Boekelo, Holland

 Many apologies for the delay on our Boekelo update.  

It was rather a mixed event for me.  Gaucho overall performed really well.  He did a good test but made some little mistakes, which were very expensive, and left him on a score of 48.  Across country went really well and I was really pleased with how he finished, although we did incur 8.4 time faults.  Apart from the fact he took a bit of a dislike to both the water jumps he gave me a fantastic ride, and felt very within himself.  The Boekelo waters always cause some peculiar jumps and he just seemed very confused with so much to look at.  He is never one to say no, but he did have a good look.

He looked excellent that evening after cross country and trotted up well on Sunday.   It was very out of character that he had three rails down in the show jumping and that was a real shame.  It sounds strange but he jumped a very good round.  The ground was very wet and loose, but that is no excuse, and there is some consolation knowing that several other good horses had uncharacteristic penalties.

However it is great to have him back fit and well and the experience looks to have taken nothing out of him.

Fernhill Pimms did some good work in his test, also made a couple of small errors to finish on 45.  Sadly his bubble burst at fence 8 with a silly runout, so I decided in the conditions there was no point carrying on. 

They will both now have a well earned holiday and I look forward to riding them both round a Spring 3 star.

As always Boekelo was a hugely successful and enjoyable event, but conditions made things slightly harder overall.  Though we were very lucky to have some dry weather for cross country and show jumping days.

We have now arrived in Lyon after a quick turnaround.  Jackie and the team have done a superb job getting Luxury FH, Henton for Fun and Top Biats looking fantastic.  We have had a good journey out and have arrived in a very wet and gloomy France......it feels like we have moved from sitting in one soggy field to another! 

Hopefully conditions will improve as Lyon is a beautiful venue, best enjoyed by everyone in some sunshine!