What an eventing competition the World Equestrian Games (WEG) was. A real cross-country test and some masterful riding by the GB team.
William Fox-Pitt really is super-human, his cross-country round was incredible right up to the moment he had to practically lift Chilli Morning over the dreaded fish at the final water. Only William could have got him over! I was gutted for him that he didn’t get the richly deserved individual gold, but huge congratulations to him for getting the bronze.
What an absolutely tragic end to the cross-country day with the news that Wild Lone, Harry Meade’s ride had collapsed and died. He must have given Harry an awesome ride round such a tough track and I really cannot express how sad I am for him to lose such a fantastic horse.
A huge well done to Team GB for winning the silver team medal.
Treborough Hill and Keysoe
I was at Treborough Hill on the Saturday, which meant I missed watching the cross-country action live, but thankfully Skippy (Abakala Flagmount) made it worth while.
He did a nice test for 33, sadly marred by being spooked by a sheep that decided to get its head stuck in the wire beside his arena! In the showjumping I decided to try out a new bit, which he wasn’t very happy in, and so had a couple down — a lesson learnt not to experiment at an event. He then flew round the cross-country for a lovely clear.
We then made the long journey to Keysoe in Bedfordshire on Sunday afternoon. We stabled there on Sunday night with Myrtle (In Vogue II) and Ruby (Rubabell Cruise) competing on the Monday.
Thankfully the mammoth journey paid off with a great day. Myrtle was in the intermediate and Ruby in the novice. Myrtle did a good test for 33 and then followed that up with a fantastic double clear with just a handful of time faults cross-country. What made this even more impressive was that she lost a front shoe on the cross-country at fence six.
The cross-country caused a huge amount of trouble and she ended up being one of only four double clears in her section and finished third. We have had a few issues cross-country recently, which I have put down to not having the right bitting. Hopefully that is now behind us and I can now work her up to Gatcombe and Osberton two-stars.
Ruby was also fantastic in her novice, doing a 32.5 dressage and staying on that to finish in second. Our long journey home felt a little bit shorter off the back of such a good day.
A charity challenge
A couple of weekends ago I took part in the Bicton Charity Challenge, a relay competition with eventers, jockeys and showjumpers going head-to-head in aid of the Injured Jockeys Fund. It was a fantastic evening, even though our team didn’t win. The jockey’s team, including fellow H&H blogger Nick Scholfield (picture right) put in a sterling effort to finish second to the showjumpers.
I put their performance down to the fact that Nick was riding one of my horses — he said in his blog last week that if he were for sale he would buy him — well Nick he is for sale…
Rosie
