Participation in the 3rd International Open German Cavalry Championships at Boxberg, Gotha, East Germany 29th -31st May 2015
Early in the morning of Tuesday 26th May 2015 a convoy of three horse boxes boarded the ferry at Dover – bound for Calais. On these boxes was a team of four riders, four horses and ground crew from the Sussex Yeomanry specialist historical mounted skill-at-arms group that is based in Sussex. Their ultimate destination was the Race Track at Boxberg. The journey took two long days (with an overnight stop in Holland, at Maastricht) to complete.
The sight of competitors in all their varied uniforms gave a strong feeling of stepping back in time!
12 teams and over 80 horses from five nations – Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Great Britain and Hungary – took part in the competition. Each team had saddlery and uniforms appropriate to the national cavalry that they were portraying. Our team portrayed the Sussex Yeomanry at the start of 1914 – before the unit was dismounted and sent to Gallipoli on foot.
A copy of the schedule for the competition is available online from which it can be seen that the competition comprised a large and varied number of classes, not all of which were compulsory. Competitors could choose which of the classes they wished to enter.
The start of the three days was not good for Sussex Yeomanry as our team got hopelessly lost in the first class which was a test of patrol/map reading.
On the second day, each member of the team rode a good individual dressage test, but none was good enough to be placed. The team dressage however went well and our team was awarded joint first place with a team from Poland. Jane Dawson, Helen Dawson and John Dudeney all rode clear rounds in the show-jumping which was against the clock. Jane was the fastest of our team members and was placed.
The skill-at-arms classes were held on the third day and our team members rode very good tests. Helen Dawson was placed in one class and John Dudeney was placed in each, being awarded third place in two. Overall he came 6th in the Skill-at-Arms classes and scored a ‘full house’ in the individual lance class. Unfortunately however he received some penalty points as his time was not fast enough.
This was the first year that Sussex Yeomanry sent a team to the International Open German Cavalry Championships which has steadily developed and gained in popularity over the three years it has been running. The competition is open to the public to watch and on the third day (the skill-at-arms day) a great proportion of members of the public dress in period costume. The spectacle is something to behold – it truly feels as though one is transported back to the early 2 1900’s! For anyone who is interested in horses and history the last weekend in May should be set aside for a trip to Boxberg Race Course!
Gotha is the ancestral home of the Saxe-Coburgs. It is a very attractive town that is full of interesting buildings and very friendly, welcoming, people. The surrounding area is also exceedingly pretty.
Our journey home was long and arduous. Storms in the English Channel prevented the transportation of horses which meant that we had to wait at the port of Calais from 15.00 – 00.30 before being allowed to board. We were grateful for the fact that we had booked to stay the night at a yard just outside Dover before returning to Sussex at about mid-day on Wednesday 3rd June – weary but pleased with our achievements in this our first year’s participation in what proved to be a truly challenging competition. We now have a clearer understanding of what is required and hope to do better in 2016!
Sussex Yeomanry will again be venturing into Europe in the Autumn – with a team of riders and horses to take part in a 2-day skill-at-arms competition at Muiderberg, Holland. Teams from Israel and Germany have also been invited to take part. The dress code for the competition will not be historical but the weapons to be used and the disciplines to be ridden would all have been familiar to the cavalrymen of old.
This story was submitted by John Dudeney of the Sussex Yeomanry Historical Group
