Rockingham & Weekend

Rockingham Saturday was a pretty good day and overall I could not have been happier.
 
Atlantic Vital Spark jumped a foot perfect clear in the show jumping, I then let him bowl on a bit cross country as I thought the course was a good experience and would be a good pre-Tatts outing.  He made it feel like a hunter trial and I probably should have taken a few tighter turns and got a few less time faults as he frustratingly finished 11th, and after the dressage and jumping he was right up there.
 
For Grafennacht it was her first ever 3*S and I was very happy with how well she jumped in the show jumping, but she was unlucky to roll a pole.  As usual she thought the cross country was a piece of cake and did a good clear, and she got her Lion d’Angers qualification in the bag nice and early.
 
The jumping parts were vital for Summer at Fernhill as he needed his qualification for Tatts.  Happily he delivered with a lovely clear show jumping, and on the cross country I could turn him wherever I wanted which made life much more straight forward.  I now feel he is really ready for a 3*L challenge.
 
The day finished off with Georgisaurous who once again jumped a fabulous clear show jumping, I don’t think he touched a pole.  On the cross country, if we think back to Withington when I thought he was slower than I thought - here it was the opposite because he was much quicker than I thought. He came back with 10 time faults to hold on to a very satisfying second place behind the totally on form Piggy French, who I think is currently unbeatable, so I was certainly never dreaming of popping ahead of her by going fast enough cross country.  10 times faults is plenty quick enough for George and he is really feeling much more established and grown up.  Tatts will be a big question for him but I am very confident he is ready.
 
James & Lizzie and the Rockingham team put on a fantastic event.  I love the atmosphere there, it is a real close team effort.  They do so much for the pony club with a full crazy day of show jumping on Saturday (10 hours) and goodness knows what happened yesterday.  They had made a huge effort turning their cross country course around, which was really appreciated to have a change after 6 years.
 
Yesterday was a peaceful day at home and I managed to go and see Tamborine’s lovely Oslo filly foal at West Kington with Tessa Clark, and although I say it myself she really produced the most attractive filly who is a very smart little model.  Getting totally carried away, I am now very excited about thinking of putting her in foal with Tamarillo’s foal Tomatillo.