A Ukrainian equestrian team have completed their first international competition after having to flee their war-torn hometown. Polina Shovkova, 14, sisters Katya, 14, and Jenya Panasenko,11, Sonia Shulga, 14, and Marta Lopaienko, 15, became the first team to ever represent the country in international vaulting when they participated in the one star competition in Kaposvár, Hungary.
The team’s participation came just a few months after escaping Poltova. They are currently living and training in Bernolákovo, a suburb of Bratislava, Slovakia, where they have been welcomed by members of the local vaulting community and supported financially by the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) Solidarity Fund.
“We didn’t have competitions in Ukraine because we are the first vaulting team,” Marta explained. “We didn’t feel too comfortable with the horses here in Slovakia at first because they are bigger and have a different rhythm to our horses at home. But now we know the character of each horse.
“We were a bit worried about taking part in our first international competition and it was important for us. But as Katya, our trainer from Ukraine always says: You have to do this performance just for you.”
Anthony Bro-Petit, a former international vaulter for France, has been helping the team on their sporting journey.
“Preparing young athletes for a competition or a championship is always tough because even when they are motivated, the mental focus is very hard to maintain,” he said. “The war has added an extra layer of mental difficulty for these girls. It’s not easy to fully concentrate on your training when you know your family is not safe.
“The girls are still very young and it is hard to know how much I can push them during their training session. But this is a good learning experience for me. I’m still learning as a coach and I have to develop my skills.
“We would have been able to prepare more if there was no war. But the team did really well in their first international competition and now we know which aspects we need to focus on more during our training.”
The team now have their sights set on the international competition that will be held in Samorin, Slovakia.
‘We were on the road for three days’
Marta reflected on having to flee her hometown, leaving her family behind her.
“We knew that we would have to leave Poltava about a week before we had to go,” said Marta. “We first thought that we were going to France, but two days before we left we were told that we’re going to Slovakia.
“We were on the road for three days. It was a very long journey, because of the traffic jams everywhere. It usually takes us one day to drive to the Slovak border.
“The first night we didn’t stop and we kept going. But the second night we stopped near the Carpathian Mountains, and we stayed in a flat with just two rooms. There were 15 of us, and me and the girls slept on one sofa, and the others slept on the floor. Then the third day we crossed the border very quickly. We thought it would be slow with all the traffic, but we crossed over very fast.
“We were not frightened but we were really sad and tired. And when we crossed the border we all started to cry.”
The girls’ trainer Kateryna (Katya) Andreiva and her 18-month-old son David, as well as three mothers have accompanied the Vaulters to Slovakia, while other members of their families have stayed in Ukraine.
“When you first come from war, you think that it would have been better to stay at home because your mind cannot feel safe,” said Ekateryna, Katya’s and Jenya’s mother.
“It’s harder to be in a safe country because you feel at fault for leaving your family. My mother is in the Kharkiv region and I know that she’s sitting in a bomb shelter while I’m here in Slovakia. But we are mums and everything we do, we do for our children. You don’t think about yourself. You just think about your children.”
A new routine
The vaulters have settled into a routine at the local school which is currently housing the group from Poltava, as well as 40 refugees from other parts of Ukraine. The girls begin each weekday morning by joining online lessons with their school in Poltova, which leaves them the rest of the day to train at the local riding school, and at the school gym that has a mechanical horse and barrels.
“It is good to see that the girls are training really hard,” said the Secretary General of the Slovak Equestrian Federation Zuzana Bačiak Masaryková.
“The community here in the Bratislava area have been extremely generous to the team. The owner of the shop that sells vaulting shoes, has given the girls free pairs and other people have provided us with everything they require.
“My aim is to give these girls all that they need to train, so that they can forget about the war, at least for a few hours each day.”
The vaulters and their mothers still hope that they can return home to Poltava after the competition in Samorin.
