In this video addressed to the Barney Rubble Syndicate, the rider recaps Barney Rubble’s first FEI three‑star short competition at Great Meadow, Virginia. He describes the dressage test on Friday, noting it was the most challenging test Barney has attempted, and reports a 34.8% score, which he deems a solid first effort. Concerned about the rock‑hard footing, the rider chose to skip the cross‑country phase to protect Barney’s joints, explaining that a short‑term gain would risk long‑term injury. On Saturday the pair completed a show‑jumping round, with the rider highlighting Barney’s talent, flamboyance, and the need to work on balance and control. A brief schooling session with Peter Wild is shown, where Wild helped refine Barney’s jumping technique. The rider also mentions battling flu after catching it from his wife, but confirms he has recovered and is preparing to travel to Burley, England. Looking ahead, he outlines a competition plan: Plantation three‑star short (Sept 22‑24), Morven Park three‑star short (Oct 13‑15), and a future trip to Burley. Throughout, he reflects on Barney’s temperament, progress from a “wild” horse to a more settled athlete, and expresses confidence in the horse’s development trajectory.
Chapters
This is a video for the Barney Rubble Syndicate. Well, guys, we took Barney to his first FEI three star short down in Virginia, the Plains Virginia at greatmeadow International. And he was very good. He was a bit green, but he actually sort of performed as well as I could have hoped. This is the dressage obviously that we did on, on Friday. So it's sort of good. We got Barney down there on Thursday and exercised him a couple of times close to the rings. And all in all I was pretty pleased with him. This was by far the sort of hardest dressage test that he has ever we've asked him to do. It's obviously what we're seeing here is a half past before was a shoulder in we've had there's three or four canter walk canters. So there's lots and lots of sort of tricky movements that we've obviously practiced a fair bit at home but never really had to perform. And gotta say, he's pretty good. We scored a score of 34.8. We which on our first attempt is not too bad. Just once we get it all cleaned up and get a smooth test, he'll be very, very hard to beat. But at the moment we're sort of just doing our very best just to get him through the test unscathed. I was heartbroken when we arrived at Virginia. If you see in the background, it looks like Sarajevo back there. They hadn't had any rain for a month and the, the ground for the cross country was rock hard. And I sort of wanted to run Barney cross country, but I also, I'd just be kicking myself if we made him lame. But by doing this cross country course with the hard footing and I don't know, I just think it would jar his joints up and bruise his feet. And in the big picture or the long scheme of things, missing the cross country on Sunday at Great Meadow is not going to change his career, but it could change his career if we damaged him. Getting greedy. So we did the dressage on Friday and then show jumping on Saturday and then we headed home Saturday night. Barney's next competition is, is going to be the plantation three star short. That's on September 22, 23, 24. That's going to be a big tough course for him, but he's gonna fly around. Your gate is A24. A24 is the gate for Madrid. And this year I think obviously we did the first half of the year at the two star level. Now we're moving him up to the three star intermediate level and My sort of vision for the second half of this year is just give him some experience and some mileage at this level and then we'll come out blazing next year. And hopefully this time next year we'll have a four star horse. Peter Wild was at our farm earlier in the week and honestly he was being a bit wild and feral and he'd been jumping so well. And I was a bit disappointed actually, because he'd sort of gone back to his feral wild ways of going crazy after the jumps and putting his head in the air. And the maestro, Peter Wild hopped on him and schooled him around for 25 minutes. And by the end of the session he was perfect. And then you'll see show jumping in a minute. He jumped really, really well at Great Meadow. In the show jumping, he's like the dressage, you know, he's such an amazingly gifted and talented and flamboyant horse. Really. The, the biggest thing is just working on the control and the, the rideability and the balance between the fences and same in the dressage here. Just trying to, trying to keep a lid on him. I had a rough couple days at Great Meadow. I got the flu from my wife when I arrived there on Thursday. God, I was sick for the dressage day in the showjaming day. I'm coming good now though. I'm about to head off to England to have a crack at Burley. So my health is coming good. Thank God. So I think, you know, for Barney's finish of the year, we'll do the three star short there at Plantation September 22, 23, 24, then again three weeks later at Morven Park. We'll do a three star short there again. That'll be on October 13, 14, 15. I was loving the hot weather come show jumping day. Barney, he's a bit of a wild man and he was actually just a little bit quieter and a little bit calmer in the show jumping just because of the 100 degree temperatures. So he jumped really well. Hardest thing with Barney is just actually staying with him in the air. He jumps so big, it's hard to stay in good balance with him with your position. I was very, very pleased with the way he jumped. He has moments where he gets a little bit fast and wild, but generally speaking, he's a good boy and he's ultra careful. He doesn't want to go near the rails. He's very, very careful. And if he should ever tap a rail, the next jump you've got to hold on because he just jumps higher and higher. But I have to say, it's getting better and better. Like, if you remember, when we first got him, he was a little bit out of control all the time. And now he's settling right down. Anyway, guys, I'm very pleased with him. In hindsight, I'm glad we didn't risk him and run the cross country and we'll save him for another day. And definitely on the sort of the right. The right path. He's going great. How is our friend doing?
