Blenheim update

Here we are at Blenheim and it is looking amazing, the weather is completely extraordinary. 

Little Fire arrived in good form and was lovely and settled for his dressage which was particularly exciting after his tension in Tattersalls.  Needless to say we got totally drenched in the warm up, but the rain wasn't too bad in our test, I was overall very happy with how he went and how he coped with the atmosphere.  I had said to myself in the build up that I would be delighted if he had got between 43 and 45,  so to come out with a 44 was spot on.

It was a bit of a shame one judge was very down on him but the other two had him well up in the 70% bracket.  He made no mistakes in what was a very solid performance from his point of view, but there were just a few movements that he didn't do well enough, so that is all exciting to look forward to next season.

I was having my first ride on new horse Barrichello in the CIC3* and ironically he also scored 44.  He is a very flashy horse on the flat and he did some lovely work, and again a few aspects to his test were not established so there are things to be worked on this winter.  I was very pleased with his attitude and he has got real potential for doing a stunning test.

We are waiting for Oratorio to perform tomorrow and he is currently feeling very relaxed and happy.  

The cross country courses here are for the first year designed by David Evans who was Mike Etherington Smith's course builder, and he has certainly built a lovey course.  However on my first walk I felt the course was more of a two and half star in difficulty, but then a four star due to some of the distances at the combinations.  So it will be very interesting to se how the course rides.  The ground is currently pretty much perfect so they are very lucky to have had all this torrential rain.  

Kazuma Tomoto was also in the 3* and did a very decent test to be in the lead on 40.  He is really getting a good tune now and certainly they looked very confident today.