Barney Rubble competed in his first intermediate horse trial of the year at Pine Top, Georgia. He was too excited for dressage but jumped clean through a demanding cross-country course with double skinnies and water jumps. The rider plans to return to Pennsylvania before heading to Carolina International in Southern Pines.
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This is a video for the Barney Rubble Syndicate. Well, guys, we took Barney back out to Thompson, Georgia this weekend and he contested his first intermediate horse trials for the year. We were at this event two weeks ago. He just did the prelim as a bit of a warm up event and it started getting a bit serious with a quite a challenging, challenging competition. It was a very competitive competition, lots and lots of horses in it. And Barney was fired up. He was very, very excited to be doing dressage. There's something about this ring. It's sort of the ring that's closest to the cross country. And I think out of the corner of their eye they can see the show jumping as well and the advance for show jumping on the ring at the same time. And Barney warmed up well. Steph lunged him for a fair bit in the morning and then I had a good long warm up on him and he was giving me some great work. But as soon as we went around the arena, Barney lit up and he was having trouble sort of containing himself, which is, it's frustrating to be honest, guys. He is so talented, this horse. He'd be one of the most talented horses I have. And he, he's a wild man. These competitions that you sort of turn up and pull him off the trailer and take him down to a new ring and he, he really struggles with it. And you can see, you know, in this trot work we had to do shoulder in and then half 10 meter circles and then haunches in. And Barney thought we wanted to canter. So yeah, the old dressage judge didn't, didn't think it was too, didn't mark us too kindly on these particular movements by saying that. I feel like halfway through this test Barney actually took a breath and relaxed and the canter work was very, very good. So, you know, I'm sure you guys all got my email before the competition. These early competitions of the year are really for me just training, schooling, sort of shows, you know, of getting the horses off the farm and you know, getting them around some different courses and sort of feel where you're at with the, where you're training. And obviously we want them to go as well as they can go and, but the, we're not necessarily trying to win these early ones. And Barney's a, he's a, he's a tricky horse. He's unbelievably gifted and talented and he's a fiery, energetic, enthusiastic horse, which I love him to bits, but he, he wants to go. So anyway, we've had a good ache And Barney's done two or three jumping shows. He's done a couple of horse trials, and he'll be heading back to Pennsylvania next weekend and heading back to the farm up in Cochraneville. And basically our next event will actually be a one that should suit Barney. It's going to be the Carolina International. And the reason it suits him is that we'll probably get there a couple days before the. The competition starts, which will mean that I could probably ride him twice a day and get him in or around the competition arena and spend a fair bit of time acclimatizing. Barney going back to the dressage here. He's got a wonderful canter. And I felt like actually once we got to this canter work, he started to give me some of the. The quality that he's been giving me back in Pennsylvania. I think Peter Wild's actually coming to the farm down here in Aiken this coming week. So I think I'll try and sneak in a jumping session with Peter towards the end of the week before Barney gets on the truck and goes back to Pennsylvania. And then we'll have a couple of weeks training in Pennsylvania and then he'll ship back down to do the Carolina International, which is in Southern Pines. For some reason, Barney, he was a lot more settled the first event. I would have thought they would have been better this second event. Most. Most of my horses were a bit calmer this second start, but Barney seems to break all the. All my rules. And for some reason, when he turned up to Pine Top this weekend, he was very, very spicy. He was very spicy in the show jumping. And same with the cross country. By saying that the actual, you know, his confidence and his bravery and his understanding of the jumping was very, very good. It's a bit of a rough old show jumping arena at Thompson, Georgia, but Barney would have to be probably one of the best jumpers I have in the stable, or if not the best. And I'm not just saying it because he's your horse. He jumps so high, he's so careful, and he's brave, which is an unusual sort of combination. I always actually feel quite safe on Barney. Even though he sticks his head in the air and charges towards the jump, He's a very, very careful horse. Like, even when he's being difficult, the moment that he takes off the ground, he's so quick and so sharp with his front legs and so scopey with his hind legs. He's an unbelievable jumper. He was obviously originally probably bred to be a pure show jumper. So if I can get him settled and rideable. There's no reason why he'll ever have a rail down, which is a. The courses, the show jumping courses in eventing, they're getting harder and harder and the gear's getting more and more careful. Having a wicked good show jumper like Barney is important. So this is Barney cross country, obviously. So this is Saturday. The dressage and show jumping was Friday. Big thanks to Kathleen Sutherland. Sutherland, who videoed for me and she, she was out there along with a few of the other Barney Rubble syndicate members cheering us on. And Barney was great. He was very, very forward thinking. The best thing, he was very, very confident. This course was a, was a proper, proper intermediate track. There was double of skinnies, there was two water jumps, there was angles, coffins, you name it. And Barney, every single jump he nailed. I was really, really pleased with him. The ground wasn't perfect, it was a little bit hard, but that's not really my main excuse. I didn't go very fast on him. I don't see the point in pushing him for speed early in the season. And you know, with these horse trials, they, you know, these early ones at least I try and treat them as a bit of a schooling show. And I also think going fast on Barney at every event would probably send him to be a bit of a wild lunatic or even more of a lunatic than he is. Just because I feel like it's important that we're going to push him for the speed and try and be very, very competitive when it's, when it really matters at the big competitions, the FEI shows and obviously as he gets up the grades when there's good prize money on available. Anyway, guys, Barney's had a wonderful winter. I feel like we've got a bit of a seasoned veteran here where we're getting accomplished at this intermediate three star level. And in a week's time we'll be back on the hills in Pennsylvania and back with my dressage coach, Silver Martin, to keep pushing on in Barney's progression.
