Portman Tuesday

After Portman being cancelled last year it was just great to be there today, there is such a good atmosphere and a really big team effort from the Portman Hunt.  The ground was surprisingly dry but with quite a lot of dew the show jumping was quite slippery this morning, the ground on the cross country was perfect.

Michael Yarrow and his team had quite changed the course since two years ago, to a reverse direction and overall I think it was a bit more difficult.

Also the time on the cross country was quite obtainable so I have always come home feeling quite speedy, this year the time had gone crazy and it was all but unobtainable on a nice young horse.

 My day, as seems to be the fashion, started very early on Under Oath (Crunchie), finally competing with his real name.  He caught me by surprise because he really came out on his toes and was all over the place.  However true to form he settled down very quickly, got on with the job and did a lovely test of 27.  Show jumping wasn’t massive but it was a funny tight track and the ground was very slippery on the turns.  He had two down but I was in no way disappointed, he jumped a lovely round and was just a bit green a couple of times.  The cross country was every bit as difficult for him, and having competed on the flat at Tweseldown and Gatcombe it was quite a big question to be going up and down some really quite decent hills.  He started off a bit surprised and green, but he really grew all the way, jumping the water at the end foot perfect.  He came home full of running but with 16 time faults.

I was having my second run on Balu Gidran, he actually did quite a nice test although he got 32, overall I was pleased with him, he jumped very well in the show jumping but got quite strong and keen, and ran me in very deep to one which he couldn’t have cleared.  He gave me a super ride cross country, was very on the job and honest, and I was very pleased for the stage we are at.

It was Grafennacht’s first outing of the season, and she was certainly very happy to have something interesting to do.  She did a perfectly good test to score 30, but it wouldn’t have been of her normal rather high level.  In the show jumping she jumped a lovely clear and was actually very sensible, particularly as it is the first round on grass she has done since Osberton.  She also flew around the cross country, as she always does, making it feel like a hunter trial.

I am back there tomorrow with the two new boys, Greenfort Gorgeous George and Centurian Bay, and I am very much looking forward to having them off the mark too.