If you ever have a blow-out on a dual carriageway en route to a major competition, it helps if Britain’s third-strongest man is on hand.
That’s what Jenny Folman found out when she was driving her Lipizzaner gelding Gazdag in her trailer to Myerscough on Saturday (12 March).
Jenny told H&H she was on the A1 north when she heard a loud bang.
“The trailer started snaking straight away,” she said. “I think I was lucky it was the trailer tyre and not the car as I think that would have been harder to control, and luckily, there was a petrol station there. I’d just thought the hard shoulder didn’t look wide enough to stop on safely, when the petrol station appeared. Thank god I didn’t lose control.”
Jenny went into the petrol station and asked staff if they knew of anyone local who could help, and was on the phone to one man who said could come out.
“Another man overheard what I was saying and offered to help,” she said. “He said he had a jack and socket set, and was looking for the jack point as I think it’s in a different place on trailers. He jacked it up and I said I just couldn’t have taken the wheel nuts off as they put them on so tight, and he said ‘That’s all right; I’m Britain’s third-strongest man’!
“I said ‘Are you serious?’ He’s lifted cars; I felt a bit of an idiot for warning him the trailer was quite heavy but I just couldn’t stop laughing. I said it was brilliant; I’ll dine out on this for years!”
Jenny added that she had been so shaken by the events, she had not fully taken in the man’s physique before that point.
“But when I went back into the petrol station to say thank you, as they’d been lovely, I said ‘You’ll never guess what; he’s Britain’s third-strongest man’, one of them said ‘I’d just said to my colleague, he looked like he didn’t need a jack, he could have lifted the car himself!’
“He was so kind. I told him I was on my way to a competition and he said he was competing the next day himself. I said based on what I’d seen, he should definitely win.
“I offered him some money but he wouldn’t hear of it. He was just doing a good deed.”
Jenny and 18-year-old Gazdag, who had stood like a rock throughout, eating his hay, got to the show in time, although there was more to contend with when they arrived.
“I was doing the inter II, in the same class as Annabella Pidgely and Gio,” she said. “Charlotte Dujardin was on the sidelines warming her up and everything was a bit tense, but we got just under 60%, then the next day we did the grand prix and got just over 60%, so we held our own and didn’t come last, which is the main thing.”
Jenny, who believes from feedback on social media that her rescuer may have been Adam Bishop, added that she had once lent someone a girth at a show, and the rider sent it back with a letter and some flowers.
“I’d always help someone if I could — but I think lifting a trailer is beyond me!” she said.
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