In this video the rider/owner of the mare Contessa provides a detailed first‑person recap of competing at the Carolina International in early March 2022. She describes how Contessa was the first horse in the 8 am dressage, delivering a strong test that earned a win despite a few minor errors (a short rein‑back and a slightly dodgy flying change). The rider highlights Contessa’s movement qualities – swing, cadence, canter, and walk – and notes recent three‑week training back in Pennsylvania, including indoor arena work, gallops, conditioning pond sessions, and focused work on flying changes with a trainer named Silva. Health management is covered: blacksmith balance work on the shoes, veterinary treatments, and efforts to keep the older horse sound after past injuries. The cross‑country round is recounted, emphasizing a conservative pace to protect her legs, managing her tendency to become excited, and noting a 30‑second time overage that placed them fourth overall. The show‑jumping round is discussed, with commentary on a tight time allowed, a problematic rail that cost a higher placing, and technical observations about her stride and jumping style. The rider concludes with a positive overall assessment and announces the next target competition – the Fair Hill four‑star short in a few weeks.
Chapters
This is a video for Club Contessa. We made our way down to the Carolina International on Thursday and competed very, very early Friday morning. Contessa was the very, very first horse to go at 8am in the dressage on Friday morning and she put in a ripper of a test. You know, it wasn't that long ago she was at Stableview in the training, jogging across the ring and then at Pinetop she was quite ner. And you know, each time we we've taken her to a show, she's gotten a little bit more relaxed. She's quite a hot, feisty horse and, you know, we prepared well for this and getting her to the show the day before. And I also woke up really, really early and gave her a good long ride just as the sun was coming up before the test. And she put in a magnificent test, actually. She, she won the dressage on a sc. The good news is that there was plenty of little mistakes just like that rain back there, which was supposed to be five steps and I think she only did three steps, you know, and so she had got one of the flying changes really good and the other one was a bit dodgy. So I think it's quite promising of what, what Contessa could come up with in the future once we actually get her through these advanced tests. Foot perfect. She's got lovely swing and cad and movement for the trot. She's got a beautiful canner and she's very, very good in the walk. So we've been back in Pennsylvania for about three weeks. It's great to be home. It's been a bit cold on a couple of days, but we got this magnificent indoor riding arena and it's been really, really handy on the days that it was a bit icy or cold or windy. But to be honest, the bulk of the days of training have been really nice. We've been able to gallop on the. I just feel like the horses do better in Pennsylvania. They like the ground a bit better, just even in the paddock, obviously got the track and the pond and my live in dressage instructor's been a good help too. Silva's been doing a lot of work with Contessa and really helping especially with the flying changes, which is she's quite a sort of long horse. She presses her neck out a little bit. So that's our big focus in the of weeks. So my main goal for this weekend was just to get her around safely. You know, she's getting a little bit older and she's had a couple of injuries and doing everything possible to keep her going and keeping her healthy. Good change there, girl. Well done. You know, we've had the blacksmith out and doing balance films on her feet to make sure that the shoes are perfectly balanced and had the vet out. We've done some treatments to make sure that her body's feeling good and she's been hanging in there and doing well, getting fitter and fitter. Obviously our first advance this year was at Pinetop and she actually went well until the end of the course where basically I lost control of her and she ran off that skinny in the water a couple of times there at Pinetop. And so I built the exact same jump in my cross country schooling field and jumped her through it a couple of times. She wasn't being naughty. I think she just gets wound up and excited and bit overwhelmed. And. I think she's got to learn just to take her time and be patient. So cross country we got coming up in a moment. I intentionally just went a little bit slow to look after her legs and also trying to not take any chance of getting wound up. So all in all, I'm very, very pleased with the dressage test. Obviously there's a couple little things like that second flying change and the rein back and maybe a little bit more bend in the half pass. But all in all, she's a fancy flamboyant horse. This is the cross country. This was, let's see, about Saturday lunchtime. And the first part of the course was nice. Nice ground, good grass and. And I didn't try and go flat out, but I sort of tried to set out in a nice pace and trying to jump things out of stride Every now and then in the cross country, in the show jumping, you'll see her sort of shake her head and usually in that moment she wants to make a bid or run at the jump. And she's always been like that. And it's a tricky moment because trying to balance or slow her down and she sort of saying, let me at it. Yeah, see there, she's just like, let go of me. I want to go. And unfortunately, you know the combinations where there's a couple of jumps in the row, it's important that she just slows herself down and doesn't rush through the jump. I feel like I got her fitness really good. I spent a lot of November and December doing long, slow canter, works on a track twice a week and a base fitness is good. And now that we're back in Pennsylvania, I've sort of got her in the conditioning pond a couple of times a week, building up a bit of core strength and top line. She's brave as hell even here, steady four strides and she wanted to take over a bit. She was a good girl there. Basically, after this part of the course starts getting a bit twisty, bit hilly and turning, and I sort of toned it down because my experiences at Pinetop a month ago, as the course goes on, she gets a little bit stronger and a little bit faster and takes over a bit. So I feel like it's important just to gently try and keep her calm as the course goes on. I think we're about 30 seconds over the time, which, I mean, she's got plenty of speed and plenty of pace, so I think when we need her to go far, she's got it in her. But I wasn't too worried about the placing at this competition, although we did end up fourth, would have been third. We had a real cheap, annoying rail this morning, which is a real bugger. So the advanced horse trials course was just slightly easier than the four star short course. There was about three jumps that were just a little bit easier. This was a hard jump on the course. You can see her sort of charging in and gently trying to slow her down a little bit close to that one, but, man, she's brave. I just sort of point her at that corner and she pins her ears back and nose to get between the flags. Bottom of our screen, working their way down the hill there. The ground was pretty good. Like it's. It's, you know, down in the southern states, it's sort of sandy soil. And the problem with the sandy soil is a lot of the horses land in the same spot. So the landing side of the jump, sometimes you fall in a bit of a hole. A little bit frustrating, especially when you're like me trying to protect. She was in good nick for the show jumping this morning. She's a great jumper. In hindsight, I think I was a bit casual. I was the first horse to jump and the course designer, he made the time allowed very, very tight, like stupidly tight. I felt like I was riding her at the correct speed and we actually were, I think, three or four seconds over the time, which ultimately cost us a placing. Not that it matters too much. I mean, she's a super duper jumper. She's careful. A few of the distances between the jumps were slightly short, which again, bit the same problem as the cross country. Like there you're sort of trying to slow her down and she sort of gets rolling a bit and has trouble rocking back. It's just the way she is a little bit and she's got a very, very big stride. So in training we sort of collect and really work on steadying her up from memory. I think we have the third element, the back rail of the OXA coming out of this combination and she just towed it with her hind toes. And I think I might have sat up a little bit earlier. If I had my time again, I would have just followed it the through the air a little more. Anyway, I'm very pleased. It's a lot better result than Pine Top a couple of weeks ago. Our next event will be the Fair Hill four star short in about three or four weeks time.
