Gatcombe Day 2

Day 2 at Gatcombe was a tougher day all round, with weather conditions beginning to really affect the going.

However, I had a very exciting win on Henton For Fun in the Intermediate, my first win of 2014.  He did a nice test on 28.2 which had him in the first few.  He then show jumped a really good clear in the difficult ground, and cruised round the cross country for 11.6 time faults, to win comfortably by 6 marks.

I think the going certainly slowed everyone up as you would not normally win an Intermediate at Gatcombe with those time faults.  He has been very consistent at Intermediate level, never finishing out of the first four, and he is now one point from upgrading to Advanced.

Bay my Hero was very pleased to be having his first run of the season.  He led his section on 24.1 and did a very smooth test.  He had two poles down show jumping and jumped a good clear with 19.6 time faults cross country.  Kentucky is looming fast so it was great to have got him out.  We will now focus on some serious fitness work before having one more run.

Luxury was slightly too happy to be out, and scored 37.7 in the dressage.  He wasn’t bad considering how long ago his last competition was, but he made plenty of little mistakes.  He had two fences down and gave me a great ride cross country with 16.4 time faults.

Top Biats did a lovely test to lead the dressage in his section.  He jumped a superb clear in the mud over what is certainly the biggest track he has ever jumped, this was only his second Intermediate start.  He then went very well cross country and as far as I am concerned was clear, but he got a technical 20 penalties because I had to turn a circle in the woods when we ended up in the trees.

Congratulations to Patty and her team for battling the elements and doing such a fantastic job.