Despite the weather, which could have got badly in the way, this was another immensely enjoyable visit to the Blair Three Day Event where Mistral certainly captured the eye.
It was undoubtedly his best combined performance and he was up against a whole raft of far more qualified horses. However that gets us somewhat ahead of events.
Hotel
We stayed at Kinnaird for the first time in twelve years and were glad to see that the service and food quality had not lost any of its very high standard. For my daughter they asked on the first night if there was anything not on the menu that they could get in for the next two nights of our stay, and happily satisfied her request without prompting. Excellent attention to detail. We were actually staying in the Keepers Cottage
Just away from the main house, and outside of the décor, everything was excellent and very relaxing.
The Horses
Nicky had two horses competing in the three day event, with Cherry law competing in the One Star and Mistral in the Two Star
Trig Point also had a cameo role competing in the BHS Working Hunter Final on Thursday, and it was good for him to get a flavour of the big scene as this is likely to be one of his target events next year.
Major brickbats to Perth & Kinross Council for launching roadworks just 1 mile South of Blair on the Friday morning which lasted through the weekend. An extraordinary display of incompetence and poor planning ahead of a major bank holiday weekend and at the start of Blair’s major weekend. The tailbacks were massive, and having been caught once we detoured via the Killiecrankie turn off, which only added 2 miles to the journey and saved a huge amount of time.
The Event
We drove North on Thursday into some particularly foul weather and arrived during a torrential downpour necessitating an early detour to the House of Bruar for wet weather kit.
The lorry park was already churning up nicely and owners at this stage were being directed to the members car park (of which more later)
We had missed Cherry Law’s dressage which had left her 92nd on a 65.7 in a high scoring class, but were in time to see Trig Point come 5th in the Working Hunter Final knocking one pole down in dire conditions
Trade Stands
It also gave us the chance to orientate ourselves for the next few days amidst the wide range of stalls, which were roughly the same number as last year. I suspect trade was a bit sluggish and although there were a good number of people attending the weather and the economic conditions seemed to have taken their toll from the feedback garnered from a couple of regulars. Their next stop is Burghley and Blenheim so I await further feedback from their next loop South.
A number of supporters also appeared over the three day for NBR which was very welcome and we also came across a number of other we knew
The Sanderson’s had come up from the Borders and stayed late to watch Mistral, before driving South, along with Sara our vet , and numbers were further boosted by the Douglas’s from Saughtree. Rhona and Peter Elliott were also backed by the Scotts from Dolphinston, so it was just as well Nicky had bought a bigger tent. Alec Lochore was also a welcome brief visitor between his TD responsibilities.
Many thanks also to the commentators for keeping everyone well up to speed as to what was happening in the various phases, and for good comments about Mistral. These certainly helped as I was powering around the cross country course in pursuit doing my own version of the fun run. Despite Macchiatto not being here it was good to see the Kiers who had come all the way from the
Friday Dressage
Mistral did his dressage on Friday morning, and when we turned up for the warm up he looked surprisingly calm, and certainly not the way he had been behaving two days before. Many thanks also to Chris King for taking time out to cast a critical eye over the warm up, as he had seen the more feisty version also. Thankfully the calm nature continued into the dressage arena and Mistral certainly produced his best test for us to date, and scored a 50.4 to put him in 17th place. I particularly like the picture attached of him in front of
The difficulty up to now has been to try and get him to deliver on the potential that is clearly there, and this certainly goes some way towards that goal, though I suspect he is likely to remain somewhat tricky at times.
We also then walked the Cross Country Course while Mrs Kerr checked out the shopping potential, and nearby gardens. There were considerable similarities to last year’s courses with the exception of an upper loop that had been taken out at the top of the hill. This didn’t mean that the fences were any less challenging as one was to discover as the various classes unfolded and given the very hilly nature of the course and the testing ground one did wonder how some of the horses might cope.
Saturday Cross Country and a major grump on parking
More rain overnight (but not as heavy as Thursday) left the ground heavy on the cross country course but certainly rideable.
That is more than can be said for the Car parks which clearly felt the brunt of the wet weather. The lorry parks remained out of bounds quite sensibly but owners were told as they were directed to gate 2 that due to the muddy conditions they were being directed on a different route to their car park. We than found ourselves directed into the distant General Public car park and were told the members area was closed off because of the mud. Having then checked out what was going on we then found other owners had got into the members area and that the mud was certainly not as bad as portrayed. There didn’t seem to be any discretion used either and Rhona Elliot , who was trying to see Cherry law, but suffers from MS, and has a mobility vehicle was sent of to the same distant area. Simply ludicrous.
Now a 4 day season membership for Blair is £50 per person which includes access to the members enclosure, parking etc, while it costs about £450 once stabling etc is included to enter a horse. If weather conditions are less clement as they have been at other events this year, and the lorry park is unaccessible it doesn’t make a huge amount of sense to send owners way off into the distance while members are parked a lot closer. In our case we arranged a compromise for Sunday, but if we have our three horses entered next year I hope a better solution is found, should the ground conditions be as difficult. Belton still gets my award this year for the car parking arrangements for owners.
One Star
They has actually set off the Cross Country late on the Saturday, which meant that were able to see Cherry Law (when we thought we had missed her). She looked as though she was cruising round the course, and she even took the longer option at the second water and still came in 10 seconds inside the time. As an ex racehorse she certainly looked as though she wasn’t really stretched unlike some others who certainly looked as though it was a struggle. There had been 118 starters in the 1*, so a big class and 22 came to grief on the cross country course, with 43 getting round clear inside the time.
The top of the leader board was fairly tight, and Cherry Law had leapt up the rankings to 42nd
A very stiff Three Star
Before we got to the two star we had the small matter of the three star to contend with, and the field got a lot smaller as the phase progressed.
Looking down the list of the 32 entrants a few names stood out as being obvious contenders, and that was down to 29 by the time the event started. We had seen Chris King on the Secret Weapon do a superb dressage to lead the field, but he was due later. Polly Stockton was an early casualty as the 17th and 19th to be followed closely by Ollie Townend at the second water. Lucinda Green came unstuck at the corner after the Highland Coo which also accounted for several others , Imperial Master ran out of gas and was wisely after napping for no reason early on, Chris King had a surprise run out, and there were several other retirements. The most shocking fall was a real heart (and brush fence) in the mouth moment for Laura Shannon at the very imposing Open Ditch where the horse leapt the first element and seemed to ignore the need to jump higher the second part on the other side altogether. It hit the log going across the second part with its chin as Laura hit the brush element face first and then was thrown back sharply as the horse ended up in the ditch. We had seen this from behind, and having seen the photographs of the side on view it looked even more frightening. The horse ambulance was on site within a minute and the shields were up very quickly (again within a minute). After what seemed like an age suddenly Quixotic leapt out from the ditch was trotted up and looked absolutely fine, which was a huge relief for all, with Laura Shannon up even more quickly. At the end of the cross country we had lost 12 of the 29 starters a 41% casualty rate, and there was only one round inside the time clear, and eleven clear jumping. Oliver Townend also has to be commended for trying to stop a rider who so clearly run of gas by the time they reached the last that they could barely trot, and he was genuinely concerned for their survival. The stewards having originally considered taking action quite rightly waved that. Ollie had pulled up Imperial Master three before the finish for similar reasons, and there were a number of horses across the classes who simply found this a very severe test due to the ground. This might have been an event in general for the stewards to have stepped in where horses were struggling, and given how conscious one is of the challenges in the sport I am very much in favour of riders having a role to play where safety in concerned.
Two Star
Anyway over to the 2* which was perceived to be a slightly easier course than that of the previous year.
After Houghton when Mistral was somewhat exuberant on the first part of the course which was flat, I looked at the hilly nature of this course and clearly this was certainly not one to let Mistral go going downhill.
Unlike Gatcombe, the Hill comes earlier. There were one or two fences including the second water, where he had spectacularly taken a stride out last year that were clearly worth considering too, as was the double coming down the hill. It was still possible to see a significant amount of the circuit if one ran up the hill and back down so I was able to see him from 3-5, at 7 than form 12-18 and 20-25. Unlike many of the horse he showed absolutely no sign of fatigue anywhere on the course. Nicky sensibly held him back on the downhill sections,. Despite the distance in the second water being extended he still managed to take out a stride and he had to be pulled back at the last. He did come in with 5.2 time faults, which we anticipated, but as far as the obstacles were concerned this was not a problem and he seemed perfectly happy to do another lap. In this phase at least he clearly is of advanced calibre.
Of the 64 starters 13 came unstuck and were eliminated or retired, on the cross country with 39 clear, and 14 were inside the time, which looks slightly more balanced.
Sunday Showjumping
The showjumping again provided a very stern test in all classes, and it was very very tight at the top.
One Star
Paul Sims just held on from Richard Jones and William Fox-Pitt in an amazingly tense battle in the one star
There were only 17 clear rounds out of 93 finishers and included in that was Cherry Law who came 28th just finishing in the money but not quite being the highest riser in places from dressage
She gets two more points to boost her total to 36 and to 22 for the season
Two star
There was no less tension in the two star, and certainly for the early riders time was proving as much of a problem as the fences.
The standard undoubtedly improved as we went up the field perhaps not surprisingly as there were a large number of advanced horses
Mistral rapped the third element of the treble down but otherwise jumped extremely well and ended up with four faults to finish 17th just a place outside the money and higher points.
There were only 8 clear rounds inside the time in total indicating how tough it was, and again William Fox Pitt was knocking at the door. There was simply no scope for Sarah Cohen’s Irish Jester to make any mistakes , and they went round brilliantly clear to win. The top seven were Sarah Cohen, William Fox Pitt, Dan Jocelyn, Matthew Wright (clear in a torrential downpour). Polly Stockton, Piggy French and Polly Stockton indicating the class in the field.
Mistral’s 17th was enough to earn Nicky the Top Scottish Rider Trophy, the first time she has won this since Glen Corran picked up the one star version in 2001
Also having scoured the programme it was clear Mistral was mixing it was a whole raft of advanced horses with the average points total of the sixteen horses in front being 94 against Mistral’s 23, and none being anything like as low. Not surprisingly he did capture quite a lot of comment and considerable attention from a number of the senior riders, not in the least for his natural scope at the water
Putting all three phases together for the first time was very encouraging and we have to think what to aim at for the rest of the season as to whether we try to put in one advanced for qualification purposes or leave that till early next year. Mistral gets 5 points to move him to 16 for the year and 28 in Total.
Three Star
This was short but anything but sweet. We had missed most of it and I just came back in time to see the last horse go with Paddy Muir aiming for her first three star victory. With the rider in second being eliminated through a fall and the one in third having a fence down she had five fences in hand over Duarte Seabra. Somehow that wasn’t enough and a staggering eight fences fell. Chris king improved to third behind Clark Montgomery. Four of the seventeen managed to go clear.
Points for the Yard
Another seven points for the yard taking the total to 66
Cherry Law edges back above Trig Point and is now on 22 for the year (and 36 overall) as against his 21, with Mistral now up to 16 for the year and 28 overall.
Cherry Law 22, Trig Point 21, Mistral 16, Freddy Curtis 4, Rare Hero 2, Lady B 1.
Next outings
Rare Hero, Freddy Curtis and Trig Point go to Little Gatcombe this weekend with Freddy and Trig Point both going up a grade in the CIC 2* and 1* respectively.
The weekend after it’s the Burghley Young Event Horse where Fiddlewood and Stonedge are taking part, though I wont be there.
Then in the Diary we have Freddy Curtis and Rare Hero entered for Necarne, which might just be an event too far for me.
There is some debate about Aske and Witton at the end of the month with some decisions due this week, but attention as we enter September will be on setting a qualification platform for next year and continuing preparations for a yard move after the season ends.
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