Commando 3 - AEC ‘24 - owner update

This is a video for Dan and everyone at Yankee Creek Ranch down in Texas. We got Connor out for a big competition at the Kentucky Horse Park. This was the American Eventing Championships, which pretty much every top horse in America on this side of America competed at over last week in sweltering conditions. It was 90 degrees each day and Connor performed really, really well in all the phases. This was the dressage test on Tuesday. It wasn't our best, best test. There was a few little mistakes in it. I mean, overall the quality of the work is very, very good for Connor, but he's such an amazing horse, especially in the dressage. We're always sort of looking for total perfection. And in Connor's defence, he's had a bit of a rough couple of months. He sort of did a whole five star preparation in his fitness work, flew all the way to Europe, got ready for the Olympic Games and then, sadly for Connor, didn't get to have a run and then flew all the way back to America. And I sort of gave him a bit of a rest just to. I think that the training and the galloping and the fitness work for the, for the chance at going to the Olympics was quite hard on him and so I sort of gave him 10 days off and then gently back brought him back into work. And I feel like we had Connor going pretty good, to be completely honest. He was going a little bit better before our break. You know, we were very, very, you know, very, very focused on all of his work leading into Paris and it's, you know, it got him back out of work and got him going again, getting him prepared for Kentucky and I mean, he feels great. The dressage, you'll see in a minute. We had an expensive two mistakes which was the flying changes, which sort of ultimately cost us the total win. It was a very, very close competition. The other reserve horse for the Olympics was a horse called Diablo with Will Coleman was competing at the AECs and Diablo and Connor have been neck and neck all year and they were sort of stable mates in Paris as we were both there ready to go. So this is our first mistake. I feel like as I came across the short diagonal, he sort of spooked at the tents and the spectators behind sort of looks up and I mean, it wasn't bad, bad, but that flying change, I think it would have got probably a 5 out of 10 where, you know, the rest of the test is all sort of eights, eights and a half. It felt worse than it looked. So in the dressage we finished in equal fourth place or fifth place. We scored a 28. One's judge gave us about 72.7%, the other judge 71.4. So all in all it was some very good marks. Our sort of average mark was about seven and a half for each movement. We're sort of using this competition as a bit of a preparation event for our major goal this year, which is the Maryland five Star. Maryland five Star is a huge competition in late October, not far from where I stabled. And I think Connor's going to be a real good chance there. The great news about this weekend was was this phase, the cross country phase again, sweltering hot day and I sort of pressed Connor along but without being too reckless. I think we went around the course with eight time penalties which was one second slower than Diabolo. Diabolo got 7.6 time penalties. So unfortunately we were tied after the dressage and then after the cross country, Diablo was four less than one point ahead of us in the dressage. After the dressage, after the cross country, Connor was just fantastic around this course. It was a pretty challenging course. It was a tough track. Always looks a lot easier on a screen than riding it. Connor's such a good cross country horse. He's held his fitness nicely since June and July and he's turned into such a. A champion cross country horse. He just sort of looks for his fences, his ears are pricked and he's super fast. All in all it was a bit of a frustrating competition because you'll see in a minute with the show jumping. He show jumped well and Diabolo was one second over the time in the show jumping. So we, we finished on exactly the same score which was 36. Unfortunately in the sport of eventing, the way they work out, a tiebreaker is who was closest to the optimum time on cross country day. And Will Coleman's horse was 1 second faster than us. And I think it was about a six and a half minute course or seven minute course. So it's is basically one more stride or just a moment longer. In the scheme of things though obviously it's very nice to win. But we're in, I don't know, I just feel like we're in great shape. Leading into Maryland five star, I think about three weeks time. I'm going to run him at the four star short at Plantation, which is an event not far from where we live. It'll be a good event to prepare him for Maryland because it will have the same sort of looking jumps and it's Quite a hilly course. There's a lot of sort of uphill climbs on the course which again will be a great fitness run for connection. And it also came here, if you recall, in April for the Defender Kentucky three day event. So this was on Thursday, the show jumping was on Friday evening. There was a monsoon that came through Lexington, Kentucky and we jumped late at night and he jumped fantastic. You'll see that in a moment. This cross country jump that you're looking at here, this was the hardest jump on the course. It was almost a five star question. It was jumped there six strides, then into the water, five strides, then three strides, skinny to skinny. And I have to say, Connor did it. Just superb. His ears were pricked. He was looking for his jumps and flew over it like it was nothing. We're back in Pennsylvania now. My vet came over and had a look at him and he's in perfect health. Obviously it's nerve wracking with these competitions just because you do have to push them along a bit and the jumps are very big and the ground was a little firm, but touch wood. Connor's been a very, very healthy horse and he's still, still young, but we're at the top of the sport now. I think he's going to have a very, very long and successful career at the five star level. So he's to me, he's just about to turn into a superstar in our sport. Next week, actually, my wife Silva's going to take him to a just a pure dressage show. She's very kind. Him and Bruno are going to go to a dressage show in Maryland just to practice going through the pressure of the test with all the flying changes against pure dressage horses and with a top, top grand prix dressage rider. So it would be a good education for Connor. And then obviously this is the show jumping which was very, very late Friday evening after the big rain and under lights, there were shadows everywhere. Very spooky course and Connor was full of energy. And at the first jump there he was a little bit spooky and unsure. And he's like that often at the first jump in the show jumping of cross country. And then he settles in and jumped a great round. It was very, very hard to make the optimum time in the show jumping. I think it was 82 seconds. Anyway. The exciting thing with Con Honoras, we went around the course, I think in 70, 76 seconds we were one of the fastest of the whole class. I think there was 30 something horses in the class which if you can see the footprints of the other horses. We're sort of way inside on the inside track of some of the other horses that have jumped before us. He's a brilliant, sharp, careful jumper and, you know, it's a shame. It's a shame we were joking around afterwards. It was a shame Will Coleman didn't get to run his horse at the Olympics and he could have been one second slower in the show. Jumping would have been nice. But all in all, Dan, we're very, very happy with Connor and, you know, he's living up to everyone's dreams and expectations and we're in great shape for our end of year goal, the Maryland five star.