Bruno - Plantation FEI - Sept ‘23

This is a video for the Annie Goodwin Syndicate. Guys, we took Bruno to Plantation Field International Horse Trials this weekend. We were using the four star short there as a final run before we head off to PO in France in a couple of weeks. Now what you're seeing is the dressage, which was on a beautiful Friday afternoon, and Bruno was fantastic. He did a great test. He scored a 28.8, which was third place after the dressage, which is out of 60 horses, is a huge, huge accomplishment for Bruno because the dressage has, as you know, has been a work in progress and we've been working very, very hard at him on the flat and he came out and produced a good test. Still room for improvement. We had Bettina Hoy come over from Germany and coach us earlier in the week. And the biggest thing we've been working on in the dressage is actually he's quite a long horse, Bruno, from head to tail, and it makes him actually quite a good galloper because he's got such a big, long, open stride. And for the dressage it makes him a bit stiff. And so we've been trying to, in the, in the training, trying to get his head and neck a little bit shorter and his ears up a little bit higher and get him a little bit more sitting back on his hips for the dressage. And it definitely worked. The work that we've been doing with the dressage is slowly but surely improving him. And funny enough, the dressage, I think would be the, the part that we can make the most improvement heading into sort of next year. Obviously, the, the show jumping is phenomenal and he's turned into a cross country machine. So anyway, the, the weather was beautiful on Friday and then a bloody monsoon hit Pennsylvania and a lot of the east coast of America. And by the time we show jumped on Saturday, it was pretty horrible wet weather. And then it rained more and we had probably about 5 inches of rain. And sadly, guys, I decided to withdraw him. On cross country day, I rode one horse in the class and I actually fell on that horse and I don't know, then I was about to hop on Bruno and I was watching a number of the other horses compete and it was really, really tough conditions and there was horses slipping and sliding and some were coming home really exhausted and it was just a disaster. And I sort of thought long and hard. Obviously it's not in my nature to sort of pull out or withdraw at the last minute, but I was just starting to think to myself that, you know, we've got such a unbelievable Future coming up with Bruno and there was a small chance that we could ruin it all in seven minutes of going around the cross country course. So it's a bit of a, bit of a disaster just because we needed the run a bit to prepare him for Poe by that saying that nothing ever seems to go to plan with horses. So I think there's an intermediate horse trial on Sunday in New Jersey that I'll, I'll try and see if I can get a late entry in. And it'd be just good to have one, one run on him, just to blow him out a little bit and jump some fences at speed. And so we're trying to figure out a way where we can get a last minute entry into the New Jersey horse Trials up in Allentown on next Sunday. That would still set us up. Well, that'd be three or four weeks before he runs at post. So, so that, that would. At the moment, that's our plan. But the dressage was great. Very close to the leaders and definitely improving. And this is the next day after a couple of inches of rain. Luckily for us, the, the weather sort of eased up a little bit at the time. We jumped in the afternoon on Saturday and then, then it started up again. And unfortunately, like I said before, by the time we went cross country, the whole place was just a bog. You know, it was so wet and deep and muddy and anyway, being the next day after it, I'm sort of glad I did what I did. It's not ideal, but we've got a happy and healthy horse sitting in the barn that I'm about to go sit on this morning. So very pleased he jumped. Well, Peter Wild was at our farm, actually. I got some videos of us training earlier in the week. Bruno show jumped beautifully. One comment Peter made to me after the warm up was that I almost rode him. Just a little bit too laid back and a little bit too calm and quiet. We're actually one second over the time, which I can fix pretty easy. Such a good jumper though, isn't he? So this is Wednesday before the competition and Peter was my jumping coach, came down from New York and helped me train at home a bit, which was good. Bruno's obviously an incredible jumper. The biggest thing we've been working on in his jumping is to try and keep him straight in the air. Like sometimes he drifts out to the right in the air and he jumps really, really high. Sometimes he, instead of tucking his front knees up a little bit, he starts sort of drifting one side to the jump to the other. At the moment, Bruno's really, really healthy. He's trotting up well, and I have to say, I think I've got him very fit for Poe. We've been really sticking the gallops into him, and we also got him a muzzle. He was eating a little bit too much in the grass. So, sadly for Bruno, he goes out in the field now with a muzzle on, and he's starting to shed a few pounds. Oh, Bruno. I really feel like we're in with a very competitive shot when we get to France and we'll be going all out. I feel like Bruno now is an experienced five star horse, and I think that the Corset Poe will suit him well. It's requires like a really sort of quick, nifty horse that's very agile and lots of skinny fences, lots of corners, and be right up Bruno's alley.