Burnham Market

 You may have heard that Burnham Market was another casualty to our British weather. Alec and Emily Lahore and their team from Musketeer worked miracles to make anything happen at all.

On the Friday things were looking good, everything was drying up well.  Graffenacht did a very nice dressage test in the 4*, bits and bobs will hopefully improve before Badminton but she did a very respectable 28.4. 

Then of course it rained all Friday night, and by Saturday morning the show ground was submerged.  They decided not to run National classes which was very tough on many, but in cancelling the day on Saturday they could at least run Sunday a little bit.  

So sadly Gurtera Jimmy Clover didn’t get to run in the Intermediate.

Duke Legacy got to do his dressage in the 3* and he did a decent test of 29.  He had some very smart moments and there are several other bits that are improving all the time.

Moonlight Charmer then did his Advanced dressage later in the afternoon and I was pleased with his 30.  He did some lovely work and was very consistent.

So then it was on to Sunday and finally a bit more action.  The weather had stayed dry so the ground was improving all the time.  The show jumping had been relocated up to the top to where the dressage arenas are, as the show jumping arena can get quite squidgy, that was a very smart move.  The amount of work that took is really appreciated by the riders.

The show jumping ground was now superb and Duke Legacy just rolled one pole, but I was very pleased with his round.  He gave me a very decent round cross country.  He took on some quite serious lines to corners and was very genuine.  He had one little glitch early on where he decided something was very scarey and had a bit of a knappy moment.

It was then on to Moonlight Charmer, and he did a brilliant clear show jumping, and although he got an infuriating 20 he gave me a very good ride cross country.

Last of the day was Grafennacht who jumped a superb clear and gave me a very good feel cross country. I pushed her on a bit and her 20 time faults was largely due to me having to turn a circle which was not plan A.  She jumped a ditch fence very crooked and I ended up having to circle because I couldn’t get her to the next part.  So Grafennacht has now had three good runs and the plan is to take her to Badminton, she is now qualified and will work on her fitness.

We were very lucky that the Burnham Market team kept the show on the road, I am sure weekends like this don’t encourage many organisers to carry on in the sport, and we are so lucky to have teams like this that get these events to happen.