In this informal vlog for Club Contessa, the rider recounts a whirlwind week that began with a crash at the Plantation Horse Trials and culminated in a strong showing at the New Jersey Horse Trials. A special class was offered for horses that missed a good run at Plantation, and Contessa performed well on soft footing despite recent trauma, completing a cross‑country school and earning a 29 in the advanced intermediate dressage test. The rider notes virtual coaching sessions with Bettina Hoy that improved trot and walk work, and praises Contessa’s confidence in show jumping, while acknowledging the need for further dressage refinement. Looking ahead to the Maryland competition, plans include slower cross‑country schools, possible tack changes (bits/bridles), and a veterinary check with potential neck or pole treatment. The update also covers Silver’s recent C‑section, the birth of foal Koa, and their recovery status. Overall, the rider expresses cautious optimism about Contessa’s fitness and soundness and confidence that the team is on track for upcoming events.
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This is a video for Club Contessa. Well, girls, after a disastrous last weekend, we've had a fantastic competition at the New Jersey Horse Trials. It's been a whirlwind of a week, obviously with falling off and crashing and tumbling at Plantation and then having a baby on Wednesday and Contessa having a great run in the advanced intermediate section at New Jersey. It's. We've gone from the amazing highs and lows in life. Anyway, the good news is I gave Contessa a cross country school on Thursday and she definitely wasn't rattled after her crash. Part of me was a little worried that she might be a little bit backed off or shaken up. And she was fantastic. And we were very, very lucky. The organizers of New Jersey put on a special class. Look at that, Holt. A special class for the. All the horses that didn't get to have a good run at Plantation this weekend at the horse park of New Jersey. And, you know, getting the horses prepared for their five star. I love running them sort of four or five weeks before their, their big competition. And I mean, the great news is Contessa hates hard ground. And obviously in the Northeast we've had huge amounts of rain this week. So the, the cross country footing was quite soft and she put in a good test. Obviously we sort of wake up really early in the morning and drive up to New Jersey and pull her off the trailer, warm her up and straight into the ring. And considering, you know, that's usually the worst possible sort of preparation for Contessa, she did very well. I had a great session with Bettina Hoy yesterday. She coached me virtually. Silver's still recovering after the big C section, so Bettina's sort of been helping me out and obviously we got the trot work really good and the walk was good. And anyway, all in all, it was a pretty good test. We scored a 29, which was a little bit generous, but we'll take it. You know, just watching. There's obviously still room for improvement in the dressage, but the gist of the whole test is actually, it's getting better and better. You know, I feel like Contessa's quite fit. We've got a little bit of the cross country, but she, she was a little bit strong in the cross country. She was pretty bold and brave and, you know, I sort of tried to slower down at a few of the trickier fences and she did well, but she's, she's definitely keen to the fences. So I might play around with some different bits or bridles coming into Maryland. But I think the reality is, you know, at her age is she is what she is and it's the biggest job for me is preparing a will, doing a couple more cross country schools where we're just doing everything a bit slow and a bit waiting and then, and then obviously at Maryland, give her just a perfect ride. The show jumping was again, brilliant this weekend. She just feels so good and so confident in the show jumping at the moment. It's very, very impressive and the dressage is definitely improving. Still needs to get way better, but I don't know, we're giving her a lot of focus at the moment and I don't know, I feel like we're slowly but surely getting a little bit more and more competitive. It's a bit of a work in progress, So just update you with the new koa. Silva's feeling a bit under the weather. She had a tough week. She got quite sick at the end of her pregnancy and then, then it was the old C section. It was quite, quite a sight watching them slice her open and extract koa. But we got, got, got them home on Saturday, Friday afternoon. So they're, they're good. He's tiny and Silver's seems to get, is getting better and better. She's feeling pretty crummy for the first couple days. I forgot how small these little kids were when they're born. Anyway, back to Contessa. Obviously the show jumping is fantastic. I feel like we've got her soundness very good, her fitness very good. I'm still going to take her to the vet clinic tomorrow just to just give it a bit of an evaluation. I'd love to maybe look at a treatment into her neck or her pole to see if we can soften, soften that up a bit. But her legs are good and we got her home tonight and she trotted up well. But obviously we'll have a closer look at her tomorrow. Oh, come here, little guy. So this was the cross country and sort of, I intentionally sort of made her go a little bit slower to few of these fences and come Maryland, we're going to have to take a bit of a chance and gallop at them a bit more. She got a little bit brave down this line and I actually made an add a stride to the skinny. But all in all, girls, I think we're in good shape. We've still got a couple weeks to go to put the finishing touches on her, but we should be good to go.
