Chatsworth

It is 2 years since I ran 3* so a good mixture of nerves and excitement having walked Ian Stark's beautiful course. Luke did a really pleasing test, with three bips...two wobbly halts and a wee canter in his half pass. Overall I was delighted that he was so settled and rideable, and pleased that with a few tweaks I'll be able to improve on his very respectable score of 54. Unfortunately the show jumping ran quite late, and he isn't a big fan of warming up anyway, so he got quite buzzy, but once in the ring, jumped his socks off. I just let him bowl on a little down the related from 7 to 8 which he tipped out the front rail for a pesky 4 faults! The cross country was fairly beefy but a course I couldn't wait to jump, and he felt the same! He was fairly strong the first half of the course which meant I wasted a fair bit of time setting up, but he felt back to his brilliant best jumping boldly and listening to me for the second half. A great result to finish 15th and tick the 3* box! Next stop Bramham for him.