Weston Park

 It was overall a very happy day at Weston Park. It was typical England; there was bright sunshine, freezing cold followed by 2 hours of heavy snow.

When we arrived in the morning the ground was pretty much perfect and by mid afternoon it was certainly soft.  But the main thing was they all had good runs on lovely soft ground.  I can’t believe I am discussing soft ground because we have actually been getting very worried about ground getting too hard already.

We had four horses there today, and the day got off to a lovely early start, I of course overslept, but we got there in time but we certainly had a fairly busy day.  First on was Grafennacht who did a very nice test, she knocked the last part of the treble down being a little bit blase and then was great cross country, she gave me a lovely ride. 

Next was Georgisaurous who only got 28 in his dressage this time, problem with getting 18 one week is that the next week is always disappointing. But he did a very nice test and I was pleased with him.  He then jumped a lovely double clear feeling very confident and a little bit less exuberant this week.  I had much more control cross country and he felt more relaxed.

Little Fire remembered how to behave and did a nice dressage to score 28. He was a bit blase in the show jumping and rolled a couple of poles. Ros Morgan wouldn’t have been too happy with that.  Then he gave me a fabulous ride cross country, he really enjoyed the course and got stuck in and I was very glad that he was slightly less 'on fire' this week.

Oratorio actually had a very good day, he did a very pleasing dressage of 24.9, he did a very solid test and was totally what Chris Bartle would call 'a clear round' in the dressage. Of course there were bits and bobs that could be better but overall he was very consistent and confident. He jumped one of the few clears show jumping which I was really pleased about beacause the ground was quite soft and variable, and three down would not have been a disgrace.  He focused and tried very hard so has really benefited from his session with Ros Morgan last week.  Contrary to what the internet says he actually went very well cross country, he was straight and relaxed,  and was not too strong.  I decided that I didn’t like the roll top drop into the last water so I didn’t jump it.  He was there to have a good run before Kentucky and I felt the unpleasant drop was an unnecessary question, so I missed it out.  I didn’t finish the course so I hoped they might put him down as retired, but as he was eliminated first it doesn’t make good reading, and it has got everyone’s attention.  If I had raced him around and gone clear he might have won the advanced at Weston but Kentucky is his bigger plan and today was all about that. He finished very easily and will have really benefited from having a good run on nice ground, and fingers crossed all his bloods results come back clear so he can fly on Wednesday.