In this video update for the Barney Rubble syndicate, the rider reports on the horse Barney’s recent three‑star short competition at the Carolina International FEI event. After arriving early to acclimate the nervous, high‑energy horse, Barney delivered a strong dressage test as the first of 40 horses, earning a third‑place finish with scores around 30 and judge percentages of 72% and 68%. The following day’s show‑jumping round was described as a “tough” but successful course where Barney jumped cleanly, showing his sharpness and carefulness despite his fiery nature, with only one rail down in all FEI events to date. On Saturday’s cross‑country, Barney rode a complex, twisty course, finishing six seconds over the optimum time (6:33) and incurring 2.4 time penalties, but the rider praised his comfort and confidence throughout. The rider discusses specific management tactics used to calm Barney (early arrival, pre‑competition schooling, morning rides) and the challenges of slowing him without triggering a head‑neck reaction. Looking ahead, the rider targets the three‑star long at Bromont in June, a short at Fair Hill in about a month, and another upcoming competition, expressing confidence that Barney’s talent will translate to higher‑level success. The update concludes with a plan for rest, light hacking, and a return to dressage work.
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This is a video for the Barney Rubble Syndicate. Guys, we're on our way home. After a very, very successful weekend with Barney, we took him down to the Carolina International where we contested the FEI Three Star short. And Barney was fabulous. Like in my email said, we arrived actually a day or two early, which was perfect for Barney because as we've discussed in the past, he can be a nervous, anxious, fiery, enthusiastic horse when we first get to a show. So by the time we did this dressage test, I'd actually ridden him two times and also given him a lunge. And luckily for us, we were able to school him in the arena the night before. And that sort of just gave Barney a moment to take a deep breath and get familiar with the surroundings. As you can see here, he went and did a lovely, lovely dressage test. He was the very, very first horse to go in a class full of nearly 40 horses. And this was first thing on Thursday morning. And I was so pleased with him. I know I've been promising you all that once we get to these bigger competition, Barney will impress us just because he was very nervous and edgy at the two pinetops we did in February. But he was fantastic. So he finished third place after the dressage, which is pretty impressive because he was the first to go. And there were 40 horses in the class and we got a score of 30. One judge had us nearly winning the class on 72%. The other judge had us fifth or sixth something on 68%. So, I mean, we're slowly but surely climbing up the levels with Barney, and these were the sort of top judges. And you know, I've said all along, Barney just has so much ability and so much talent. The hardest thing is he's a. He's a tricky horse to ride. But I was very pleased because he of was like this in all three phases. We had dressage Thursday, the show jumping on Friday, the cross country on Saturday. And each day I got. Got up early out of bed and gave him a ride in the morning and just got him out of the stall and got a bit of energy out of him. And he's starting to. Starting to really, you know, settle in and give me some really top work. We had a little bit of rain. On Friday evening, so the cross country footing was decent. We've got a fair bit of his cross country to show you in a minute. And I opened him up a little bit. I didn't go flat tanger, but we were nearly got the time. We were five seconds over the time, which is probably the fastest I've gone on him, which was good. He's got so much speed and jump and you know, I've always said that once we get to these higher ranks, he's going to shine through. The. The show jumping course was. Was pretty tough. Obviously Barney is a fabulous jumper and it's a wonderful feeling having a quality jumper like Barney. Anyway, I think after successful run I've got my sights set now on a major goal would be the three star long at Bromont, which I think's in June. Looking forward to this. I think in about a month's time there's a. Another three star short at Fair Hill, just down the road from where we live in Pennsylvania. And then a couple weeks later, another. We'll find another competition up, up to give him one more run. And then I think he's a real good chance at winning the Bromont 3 star long just because I think Bromont will be a similar competition to this where we'll get up there a day or two early and get the energy out of Barney and produce a test like that. But obviously there's still miles of improvement to come. It was just rewarding because we've been working very, very hard on Barney, especially in the dressage. And it was nice actually, finally getting a good score and a good result. So the show jumping at the Carolina Internationals actually on a big grass field can be tricky just because the horses can see the cross country jumps. And again, Barney was obviously the very first horse to jump. So all my competitors were watching to see how the course rides. And Barney's. I'd say this is his strongest phase, the show jumping. He came out there and jumped fantastic. Even though he's a bit of a wild man and can get a little fiery, he's so careful. He's very, very sharp. And he did a couple inside turns and really didn't even have a moment having a rail down or a touch. I think in all of our FEI events to date, he's only ever had one. One rail down. Pretty impressive. It's one of the only horses in the stable that we're trying to actually encourage to jump a little lower. Sounds ridiculous, but we're. One of the hardest things with Barney is when he. When he over jumps the fences. And this is one of our better rounds to date. So the cross country, we were sitting in third place before we started and I sort of said to myself, alright, well, let's have a. Let's pick it up a bit. The footing was good and he was in a strong position but I also, I didn't sort of go crazy, if you know what I mean. I tried to ride him still fluid and smooth and catching the fences out of stride but not crazy fast. It's an interesting course at Carolina. The first third of the course which you're seeing now is around a racetrack on the quite flat ground and then it gets very sort of twisty and up and down and I mean the hardest thing with Barney is slowing him down in front of the jump without his sort of head and neck coming back at me, which is a bit of a challenge when he's getting a bit fiery and going too fast and then after balance him and slow him for the jump. Sometimes if you just pull on the reins, he doesn't slow down, head and neck invert. So it's a bit of a. It's a tricky ride where you've got to be quite tactful in not being too sharp with your hands with Barney trying to gently slow him down without him necessarily looking back at you and getting hollow. So yeah, like I said, the, the time on the cross country was 6:20 and we finished in a time of 6:33. So just six seconds over the time we picked up 2.4 time penalties. If this was like Bromont or a really important competition that we want a top, top result, I'd be able to make the time. It was sort of a fence here or there where I just slowed him down a little bit too and I didn't sort of go crazy, crazy fast. But as you can see, that's a pretty complicated course. It was as tough as course as we've had together and he's getting some experience and some mileage at the three star level. And I'd have to say he felt very comfortable around the whole course. So anyway, we'll give Barney a little good couple quieter days, let him freshen up and unfortunately he'll probably be a ball of enthusiasm by the time I start working him on the flat. Probably give him tomorrow off and then one or two hacking days and then get back to work with his dressage Monday or Tuesday. So I'm very, very pleased with him guys. I very, very confident that this is a big time horse. He's a work in progress. He's a handful, but he's definitely worth the effort.
