Weston Park

Weston Park happily all went to plan yesterday.  It was a busy day with five horses competing and an antisocial 3.30am set off but it was well worth the trip, particularly as the going was as good as I have ever seen it up there.

Seacookie, Running Order and Neuf Des Coeurs were running in the Open Intermediate.  Seacookie was having his last run before Rolex Kentucky CCI4* at the end of the month.  His dressage was a little tense but I was pleased with how he felt to score 32.7.  He jumped a good clear show jumping and was excellent across country.  I let him go a little bit faster to give him a nice run before America and he thoroughly enjoyed himself, picking up 10.4 time faults to finish 9^th.

It was good to get Running Order out again, only my second run on him and it was a big improvement on Tweseldown.  He did a good test to score 33.6 and then jumped double clear, coping much better with the slightly deeper ground in the show jumping.  I took him steadily across country, picking up 20.4 time penalties, but he still managed to finish 8^th.

Neuf Des Coeurs was very excited to be having his first run of the 2013 season.  He shot off the lorry on arrival and remained in that frame of mind for the day! He managed to contain himself in the dressage to score 30.9, had one fence down in the show jumping but was largely out of control and he flew around the cross country very confidently.

Chilli Morning and Oslo both had really useful runs in the Advanced ahead of their Spring three-days. 

Chilli did another fantastic dressage of 24.6 which left him in 2^nd place over both sections.  He show jumped really well  and clear but with 3 time penalties as I decided not to rush him.  I let him run on across country to get just 12.8 faults. This felt a really good speed, a nice pipe opener without hurrying him and he finished 4^th in his section.

Oslo did a good dressage to score 29.3, but still with a couple of moments where he was a little distracted.  He show jumped superbly, clear inside the time and gave me a fantastic ride across country coming back with 12.8 time faults to finish 5^th in his section.  Both horses pulled up really well and felt good in their fitness, which is encouraging.

Janet Plant and her team as usual did a fantastic job.  There was still snow lying around and about so preparation work must have been very tough.  The courses rode well overall and there was some nice changes, but perhaps one or two rather short distances!