Bruno - Fair Hill 4 Star S - April ‘22

This is a video for the Annie Goodwin Syndicate. We took Bruno to the Fairhill four star short this weekend. This is by far the biggest test that we've had together. So coming into it I was a little bit nervous, but at the same time quietly confident. Just because he's, he's been training so, so well and, and obviously the successes that we've had at Carolina International and the Bruce's Field Showcase, I sort of, I thought he'd go well, but you just never know because it's, it's a massive cross country course. It's all sort of the old three day event course, which is a. I don't know, it's a long, long way around, a lot of uphill. And it was designed by Derek DeGrazio, who designs a Kentucky three day event. He also is the new designer of Burley. So it's a monster track and I have to say, Bruno did not disappoint. This is the dressage test that we did on Friday morning. It was great. It wasn't our best test, to be quite honest. Sometimes a little bit tricky having an event so close to home. You know, when I competed Carolina, you sort of get to the competition the day before and you familiarize him with the ring and you know, you're riding once or twice before the test and unfortunately when we go to Fair Hill, it's just down the road. So I've done a lot of dressage training with Silver and Eric devander in the lead up, but we just took him over the morning of the competition, so he's a little bit up. I wish I could get him just a little bit more relaxed and soft and round, but I think when it really counts at the big, big championship type contest, that we'll get him a little bit more worked in and have him slightly more supple through his neck. Bruno's been training really, really well since Carolina. We got him home. I've galloped him a couple of times up the hills. He's definitely getting fitter. You know, initially one of my concerns was that he might not have the gallop or the speed. And one of the great things about being in Chester county here in Pennsylvania are the nice long grass gallops up hills and Bruno's slowly but surely turning into a monster going up the, up the mountains. He's ripping up these hills. I've been galloping him sort of every fourth or fifth day. Like I said before, Eric devander's been up here helping me, so trained me a couple of times and really just trying to work on getting the horse relaxed, soft, supple, and sort of stretching his top line. I've also been jumping a little bit with Peter Wild. Bruno's without question. I know I say this every video, but he's a brilliant jumper. He's one of the best jumping horses I've ever had. And I tell you, it's a wonderful feeling going into the show jumping. I think the show jumping round is about to come up, and he was one of the only double clear rounds in the show jumping. He really doesn't want to touch the poles. And I have to say, like last year, he was a little bit too careful. Like he was sort of hanging up in the air. And I've tried with the jumping of giving him a little bit more of a soft sort of flowing ride in the show jumping. And I feel like if I can get him to the fence, well, he'll jump it clear every time. And it's a little bit of an art to it because sometimes he rushes to the fence and gets there a little bit too close and then he sort of shoots up really high in the air. So different to most horses where you sort of got to try and get him actually to jump a little flatter. The flying changes have been a work in progress with Bruno. And I have to say, we got two good changes here in the dressage. I think we'll see this one from back on, but he's got lovely changes. We've got to try and get it quite a short canter, sort of sit him back here and just gently slip the leg back. And he did a ripper there. He finished second after, I think. Yeah, he was in second place after the dressage today. On Friday. I'm sorry. He got a score of 32, which was a great test. I truly believe we'll have. We'll be able to get him into the 20s without too much trouble. He's a flashy horse. He's got great paces and all the, you know, all these small little details like the, the halts and the transitions and the flying changes. There's another change here is beautiful. I think we'll iron them all out in the next. In the next months. So I know I'm jumping around a bit, but the. The most impressive thing about the whole weekend was Bruno's cross country round. Unfortunately, it's. It was a long, long course and it's a lot of uphill and downhill and turn, so we only got to video a couple of. A couple of jumps. But he really, really impressed me. Cross country. He it's a big course. It was a long course and Bruno really dug deep. And it was a tough technical course too. It had a really tough, monstrous coffin, had three water jumps, it had a number of corners and narrows, and 3/4 of the course was going uphill. I didn't go crazy fast on him, but I sort of kept on moving him along and he gave me a great round cross country. There really wasn't too many dodgy fences. I've got to watch him a little bit at the ditch and he sort of wants to see that there's a ditch there and then I can press him at the jump. Like last year, I made the mistake of just galloping him fast at the tricanas and the ditch walls and the coffins. And I actually think that worries him a bit. So just giving him a bit of time to read the fences. As you can see here, he's just a brilliant show jumper. I mean, look at that back end. He. I mean, he could be a pure jumper. So like I said before, I just decided to gallop him around at an even pace. It's a long course and the great thing is the last couple of minutes he didn't tire, he didn't slow down, he didn't come off the bed, he was still fresh, his ears were pricked and he had plenty more left in the tent. I think our next competition is going to be the tryon four star long. It's going to be, I think, in about month's time. By then we'll have him even fitter. And I think that's our first stepping stone towards Olympic qualification and five star qualification for next year. So thank you everyone for all the support.