Alex took Astier's Charm to Great Meadow's two-star event, where the horse scored 28-29 in dressage and jumped clear, but withdrew before cross-country because the footing was too hard and burnt-out. The plan is Tryon in mid-September, then eventually three-star level if conditioning allows.
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This is a video for Katie and Alex and everyone at Stirling Equestrian. We took our man Astier's Charm down to the Great Meadow International. We competed him at the two star level, which he's been at a couple of times this year. And now he's starting to feel like a seasoned veteran at the two star level. Now this is the dressage test. He did his test on Thursday, Thursday lunchtime and there was, I want to say there was like 40 or 50 horses in the class. And I know you guys aren't dressage connoisseurs, but for some reason Charm is just a freak of nature on the flat. The judges love him. He scored a, I think a 28, 29 or something like that, which, out of all these horses he was second. After the, after the dressage, which was pretty impressive, unfortunately, the ground condition for the cross country was they hadn't had rain in Virginia for like a month and it's quite sad when we got there, the footing on the cross country was very hard and the grass was all burnt and brown. Anyway, we were very competitive. After the dressage and show jumping, I think we were either in the lead or second place. I nearly got greedy and jumped on him and spun him around, but honestly I didn't see the. I feel like risking an injury or his health or his soundness over one victory. That's in the big picture of things, not that important. So I decided to withdraw all the horses actually and save him for another day. He's been trotting up really well and he's a healthy horse horse. But one thing I found with the venting is they all of a sudden, once they start, start going a bit unsound, then it's a, it's a real, just frustration and headache. So it's important to keep Charm in good health. So yeah, we decided to put the white flag up and, and withdraw after the dressage and show jumping by saying that the dressage and show jumping so good in eventing terms that he's going to be a hard horse to catch in the future just because every single competition we take him to, he just puts in an outstanding performance on the flat. And because of his show jumping background, he usually gives us a clear round in the show jumping. So as long as he doesn't spook too much in the cross country, he's a very, very competitive horse. Our next event will probably be at the same level, two star short down in Tryon. I think it's in about three weeks time. I want to say it's like September 16th, 17th or something like that. At the moment I just feel like we're getting cham just a lot of experience and exposure to this two star level. And he's pretty close to the point of moving up to three star now. Obviously the show jumping is a breeze for him and then this dressage is outstanding. And just the education and him understanding all the different questions in the cross countries, the. The last piece of the puzzle and making sure that his conditioning and his fitness is up to par once we do these bigger, longer courses. I have to say he got the show jumping here in a minute and he show jumped as well as I've ever had him at Great Meadow. We had Peter Wild come to our farm on Monday before the show and give us some training and he jumped very well there. We've been jumping him a little bit bigger at home over the small fences. He. I don't know, he's not that impressed and he almost spooks a bit more when he's not very impressive. So we've been jumping him sort of meter 25 meter 30 at home and he starts really using his body and he's technique a lot better once the fences get bigger. The show jumping here at Great Meadow was a nice big ring so we could get a bit of pace up and he jumped really well. There's usually a couple of fences on the show jumping course where he has his sort of big look and hesitate, but I don't know. He was very, very good in this. I was sick as a dog at the show. I got the flu off Silva. Silva's been. She's heavily pregnant and it's got the flu. And then I somehow caught it and ended up at the show struggling like hell for the couple of days at the competition. But I'm coming good now. I'm about to head over to England to do a big five star at Burley. Anyway, guys, Charm couldn't be going better. Like I said, I feel like we made the right decision not competing him in the cross country. And as competitive as I am, I think every now and then it's good to take a pause. And I keep thinking of the big picture with Charm. But he's an incredible horse and I'm just amazed of where he's going in the sport. It's outstanding.
