEF right now. Nicola