Boekelo and a Nations Cup win

I have had a very exciting finish to Boekelo with Grafennacht finishing second.  It was a nice relief that everything went to plan.  She gave me a brilliant ride cross country, she made the course feel like a straight forward OI, and she did the time comfortably.  It wasn’t the most frightening and technical course but there were plenty of questions and she will hopefully have gained a valuable experience.

After cross country she moved up to second with the overnight leader holding her position. 

Today she couldn’t have jumped better.  She is a good jumper and worked hard at the show jumping part and the clear round was no mean feat.  We have had a lot of help jumping from Ros Morgan.  It was descent track in an electric arena and she really did the job well. 

The time was tight and I did get a time fault but it my excuse is that I rather hopelessly lost a stirrup and wasted quite a bit of time flopping around trying to find it.  Even if she had done the time she wouldn’t have won as Sophie jumped a very polished clear and really earned her victory. 

It was also exciting to be on the continuing GB role with another Team win in the Nations Cup.  The competition in that was quite tight so, although I say it myself, we did well to pull off a victory.

Grafennacht will now have a nice holiday and her plan next season would be to hopefully aim for Kentucky.   It was a shame Amanda Gould couldn’t make it out to Holland to watch, hopefully she will be able to travel more easily next year.

We have had the sunniest Boekelo on record and are now on our way home in pouring rain – good timing!  We are hoping we don’t have to fight our way through the Brexit, EHV and Covid carry on at Calais and Dover.