At Gatcombe I had new ride Ard Core running in the Open Intermediate, Vendredi Biats in the Novice, Creevagh Cooley in the CIC* and Ceylor LAN and Mo Cuiske in the CIC**
Ard Core can get a little tense in the dressage so I was delighted with our first outing together. She didn’t blow up and tried very hard, there were moments of tension in movements that she struggles with so we have plenty to work on over the winter, but there were lots of positives to take forward as well. She scored a 33.6. We didn’t jump as it was never our plan.
Watch our test here:
Vendredi Biats was doing his first novice and was a star in his test. He did a some lovely work and only showed some greeness in his medium trot and the odd transition. I was thrilled with the over all quality of his work and he scored a very competitive 27.
Watch our test here:
He then jumped a fantastic clear in the show jumping and didn’t find the step up to Novice at all taxing.
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He gave me a very grown up ride round the cross country apart from a miss understanding at a corner early in the course when I changed my whip over before it and got it caught between my saddle and point 2 jacket lanyard. So when he went a bit wobbly I couldn’t correct him as I was all tangled up! He then jumped it beautifully once I was able to give him some direction.
Watch our round here:
Creevagh Cooley was a star from the outset at Gatcombe. She did a fantastic test and feels so much more established in her work. She scored a brilliant 41.1 and led the 99 strong class.
Watch our test here:
She then jumped a very keen but clear show jumping round. After doing an intermediate as her last run she found it all rather small, it was great to feel her so confident and full of herself. Her clear meant she retained her lead going into the cross country.
Watch her round her:
Creevagh Cooley looking very pleased with herself after her clear round with her owner Lindsay Caldwell. Photo courtesy of MDR Photo and Eventing Stig.
After her intermediate run at Wellington she found the cross country very easy. She cruised round really happily and made it feel very simple. We finished one second over the time, but she still won the section really comfortably by nearly 5 marks!!
Watch her round here:
Mo Cuiske did a very good test in the CIC**, he was second in which wasn’t ideal. He scored very well from one judge, but unfortunately the other judge didn’t like the test so much and was 25 marks adrift. This left us in 14th place on a 48.8.
Watch our test here:
The two star ran with the cross country before the show jumping and Mo Cuiske didn’t quite seem on form round the cross country. He really didn’t enjoy the twisty track and never got going. He very disappointingly picked up two stops, having never had a cross country penalty in his career it was a really shame to blot his copy book.
He made amends though with a brilliant clear in the show jumping. I think it was his best round to date and he felt super.
Watch our round here:
Ceylor LAN was fantastic. He did a super test, showing some high quality work. He made some very annoying mistakes in his canter strike offs when we got our wires crossed, it was a real shame as the rest of his work was so good. Even with his mistakes he still scored a brilliant 43.8 which had us heading the 98 strong field.
Watch our test here:
After not having a great ride round the cross country on Mo Cuiske I was a little concerned that the twisty track might knock his confidence before Le Lion, but I needn’t have worried. He jumped fantastically the whole way round and was nearly foot perfect. For a big horse he was very nippy and wasted very little time round all the twists and turns. He picked up 4 time faults, but with the track causing so many problems this left us in the lead going into the show jumping with a fence in hand.
Watch our round here:
The horses in 2nd and 3rd place both had a fence down, so I was lucky enough to go into the ring with a comfortable two fences in hand. Ceylor LAN however jumped beautifully and didn’t breath on anything. He finished winning the class with 9 marks in hand!
Watch our round here:
