Choux de Brussell .. aka Sprout

Well my darling Sprout surpassed all expectations by placing 9th in his first CCI3* last week in France. He performed the best test of his life to score 54, although a little green in places his mind set was faultless and he did all the movements to the best of his ability in considerable atmosphere, an achievement in itself. We can now get braver and aim for higher marks with this stage of his development complete.

Cross country day was a long one. We didn't run until 5.11pm. The dear boy scorched around an incredibly testing track to finish 4th fastest, just one second over the optimum, which moved us into 8th place. However the drama didn't end as we crossed the finish line, poor Sprout suffered a bout of heat stroke and took a good 20 mins to cool down and regain his composure after finishing. An incredible team of experts from all around the world were there to assist in the process, thankfully resulting in no lasting ill effects. A worrying time for us all, especially as he'd shown no sign of it during his run, crossed the line full of beans and then a minute or so later became unwell.

His true grit, bravery and brilliance was on show for all to see on Sunday when he trotted up as fresh and a daisy and bounced around a testing show jumping course giving the fences feet to spare. Unluckily for Sprout I didn't quite get him balanced enough before the second last which he just rubbed to end with 4 faults, but a faultless performance by him resulted in a well deserved 9th ribbon and subsequent Badminton qualification for next year.

I was lucky enough to travel with fellow kiwi's Tim Price and Jonelle Richards who both had successful weekends and thanks to their hospitality and great driving skills I had the energy to arrive home on Monday morning at 9am and leave again at 10am for two days dressage training with Andrew Fletcher, and test riding and jump training with Gill Watson. Poor Gill had a nasty scare with her Ma being taken ill whilst Gill was helping me in France, thankfully all was well on her emergency return.

The home team have done an incredible job looking after Luke, Q and Willy in readiness for their three day events, so we're all set for Borde Hill on Monday and then to set sail for Bramham on Tuesday with three horses, via the gallops!

Magical Madness..

As the season progress the madness intensifies but thankfully with some excellent form to show for all the hard work. This week our alarms have been pre 3.30am more often than not with Andrew Fletcher dressage lessons in Leicestershire at 6am on Monday morning, Luis Alvarez show jumping clinic in Wiltshire at 9am on Tuesday morning, a show jumping show at Onley on Wednesday, Aston le Walls Intermediate on Thursday and then Chatsworth for the weekend!

My training with Andrew and Luis is funded by the New Zealand federation and feels as though their help, coupled with Gill Watson's regular input at home, is making a huge difference to the way my horses are performing.

So the jumping show at Onley saw Lyd jump a nice double clear on Missy, Little Luc had a slightly frustrating time on Ginge with him jumping three lovely rounds with the irriation that Ginge took exception to a green oxer in each round, and I rode Fish round for a nice double clear and Bonnie had the last rail in her second class.

Aston proved to be a somewhat frustrating day with Parker and Fish both doing their best ever tests, both jumping super clears show jumping and unfortunately both having hiccups on the cross country which is normally their guaranteed strong phase! I think it was to tune me up for Chatsworth.

At Chatsworth Lyd peformed brilliantly in her first FEI event on Missy to place 7th in the 1*. I took Luke and Q in the 3* and Willy in the Advanced, although the only difference was in the dressage test!! Luke did his best test to date to lie 9th, Q tried really, really hard and was slammed by the judges and Willy was rather bouncy but didn't score badly. All three boys jumped nicely in the show jumping Luke and Q had one rail and Willy a couple but it was certainly the biggest track he's ever seen. And then all three jumped lovely XC clears around a fairly meaty course. I was delighted. None of them broke any land speed records as it is their last run before Luhmuhlen or Bramham three day events but i was delighted with all of their performances.


So this morning we are unpacking and repacking in readiness to head off to France this afternoon with Sprout for the CCI 3* in Saumur.

Windy Withington

This weekend the team headed to what felt like the highest point in Gloucestershire, Withington Manor. Little Luc on WhistelJack, Lydia on Royal Touch and myself on Castle River all competed on the Saturday in the Novice sections. Luc jumped a super double clear, but had a frustrating time in the dressage, Lyd did a lovely test and tidy double clear with a strategically planned steady run meaning a few XC time faults keept her just out of the ribbons, and Parker did a nice enough test, had a couple down and a super clear XC.


Sunday saw new team member Fran Denning make her competition debut for us and what a successful day we had! Willy and Sprout both performed pleasing tests, followed by a clear show jumping for Sprout and one annoying rail for Willy followed by two super cross country clears resulting in Sprout placing 4th and Willy 13th. Such a thrill to have really cemented these two at advanced level. Huge credit to the Withington team for producing fairly immaculate going in a very testing spring weatherwize!

Sprouty is now hopefully set to 'allez en France' and Willy has one more run at Chatsworth before heading to Bramham. A quietish week ahead before a truly crazy month with Moreton Morrell, Aston, Chatsworth, Saumur, Borde Hill, Bramham, Luhumulen and Great Tew...can't wait!