This was a terrific event that had everything to keep one entertained.
It was certainly eventful and had wildly contrasting weather conditions over the three days I attended
NBR Eventing
Competing this time round were Rare Hero, looking for a qualifying score in the CIC 2*, Freddy Curtis at CIC 2* for the first time and Trig Point attending his first International Event at CIC*
Also the event was given added spice with the Young Rider Final Trial, with strong local interest as both Emily Galbraith and Charlotte Agnew are Borders based , and Emily is looking after my daughter’s ponies
at the moment. The timetable suited as all of Nicky’s horses did dressage on Friday and I was able to watch the Young Rider trial from start to finish on the Saturday, before returning to the completion of the one and two star on the Sunday.
Accomodation
I stayed this time at Edward & Kate Gordon Lennox’s excellent B&B Well Farm in Frampton Mansell, within easy striking distance, and they were charming hosts.
I ate at the Crown in Frampton Mansell on the Friday evening, and the highly recommended Bell at Sapperton on Saturday with the NBR Eventing and Team Nicola Wilson.
Well worth booking for those who haven’t been, and the chef hadn’t changed as had been reported earlier. NBR eventing was based for this event at the Rank’s yard in Kemble, her old base.
The Event
The most dramatic action was on the Sunday though the medal for bravery may go to Antoinette McKeowen who broke her leg in the showjumping arena at the last element of the treble, and before the ambulance crew had a chance to get to her, had straightened her leg, because it was pointing at an odd angle. Ouch. Sunday’s cross country proved very testing with wildly differing weather conditions but that takes us away from the chronology
Friday Dressage
After a five and a half hour drive south, I was in time to see all three horses perform.
Rare Hero has his moments in the Dressage arena, and after a disappointing 76.5 at Ballygraffan we were looking for a qualifying score. After the first minute it was clear that this was going to be very tight. All the movements were there but he was very tense. It was equally tense waiting for his dressage score, but a 74.1 was actually greeted with a sigh of relief, as he has tremendous form in the other disciplines
Freddy had been working extremely well all week, but he seemed very tense even a couple of hours before the test and he certainly seemed spooked by something approaching the arena. His first four phases were extremely jumpy, but then he calmed down and seemed much looser and more relaxed than I have seen him in previous tests. However the preceeding horses had done excellent tests and therefore his 64.5 looked reasonably fair though disappointing. The potential is undoubtedly there and he is improving.
Trig Point was a different story. Though Nicky had to work him very hard, this was a much better test, and a 53.2 was certainly a good score in excellent company, and put him around 20th place in a field of around 115. We had to wait through Saturday for the field to complete its dressage but we could see he was certainly within the upper half of the field.
Saturday Young Rider Trial
This was a highly competitive class given the stakes involved, though they obviously had been based together for some time and there had been various other legs to the selection process.
I also discovered at this stage that Fernhill Sox ridden by Laura Collett was discovered to be missing a FEI 2* star qualification and was therefore ineligible. Having seen the final trial I could see how that would be a big miss. If one adds that to the confusion over the exclusion of horses which have done four star events such as Little Beau from earlier in the year, then we are putting ourselves at an unnecessary disadvantage. As someone new to the sport I find some the general qualification standards very confusing at times to decide what one needs to go up levels, and perhaps it could be made slightly easier to understand. It certainly might make the rule book shorter.
Anyway Emily Llewellyn led after the Dressage, hotly pursued by Dani Cuomo and Laura Collett, with the next group not far behind. Emily Galbraith with a 36 was only 6 off the lead.
In the show jumping 8 of the twelve went clear ensuring it would all go down to the cross country time, though Charlotte Agnew’s Out of Africa had an uncharacteristic 3 fences down.
It was the two Scots who led the way home in the Cross Country with Emily only having 1.6 time faults to snare third behind Emily Llewellyn and Laura Collett. Timing has come on in leaps and bounds this season I I was delighted to hear that Emily had made it back into the team and goes to Kreuth, and she will be joined by Emily Llewellyn, Georgie Spence, Dani Cuomo, Ben Hobday, and Sarah Stretton with a high standard set by all in the trial..
Sunday Showjumping and Cross Country
Back to the main agenda and if the weather on Saturday had been good and sunny Sunday certainly wasn’t. It was very wet in the morning and pretty dark all day which made jumping into the woods more than challenging on the cross country. Before we got there we had the small matter of the showjumping to attend to, and much to our delight it was a clean sheet for all three horses, with Rare Hero, Freddy and then Trig Point all jumping very well in pretty foul conditions, and trying extremely hard.
Two Star
The wetter conditions undoubtedly played a bigger role in the Cross Country and was at its worst in the two star.
Freddy was the first to go and had been making pretty good progress through some the more challenging fences that other had had problems with.
However seeing a slightly different stride to the one Nicky saw, he went and clipped the second last, the Discovery X question behind. At that stage I was still at the third last but could see him trying to recapture his footing, with nicky trying to rebalance him. However he then slipped again and she slipped off to the left, frustratingly close to the end. On further examination of the ground after the fence there were two absolutely massive skid marks where he had obviously tried to plant his feet with no traction. Both horse and Rider were ok, and having been cleared by the Doctor Nicky was off and round the circuit with Rare Hero, before I had had the chance to get in position. He came back with 16.4 time penalties to end up in 38th place. There were only two clear rounds inside the time, and 25 failed to complete, with another 22 having jumping penalties. This was clearly a reflection of the conditions. I have attached Freddy’s skid below as a slightly different take on the event.
One Star
At least the rain was less evident though the light would become an issue later.
The course was still causing some difficulty so I was seriously impressed with Trig Point’s round. He was taken steadily through the first six fences and then started to flow, and looked absolutely serene. The water complex at fifteen, with an irregular log was catching out a number of inexperienced riders, some of whom accelerated on their approach. In many cases this caused their demise. Trig Point took it without hesitation and cruised to the finish to have only two time faults, and he wasn’t being pushed. His time was one of the top ten though certainly these were not conditions to be trying, and there was one rider who went later on whose speed around the course was nothing short of breakneck, and a number of bystanders were fearful of the end result. The horse had gone round just before Bumble Thomas on Pebbly Victoria and Hannah bate on Vigo, and was one that should have been pulled up on safety grounds. 91 completed the course though 25 had jumping penalties, and 15 didn’t finish, with the wood claiming a number of casualties. As the round continued Trig Point continued to climb up the rankings and he finished an extremely creditable sixth, an excellent result on his first outing at a higher level.
Prizes and Points.
A sign of the time. The rosettes were given down to 28th, and with royalty present I found it most interesting to see how the prizes were received. They were actually given out by the head of the network group with her royal highness standing beside. There was only one of the 18 who actually curtsied to the princess royal (and several almost ignored her altogether) and perhaps there shouldn’t be any surprise who that was. (picture at beginning of blog).
On the other hand, I was slightly surprised to see that the cash payment to the winner of the class of which there were 116 entries, didn’t cover the entry fee and start fee. Now there were a few other goodys thrown in, but I would have thought that for all International events, or perhaps all events altogether, that if you get placing points, then you should at least get your entry fee returned. Perhaps that could be limited to the top six, but I did find it astonishing (as did the winner) that the actual prize money didn’t even reach the entry and start fee.
That also brings me onto the points system for three day and one day events. I gather there may be some changes in the wings but I do feel that International events such as the CIC* at gatcombe one should get higher points than at a simple one day event. I am not sure of the tariff but looking at the entry list at gatcombe relative to Trig’s win at Hexham and Aske where he gets 6 point I ma not sure that three seems the right result.
Points for the yard
The yards points total for the year is now up to 73 with another 7 collected at the weekend. Rare Hero now moves above Freddy Curtis, whilst Trig Point returns to the top of the leaderboard overtaking Cherry law.
Trig Point 24, Cherry Law 22, Mistral 16, Rare Hero 6, Freddy Curtis 4, Lady B 1
Next Stops
Burghley Young Event Horse. Fiddlewood and Stonedge
Necarne – Freddy Curtis and Rare hero
Aske – Cherry law, Fiddlewood, Mistral (Intermediate) , Sky Rhode, Trig Point (intermediate) , Whistling Willow
Witton – Freddy Curtis, Mistral (Advanced), Trig Point with others TBC
The Blog looks set to miss Necarne and the looks set to come back for its last outings this season at Aske and Witton.
After five weeks in a row it probably needs a couple of weekends to draw breath
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