Tattersalls - weekend update

Tattersalls Horse Trails 2014

I had a mixed day on Saturday with ups and downs.  It started well with a great round on Luxury FH who went clear inside the time.  This was by far the biggest track he has ever done, and he coped really well with all the questions. 

Henton for Fun gave me a superb ride but he had a 20 coming out of the third water which was a real shame.  He still managed to finish with 5 time penalties, and overall I was very encouraged by how classy he felt.

Gaucho had to wait to the end of the day to run in the 3*, and having gone fantastically he started to tire near the end so I decided to pull him up.  This was a real shame, he is such a fantastic horse to ride but just found the 10 minutes a long way.

In the show jumping for the 1* Topaze jumped a superb clear to finish on his dressage score, and move up to 17^th place.  This rounded off a very impressive weekend for him, and when he produces a dressage test he is capable of he will be hard to beat.

Top Biats felt fantastic, jumped a lovely round.  I was completely caught by surprise when he touched the second from last fence for 4 penalties.  With only 3.7 penalties in hand I could not afford a fence down so he dropped down to 3^rd place, and was frustratingly beaten by 0.3.  He also had a fantastic competition and will have come on a lot for the experience. 

For both these horses this was their first 1* completion.

Luxury and Billy came out of their cross country rounds really well, and both horses jumped good rounds on Sunday.  Luxury was clear and moved up to 2^nd, Billy just touched the last part of the treble.  I am very excited at how both horses went, and am looking forward to seeing how they feel when they start competing again in July.

As always Tattersalls was a top class competition, the organisation was fantastic and the good weather was the icing on the cake.  Margaret Spiers and her team deserve all the credit.  Riders very much appreciate the opportunity of competing at Tattersalls, and I am very grateful to Edmund Mahony and Roger Casey for all that they do making everyone feel so welcome.