Burgham - day two

We had a happy day 2 at Burgham. I seemed to be riding endlessly but didn’t do an awful lot.

The day started off with dressage with Oratorio in the 4*, and he did a very pleasing job.  They had all been fairly lit up on their toes yesterday so I was very relieved that sanity was returning.  He did a very solid consistent test, there were a few things he could have done better but there was no misdemeanours, and he ended up with a score of 29. I would liked to have been a bit more in touch with the mark but I was very happy with the horse. 

Next up was Little Fire and I was again very relieved to feel some sanity returning.  He did some lovely work and tried very hard. He wasn’t by any means perfect but it was a very good performance at his first biggish event for nearly 18 months.  His trot work was pretty good but a little jog in the walk and some exuberant changes would have been expensive, but I think I am nitpicking. 

We then fitted in Under Oath’s cross country. We had a good downpour so the ground was a little bit wet but the going was pretty much near perfect.  I kicked on and he gave me a faultless clear, comfortably inside the time, and held on to his 4th place going in to tomorrows show jumping.  He will have learnt an awful lot from today which will have done him a lot of good, and he will hopefully have grown up a lot.  Lindy and I felt very proud!

The final quick turnaround was onto Grafennacht for dressage.  She was doing her first ever 4* and only the second time she had ever done an Advanced test in a competition arena.  I was delighted with how she coped and how she went.  The atmosphere today was far more electric with a very strong wind and some flapping flags, and the cross country commentary too, so the fact she coped well was all credit to her.  She got a very respectable mark with some seriously good horses and is lying in 10th place on a score of 25.  Hopefully that gives me a good taste for what she has got to come, she is one of the youngest horses in the field.

Lexi did very well with Chico’s Man and, apart from a few annoying spooks, he did a very pleasing test and came away with a slightly disappointing 35, but we were mainly very happy with the horse.

Tomorrow is going to be busy day with 9 things happening, and fingers crossed for Under Oath in the show jumping.