Photo by Kevin SparrowThis was Likeur's (Lucky) first International competition. We had been nominated to compete after achieving some consistently high scores lately and it was his first outing with the Union Jack on his saddlecloth.
We arrived on Wednesday and after getting all four horses settled in and worked we eventually sat down to eat at 9.30pm. Thanks to Vanessa, my client who was competing in the premier league section of the festival, we had a lovely spag bol under her new swanky gazebo.
Thursday was Charlie's turn to compete in the Premier League Grand Prix. It wasn't his best test ever, however, he did get two 9's for his two tempi changes from the International judges and we were placed 8th.
Lucky flew through his trot up for the CDI, despite a long battle with a skin infection in his leg prior to the show he looked like a two year old springing up the arena and refused to stand still for the ground jury. We finished up the day with more of Vanessa's cooking, this time fillet steak! Lindsey was enjoying someone else taking the responsibility of feeding us all for a change as she had three horses to groom for.
Friday was the first day of the CDI with the Prix St George. Lucky went well and we finished 8th on 65%. Just a little tension in the trot work kept us from the top 6 places. After all the other horses had worked, I helped Vanessa with some last minute test practice ready for her first competition in two years the following day. That evening we headed off to Carl Hester's birthday party at his house nearby.
Saturday was the CDI Inter I with Lucky. After slowing down the speed of the trot I was really pleased with how the test was going until a mini hurricane blew up just as I started the canter work. The arena boards started to bend and wobble and the rain meant that everybody watching on the bank got up to put their coats on! He coped well but got very tense and anxious so that left us in 10th place on 64.8%.
On the same day Bugsy had his first day competing in the Premier League Advanced Mediums. He was still feeling very fresh and really enjoying staying away at a show. He entered the new indoor school with a huge amount of presence and confidence then just lost it a little in the test. He finds it all quite exciting but loses concentration at times but is definitely a star in the making. He finished the day with two 2nd's - one on 68.9%!
The last day of the CDI was the Inter I freestyle. It was always going to be a difficult day as we were using Nemo's music and there were inevitably a few tears shed. However, it proved worthwhile as we produced a lovely test with a brand new ground plan that was untried in competition and finished 4th place on 68.9%. It was great to finish well up the placings - well done Lucky!
Our day was far from over though, Bugsy was 3rd in the medium only due to the fact that the background music in the indoor school was too loud for me to hear the test being read!
Vanessa also finished up a great week by winning the medium restricted class on her first time out.
