I went out competing on Thursday at Burrows Court, not far from us in Gloucestershire. I took my sister Pippa’s ride, Belmondo, as well as my own home-bred mare Amo, and entered both in the advanced medium and prix st georges.
I’m riding Belmondo while Pippa, who is 15, is busy at school. She doesn’t mind, she likes riding him after I’ve done a bit of work with him. He won the advanced medium on just under 72%, beating my mum [Pammy] into second on Bronco R.
Belmondo then did his first PSG and scored 66% — exactly the same score as Amo who was on her second attempt at the level, so that was weird.
On Saturday I had young rider squad training with Erik Theilgaard on Abira. We were working on quickening his hindleg and the selectors said they were pleased with how he’s going.
Erik’s very demanding, but not in a bad way. He always wants the horse in self-carriage with a good hindleg and some positive tension — so they have expression when they go in for their test.
I went out on Saturday night in Cirencester with some of the students at Talland. We got back home reasonably early — about 2am — and I slept till 1pm on Sunday.
On Sunday afternoon we went out to the cinema and saw The Unborn. It is quite a frightening film and, although I wasn’t particularly scared, the girls that came with us kept leaping out of their seats and grabbing on to me and to Paul, who was the only other guy from Talland there. On reflection, it possibly wasn’t the best film choice for them, but then again I do get forced along to chick flicks all the time!
Til next time,
Charlie
