Commando 3 - Pine Top 2 - Feb ‘23

This is a video for DSN Equestrian Ventures. Well, guys, we took Connor to his second event, second horse trial for the year. We stepped him up a level to the open intermediate level. And in short, he was absolutely fantastic in all three phases. So this is the dressage that we did, the dressage test we did on Friday morning. I felt like he did a, a better test than we did two weeks ago. Even though it was a more difficult test. I felt like he was a little bit more settled, relaxed. And I know him a little bit more now and I know that I need to work his neck down a little bit rounder in the warm up just because he puffs up a little bit going around the ring. And anyway, he was very, very good. He scored a 29, which is pretty good SC. But this weekend again was all about sort of building up a partnership with him, getting to know all the little things about him that we're still figuring out. And I have to say I'm even more impressed with him now than I was before. In the cross country department, which we've got a little bit of the cross country right at the end of the video. He is awesome. He's really light in the mouth, he's brave, he picks up up on the jumps really well. And you know, the cross country is really a little bit the unknown when you buy a new horse. And just because it's, it's hard to test them. You can watch videos, another rider riding them, but it's, it's very hard to evaluate their ability to gallop and their sort of their character of how brave they are and Connors, all of that, it's really good. Show jumping was way better this weekend as well. If you remember a couple weeks ago, he was a little bit nervous and I rode him a little bit too fast in the show jumping. He knocked a couple of poles and I have to say taking him down to Florida for a couple of, couple of days last week and having my jumping coach Peter Wild work with him, I've got a bit better of an understanding on how to jump him. He's a really, really scopey jumper, but he likes to sort of carry his head up a little bit high. So in the warm up, just trying to get him to stretch down and relax over his fences and then he put in a fantastic round of jumping. So anyway, we're heading home back to Pennsylvania next week. The training facility up in Windura up in Pennsylvania is a bit nicer than Aiken. It's got. When I say nicer, we've Got a nicer indoor and the galloping is way better up there to get the horses fit. With Connor as fitness work, I've just been doing a lot of long slow stuff just because my plan all along was not to go too fast and frantic at these early events. But our next event is going to be a four star short. We're going to step him up to the top level of the game in about three or four weeks time at the Carolina International and he'll be lining up against some of the best horses in the country there. And I'm sure at this event everyone's going to be asking who the hell Commando 3 is. Anyway, the good thing is I feel like I've quietly got to know him the last couple of months without too many distractions and I really, really feel good about taking him four star at his next event. Going back to this weekend, my plan was always to go again very, very slow in the cross country. I know I've said this over and over again, but really got to get to know him and there's no use sort of abusing his legs at these sort of domestic events. So even though we are a little bit uncompetitive in the final places and the final scorings, I'm sure we'll sort of benefit from looking after him a little bit later on in his career in the cross country. I was like an old grandma. I went around with 23 time penalties which is pathetically slow and had we have pushed him for the time he would have won the class. But I think a lot of people could say that as well. Our Olympic team coach was at the event and it was the first time he saw Kommando. He was all praises, which was good. He made an effort to watch him in the dressage show jumping and the cross country, which was nice. He put in a good round in the show jumping here. It's not the easiest place to show jump the horses here. It's a sort of out in the field a bit. But he was way better than he was a couple of weeks ago. Even though the jumps are about three holes bigger. I think with Commando he's. He's quite a bold to the jumps, quite forward thinking. So moments on the course a bit like now, just trying to slow his tempo down and relax him and sort of supple him a bit so that he's not charging at the jumps. Got my dressage trainer coming over from Germany this week, so we'll do a little bit of dressage work with Bettina Hoy and Then Peter Wilds here is going to help me jump a little bit on Thursday. So I think we'll do some dressage and jumping this coming week and then Connor will head back north probably on Friday. So we've got a couple little snippets of the cross country again, just sort of coasting around. This jump here was hard enough. It was a corner bending five strides to another corner and just see how Connor's. You only have about 3 foot width of where to jump the jumps and sort of see his ears pricking up and it's got a lovely gallop and he's quite light in the hand, which is going to make him very, very easy to go fast. So our next show is going to be the Carolina International Four Star Short. Even though it's called an international, it's still here in America and it's just governed by the fei, which is sort of the governing body internationally. Now, Connor has done a four star short. I think he did it in Belgium last August, so he has already competed at the four star level. The good thing for us is we'll be back in Pennsylvania for a couple of weeks and start working on the more difficult dressage movements. And then my jumping coach, Peter's going to fly up to our place just before Carolina and we'll jump Connor a little bit bigger, so he's well prepared for this next start. But at the moment, guys, everything's going to plan. I couldn't be more happy with him. He's definitely exceeding my expectations.