“As he was such a good boy when I took him to regional foundation squad training a couple of weeks ago, Zu, the rising seven-year-old Lusitano stallion, had his first proper outing last week at Merrist Wood on 19 March. His owner, Sherie Vicary-Carter, came up to plait him up and get him ready as my plaits in his long mane aren’t yet good enough to be seen in public! He certainly scrubs up well and we definitely looked the part.

First proper outing

He was a good boy in the warm up but it being his first proper outing and with him being a stallion, he just struggled to maintain his concentration for the entire time but he behaved beautifully and we had no unscheduled airs above the ground or capriole, which Zué is very good at! In the first test, he managed to stay concentrated until we had to do our halt immobility when, and it was just bad timing, a horse walked past the arena. However, he did come back to me and there were definitely good bits and bad bits to the test and we finished third - not bad for his first test.

Natural ability

It then wasn’t long until our second test so I went back into the warm up. He at times got himself a bit wound up and showed everyone his natural ability for a piaffe, but he did settle back down and his second test was much better, he stayed with me much more and his concentration was better but he had got a bit tired and felt a little bit wobbly and green in places which kept the score down. However, we were very pleased with it for his first outing and he now just needs to go out again and gain more experience and then he’ll be well away!”