Aston - Intermediate day

Overall we had a very happy day at Aston on Sunday.  Yes I Can was having his first run since Tatts and was feeling very good.  He did a decent test to score 28.  In the jumping he actually jumped pretty well but had 2 down which was frustrating.  There were no excuses.  On the cross country he felt very good, he jumped a nice clear with a few time faults.  The course was nice and straight forward for him and the ground was excellent after watering and rain so I did bowl on a little bit.  After his first 4*L in Tatts he definitely felt that he has come on a bit.

Summer at Fernhill has had his last run before the Test Event.  He has very excitedly been asked to go out to Tokyo and he leaves in a couple of weeks.  It will be an amazing experience to take him and we are looking forward to seeing how things are in Japan, having never been before.   I am also helping Kazu so it will be a nice busy trip.  His dressage was rather out of control, his arena was by the cross country and the last thing on his mind was dressage, and he was certainly lucky to get his mark of 32.  In the show jumping he was very much on his toes but jumped well, just having one silly pole.  In the cross country he felt great, I let him roll on a bit on the good ground and he only got 0.8 of a time fault, and I wasn’t timing myself so he was covering the ground well.  He will now work on his fitness work for Tokyo, he will do some heat preparation training, a lot of working in the heat of the day and wearing rugs, it wont be very nice but it will be good for him to get accustomed.  I am also hoping to take he goes there nice and fit even though he is doing a 3*S.

Grafennacht was my third horse and she did a lovely test of 24, with nothing much wrong at all.  In the show jumping she was pretty good, and unlucky to have a rail down. She cruised around the cross country with 4 time faults and finished 3rd.  She was quite close to a win had she finished on her dressage score, but she had a good run and is hopefully ready for the BNC at Gatcombe next time out.