Bicton update

Sadly cross country day didn’t go as planned as I had to retire Oratorio on the cross country course. He had been feeling fantastic and was as fit as he could be so I was very optimistic that he would fly around the course.  This was not to be and I felt him feel very flat after about 3 minutes.  He had really lost his gallop and jump and I was very confused, however I quickly decided enough is enough and pulled him up. To discover he was having quite a significant nosebleed.  That straight away explained everything and we are now investigating what could have been the cause. I have never had a horse bleed on the cross country course before and I hope we can find sufficient explanation so that we can campaign him for either Fairhill or Pau.  As always it is good that he had not injured himself and that we have all come away in one piece, but I had really hoped for a top 5 performance had things gone to plan.

It was a brilliant result for Gemma.  Chilli Knight is a real galloping machine and he obviously liked the hills at Bicton.  Naturally I felt very sad for Pippa to be second but she put in an impressive performance and will be very happy with Billy Walkoff.

The Bicton team did an amazing job putting on a 5* in eleven weeks, the cross country course was beautifully presented and being so down on the entries and spectators it must have been very tough to make any money.

Huge thanks to the Chedington team and the Elite Eventing TV team who helped make it all happen, and it was a brilliant job done by Andy Fell without whom we would not have had this - the only UK 5* of the year.

It is a busy time of the year for everyone at home and I am off to Team Training with Little Fire today and then it will Cornbury at the weekend followed by Blenheim next week.