Charm, an event horse, won the Preliminary level competition at Pine Top in February, scoring 23.2 in dressage with multiple 8s and 9s, clearing show jumping, and finishing cross-country in 5:59. The horse excelled across all three phases despite occasional spookiness around water and flowers.
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This is a video intended for the Stirling Equestrian Group. Well, Katie and Alex, I hope you guys are going. Well, Charm is an absolute star. We moved him up another level this weekend to the preliminary level. So this is sort of the equivalent of the FEI two star level. And it was a pretty challenging course for him and I didn't quite know what to expect from him because obviously he's been in fantastic form. But it's, it's quite a leap from the training level up to preliminary level. And he's seen the dressage test here, this is on Saturday, and he went like an absolute ripper, mate. He scored a score of 23.2, which is Michael Young stuff. He got lots and lots of eights, some nines, and he won the dressage. I think there were 17 horses in his class and the judge absolutely adored him. And again, like I said before, it was the first time. He's doing leg yield in the, in the dressage and medium canters on the circle and counter canter and it was, I don't know, he's really, really gifted in the dressage, which is, it's a huge surprise to me, but he's very, very rideable. He's a flamboyant mover and every single dressage test that we do on him, he wins. Actually last weekend we took him dressage show and I've got a dressage rider that sort of helps me with the younger horses, a girl called Louisa Morgan and she rode him at the dressage show and he won that as well. He won the, the first level dressage test three and first level dressage test three one. So who would have thought that Charming Charm would be a dressage queen? Anyway, I was more worried about the cross country than anything this weekend. Obviously the show jumping has been very easy for him. He's done so much training and it's probably bred to show jump the green parts, actually, the cross country. And he was bloody brilliant today. So he won the dressage on Saturday. Then on Saturday afternoon, he show jumped clear. So we had a five point lead going into the cross country and I said to myself, what about if we just cruise around nicely? And I couldn't believe it. He made made the time by one second. So he won the class his first prelim against some good horses and he not only won it, he won it by, you know, four or five points, which is pretty exciting. Funny enough, the cross country today, even though it was a really, really challenging course, it almost like having it a bit complicated and a bit for him to do almost took a little bit of the spook away. Usually when it's not that challenging for him, he finds things to spook out like the jump judge or the flowers or stuff around the course. I mean, he's still, he's still a little bit sharp as you'll see in the video in a minute, but less than usual. And I have to say he, you know, my question mark as a big time horse was his ability to gallop. And I mean he gallops like the wind. And because he's a little bit spooky, I've only got a snaffle in his mouth for the cross country and he sort of backs off the jumps just nicely. He doesn't get too wild and strong where you have to sort of really argue with him to get back. So anyway, that's our winning dressage test and again, I'm always confident going into the show jumping with him. And lucky for us this weekend they decided not to put a Liverpool in and he jumped around the course. Beautiful. I feel like he's getting like a little bit stronger in his body just from, you know, just from his general work. He's got good weight, good muscle on. He's trotting up really well at the moment. He's been very, very healthy, which is always a good thing with these event horses. So anyway, we're going to start migrating back north to Pennsylvania. I think we're start sending the horses home this week. So Charm probably be back up at the farm in Unionville on Wednesday or Thursday. He'll have nice easy week of just hacking and flat work and might give him a light jump just before he leaves. And then I think in three or four weeks we'll do another preliminary competition. Same level as this, probably up north. North. Just getting some more mileage under his belt. So this is the cross country, this is charm. I mean, this event we go to Pinetop. The reason we go there is because of this cross country course. It's really good turf and beautiful big property and can really sort of open the horses up and let them gallop. This water jump was, was toug enough. I had a run out on one of my other young green horses here. But Charmer's a good boy here. A little bit of a spook at the water but then jumps it and he sort of gallops over that, that hedge Spooky. And then here he has a bit of a typical Charm spook there. Then he hops over this big ditch rail like it's nothing. This a fence that's early on in the course, this is something he's never seen before. It was a corner and then bending downhill to another corner and like I said before, it's. I don't know, there's a lot to spook him but now that we're sort of really having to be exact in a ride, I don't know, like, it's almost like it, it's a little bit more to, to. For him to focus on. Still has a bit of a spook there, I don't think. Leave him. And funny enough, it's worse in the warm up. You know, in the warm up they've got lots of flowers and stuff around the warm up fences and I don't know, like, I probably warm him up over a few more jumps than the other horses just to try and get that out of him. This is towards the end of the course and so it was a. The time on the course was six minutes and Charm made it around the track in five minutes 59. So he, he's a legend. You can see here. He actually covers the ground really well. His ears are still pricked and he's got plenty of, plenty of fight in him. He's. He keeps trying and never lets you know that he's tired, which is a great attribute in a venting horse. Anyway, guys, I, I can't tell you how proud and happy out I am with him. Two wins down here is incredible. He keep on impressing me.
