Barney Rubble - Bromont - June ‘23

This is a video for the Barney Rubble Syndicate. Well guys, we're coming off a very successful weekend at the Bromont three day event. We had Barney in the CCI two star long which was a very very competitive field. There was nearly 30 horses in the class and Barney was the very, very, very first horse to go. His dressage was Thursday morning and I have to say guys, it's the best dressage test that we've ever got on Barney. He was awesome. Bettina Hoy was at the farm the week before in Pennsylvania and we worked Barney quite hard and it's the first time that I really felt like we, we nailed every movement. I feel like he's slowly but surely becoming a real professional in the ring. Sadly for us, we were the very first horse to go and this happens at some competitions and unfortunately it happened at this competition where the judges were, were very, very stingy at the beginning of the class and then as the, the competition went on they got more and more generous. So now we scored a 29.7 which a pretty good score. But if you remember we did the same test at Tryon last year in November and He got a, a 27. And in my opinion this was a much, much better test. We finished 11th after the dressage and I don't know, it was a bit frustrating and a bit annoying sort of watching some of the other horses later in the class get gifted schools that for tests that weren't as good as ours. But by saying that guys, we're really using these competitions as a stepping state event as we, we put Barney up the levels and this will be the last time we probably compete at this level with Barney. He's moving up to the intermediate three star level and he felt seasoned in all three phases this weekend he felt like a champion in the dressage, then in the cross country he was unbelievable. These events, these three day events really, really suit Barney where we can get him settled in, go to the competition a couple days early, ride him a couple days before the test, get him into the arena and he just, he's a high energy horse and he still had plenty of juice left after the cross country and show jumped fantastic on Sunday. So going back to the dressage, so one judge gave us a 72% and then the other judge was 67% which anyway, that's enough of me whinging. But it was, I couldn't understand it. We finished 11th after the dressage and then the cross country unfortunately was so busy with so many horses we didn't have much of an opportunity to video his cross country. But he was fantastic. It was a seven minute course. You had to go like the clappers and Barney was a champion. We, I misjudged it by one second. He was one second over the time, got a point four of a penalty which didn't change the final placings and then trotted up like a champion on Sunday morning and then, and then show jumped very, very well Sunday. So I really feel like hanging out at the preliminary two star level for a couple more events was, was good, good for the horse. You know, he, I know we took him intermediate earlier this year and he was a bit green and a bit in, you know, rattled and I have to say pausing for a moment and just getting consolidated at this level was, was smart because he's a, he's a big, strong, brave horse but he's sensitive and he's careful in the jumping. So we've got to make sure that we don't sort of abuse his gung ho attitude and ask him to do stuff that he's, he's not trained to do yet. But I feel that we're definitely trained to move up to three star on the intermediate level. His soundness has been fantastic. You know, often after a hard cross country run like this, the horses trot up a little bit stiff and sore out of the stall first thing on the morning the next day. And not Barney, he was up on his toes and he's been a very, very healthy horse which is great. I think this cross country clip that we see, it's about 3/4 away around the course where we're nearly home by then. And this was a water jump that all the distances feel a little steady on him. Some horses went across here in seven strides and five strides and Barney went across there on six and a very steady four. So he's got a massive step. And like I said before, this is Sunday morning after the, after the cross country and Barney presents well, nice and healthy. So I think we'll, I'm in Germany at the moment doing Le Mullen five star assault. Planning on giving Barney probably three weeks vacation. Now it's in the middle of summer, the ground's hard and we've just had a really long preparation and a big event. So I think he, he's got a well deserved rest and then we'll move him up to the next next stage in his career which is probably find some intermediate horse trials or three stars. So most horses are a bit tired from yesterday in the show jumping but as you can see Barney is still fresh as a daisy and he jumps so high that actually making the time in the show jumping is a little bit of an effort because especially over these first three jumps he was little bit on cross country mode still. And the best thing about this round, I've watched it a few times, is that he, he actually starts settling down about now and completes like the, the technical part of the course with good control. The great thing with Barney is you don't have to tell him to jump higher. He, he's got scope to burn. My jumping coach, Peter Wild was there, so was Eric Devander and Bettina as well. So we had three fantastic coaches helping us along in all the phases. And I think as we go up the levels it's actually going to suit Barney more and more. This show jumping round is almost a bit too small. If you remember, we jumped him in a meter 22 weeks ago Saugerties and he almost was a bit better over big offences where it backed him off a bit. So anyway, we finished in fifth place, finished on Dressar score which is a good achievement. And the best thing about the competition is Barney did it very, very easy. So he gets a well deserved rest and very, very excited for his.