“Well, I've been so busy these last two weeks that I didn't have time to write my blog, so I'm writing the last two weeks together. I collected my new horse Nelson, who is absolutely gorgeous. Big, black TB. I'm hoping he'll be a good one for the young event horse class later this year. I also dropped Bomber off for his holiday at Sue Cross' for the next month.
It was my best friend Jennys' 30th birthday so we went back to Suffolk for a few days with Jasper, Harry, Amber, Tweedy, Nelson and collected Fly, Neil and Mossey Warmsleys' event horse who currently is at BE 100 level. He is also an Irish Sport Horse. Exciting to have two new horses!
For Jens' birthday we went to see Keane who were incredibly good live in Thetford Forest. Thetford Forest, however the weather wasn't too kind - felt more like winter not summer! We had an 80s themed fancy dress party, which I decided to go to as Margaret Thatcher. Wig, blue suit, pearls, handbag. etc. Had a great night and I was voted best dressed. Good fun. In between all the socialising, I was riding all the horses. I deliberately took with me the ones which wouldn't be ridden that much while I was away.
On the way back I had lessons with Anna Ross Davies with Harry, Amber, Tweedy and Jasper. We worked on changes and the preparation for them, more relaxation with all, but also better responses as sometimes these can be a little delayed! Feeling confident we went back to Kent.
Monday was spent washing, vacuuming and generally cleaning the lorry, making her look perfect for our long trip ahead. I rode all the horses and we left for Germany at 5.30pm. I always prefer to travel through the night even though it is fairly exhausting as there is no traffic. This was to be a mammoth journey, 11 hours from Calais. We arrived mid-morning fairly shattered but Jasper travelled very well. I had a few hours sleep as soon as we arrived, then rode in the evening.
I've never been to Luhmuhlen before, but will definitely be back. The organisers could not be more helpful and friendly. The place had such a lovely atmosphere too, very relaxed but didn't lose any of the special buzz you get at a 4*. The main arena had plenty of atmosphere, and the XC was big, square and had four waters! It was flat but there were undulations in awkward places to test horse and rider. It wasn't overly technical but there were plenty of questions and problems spread evenly across the course. The dressage was just on Friday as there were only 43 starters, even so was a reasonably strong field with Oli Townend with two, Mary King with two, Andrew Nicholson had two, also Lucy Wiegersma had two, Ingrid Klimke and Andreas Dibowski also had a horse each. Jasper was three quarters of the way through the field. He performed a lovely test, just a small mistake in his canter half pass where he changed, but other than that was very relaxed and accurate for 43.
This is a personal best, after the day we were lying in fifth and only 3.8 penalties behind the leader.
On Saturday, XC day I felt much more relaxed than usual. This I believe was due to having planned and gone through everything to the last detail, so no stone was left unturned. It may sound corny but I really felt that it was all just going to go brilliantly and that I would do very well. My relaxed manner definitely suits Jasper as he happily wandered around the collecting ring, I could pick up my reins and jump a few fences and then drop them and he would wander around again. Perfect. We simply trotted through the start box and he galloped off. He set off in his usual brilliant style, careful and fast. I had knocked my watch and then restarted it again at one minute, wasn't too sure how I was doing so just went as fast as possible! He flew the first half in copybook style. I was determined not to make a mistake; I wanted to do well so badly. He was answering every question too. I nearly got carried away at the end and found a distance quite short two from home! He was superb though and finished a few seconds inside the time. I was delighted! And in second place!
He looked very good the next morning and trotted up well. When I watched the 3* jumping it was evident that the time would be tight; well, I have never jumped a three day event show jumping course like it. Big, square, long and a very tight time. Thank goodness I was on a jumper as the early rounds were getting masses of time faults, I watched carefully and worked out where to save time. He warmed up brilliantly as usual. I felt more excited than nervous as I knew we could do very well. We jumped the first two superbly, then had the third down. That wasn't in my plan! However, I put it behind us and carried on as fast as I dare, with as tight lines as possible too. It payed off; we had no time and one down. I could be no worse than second. They took us off to check the boots and I could only see the two fences Ingrid had down and I said to Sophie, 'I think we've just won' with that the whole British team came running across and told me I had.
Wow. I still can't quite believe it, what an amazing horse. Amazing support, Sophie and my long suffering parents. Also, I have to thank Charlie Unwin from Performance Legacy who gave me advice and help with how to plan - including winning! I had the best week and hope that we will now get selected for WEG; we'll see, we've all done our best. Jasper will now have a few weeks off, but not too long as I'd like him to run at Gatcombe in August. For now he'll have lots of Polos and treats. What a superb champion.”
.JPG "William Kennedy")
