Barney Rubble - Tryon 2 Star L - Nov ‘22

Hello everyone. This is a video for the Barney Rubble Syndicate. Well guys, we've closed out the year in great fashion. Barney and I went down to the Tryon International three day event down in North Carolina and we were in the, his sort of first big FEI event together. It was the, the two star long. Now this was a huge class. It was 54 horses from all over America and Canada and a couple foreigners. And as you can see, we did our dressage in the, in a monsoon. This is a video taken on Thursday afternoon about 3:30 in the, in the day. And it was a great, great experience with Barney. As I've said all along, I always believed he had phenomenal ability and he really started to show it this weekend. So we got there on Tuesday afternoon. I gave him a ride and I actually, the good thing about this event, we were there for a day and a half before we competed. So I really got a opportunity to get him settled in. And you can see the, the work that we put in was, was very, very good. We scored a 27 and this, that left us in fifth place after the dressage. I believe we would have even be higher or potentially could have won the dressage. We had one horrible moment where he halted and then he decided to pull the reins out of my hand and it really, it really stunned our score. As you can imagine, when there's 54 horses in the class, every point counts. And sadly we got a, we got all eights and sevens and a half and a couple of nines for all these movements. And then we got a, a big score of four or five for a halt Reinbeck, which you'll see in a second. It was the first event that I really decided to open up Barney like, you know, the last year we've really been, you know, at the beginning of the year sort of been concerned about his soundness. Then the middle part of the year, I've been trying to get to know him and just run him slowly around the training modified and a couple prelims. And I thought to myself, right, it's time to, time to get busy now. And sort of the first event, we really went for it and it really paid off. He obviously was phenomenal in the dressage, was clear and under the time to cross country. And then he trotted up just perfectly sound and show jumped clear. So it's been a long year with him, but I'd have to say I'm, I've got my tail up. He's everything. He's actually more than what I was hoping for. He's an unbelievable animal. You can see any of you dressage gurus on the syndicate, I mean, you have a look at this canter. It's so light, it's so balanced, it's ground covering. He's got a wonderful action and for a hot, feisty horse, he's, he's a very good boy in the ring. Like he has just enough excitement that he shows off, but not, not too much excitement that he is too silly. So Barney's going to get a well deserved rest. I think I'll give him three weeks vacation after this big event. I don't think the event took anything out of him, to be honest. He, even though it was the longest cross country course we've done at the highest speedy, he really, it didn't, it didn't knock him around at all physically and, but by saying that, I've been training pretty hard on him all year and I actually think he needs a bit of a mental break where I leave him alone and I'm not sort of training him and trying to improve him every day. He just needs a bit of a rest. I read the dressage sheets after the competitions and one of the judges really liked his frame. The other judge thought that he was a little bit short in the neck. So it's something I've got to work on a little bit next year is trying to get his neck just a little bit looser and a little bit longer. You can see here we had a perfect halt and then he, like a pony, pulled the reins out of my hand. And ultimately that moment might have cost us the competition. We did finish second, which is a, it's a huge accomplishment. The guy that won it actually is my vet, Dr. Kevin Keane. He was on a great five star, an advanced horse that he's taken down the levels and he just pipped us in the dressage and held onto his lead all the way. You know, the other really, really satisfying point from this weekend is it's been well over a year since we had the, the bone bruising issue that he arrived with. And that is well behind us, I believe, of all the competitions we've done, plus this show where we had to go cross country in the, and then do an FEI trot up and then show jump. And he showed no signs of stiffness or lameness or anything like that. So I, you know, it's something we got to always keep an eye on. But the, the trouble that we had this time last year is well behind us. So we were lucky enough to get the, the Tail end of the cross country course. So this is obviously Barney, he's about three quarters of the way around. And as I said before, it was the first time I opened up his gallop and I mean this horse is a cross country machine. All the events up until now, I've sort of been going around like an old lady, nice and slow. And it was the first time I gave Barney a bit of a cluck and he just gave me that five star field. He was keen and fresh and willing to go the whole way around. And even here we're six minutes into the course and I mean, look at the jump, he just flies over them. I mean the biggest trouble we've got, cross country, he's got a big, big stride. There was a couple of combination, there was a six stride combination early on in the course and Barney did it in five. This next jump actually you can see it was a four stride from a white table to the narrow and I have to sit up and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Good thing is as, as time goes on and we go up the levels, the course designers seem to make the, the distance between the jumps longer, which will suit us. The great thing with Barney, he's got so much scope and power in his canter, it's actually easy to take out a stride. And we did that actually in the, the show jumping There was a, the last line was a steady eight strides and Barney walked down there in seven. So one thing guys I'm very, very confident in is his ability cross country. He's brave, keen, careful, sensible to and yeah, we went around the cross country clear and under the time. And after this round we're definitely ready to move up to intermediate and the three star early next year. So obviously it's always a bit of a nervous trot up the morning after the cross country especially, I think we had an eight minute course and we really had to sprint him around and Barney was fresh as a daisy. You see, we trotted him up the night before, gave him his legs a bit of an icing and he just pranced out of the stables and honestly, he almost show jumped better being a little bit more tired from the cross country. If you remember from our last video, you know, part of the problem in the show jumping is he's trying to, you know, buck you off after the jump. And it was luxurious riding Barney after cross country. So was in the main stadium here a fair bit of pressure. It was probably the biggest show jumping course we've jumped on Barney, but still very, very easy for him. And he came out and just popped around the course really, really well. So in the end we finished in second place out of, like I said, 54 horses. Which is a great accomplishment saying that the, the most exciting part for me is the feeling he gave me in all three phases. He, I can't tell you. I mean, look at the power he's got. Still on, on the last day of the competition, he's flying around the course. So we're definitely, I think we'll do one prelim horse trial next February somewhere and then we're going to move him up to intermediate and then the, the majority of next year will be spent at the three star level. And look how high his back end's going to. This is the eight stride line that Barney just kept rolling down there. In seven stride lines, he nearly jumps the top of the standards. I love him. So I think, like I said before, Barney's vacation started this morning and a well deserved vacation. I'm a little bit nervous of giving him too much time off because I think he'll be absolutely wild when we bring him back into work sort of at the beginning of next month. But he is a champion horse. Can't thank you guys enough for the support and the sponsorship of this great animal. I think we got greatness. I think we've got a horse. If I can stay patient, keep developing him, keep that. We've got a real horse for the future. He's. There's no shortage of quality. He's young and he's a, he's a legend.