In this video update for the Annie Goodwin Syndicate, the rider provides a comprehensive review of Bruno’s recent Grand Prix eventing competition at Bruce’s Field in Aiken, South Carolina. He breaks down each phase: dressage (scored 31 despite cold, rainy conditions, noting specific faults and improvements over a previous test), show jumping (a near‑faultless round with only one rail ever in their partnership), and cross‑country (a strong 4:18 run with a challenging bridge fence, culminating in a third‑place finish and $15,000 prize). The rider highlights coaching input from Bettina Hoy and Peter Wild, details the horse’s fitness regimen (weekly four‑mile canters, gallops on hills in Pennsylvania) and health status (vet checks confirming soundness). He outlines upcoming preparation events—Stableview Four Star Short and the Kentucky Four Star in April—emphasizing goals to have Bruno at his peak for Kentucky. Overall, the update conveys positive momentum, confidence in Bruno’s abilities, and a clear plan for continued training and competition.
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Hello, everyone. This is a video for the Annie Goodwin Syndicate. Well, guys, I'm still drying out after last weekend. Bruno contested the the Grand Prix eventing in Aiken, South Carolina at Bruce's Field. And obviously the dressage day was Friday and we were hit with a monsoon. It poured and poured and poured and sadly, Bruno got the worst of, was brutally cold and I was soaked to the bone. All that aside though, Bruno did a pretty good test. It was the same dressage test that we did it at Poe, so it was the five star B test. It's a pretty difficult test and I have to say it wasn't perfect, but he, he, he's doing well. I feel like the actual general work is looking good. If you see that trot there, it's a lot more uphill. He's swinging and he's flowing a bit and, and so that the actual quality of the test was way better than Poe. But by saying that all the, the little details weren't quite as good. If you see as he comes out of the shoulder in here, we sort of have a little wiggle there which costs a point or two. And the Holts weren't perfectly square and I got most of the flying changes. The second flying change wasn't perfect, but they were better than Poe. So all in all I was quite pleased with him. He was, I think he was maybe fourth or fifth after the dressage. He scored a 31, which is heading in the right direction. I feel like, you know, we want Bruno to be hitting his prime come April at Kentucky and by then I think we'll be really dialed in for the dressage and have all the small details perfect. And again, as he comes out of that shoulder in, there's just a one moment or two where he's little bit unbalanced. The walk which you're going to see was very, very good. We had Bettina Hoy flying to Aiken the week before this competition and it was great. Actually. Bettina rode Bruno a couple of times and she really got him humming along. She puts quite a lot of pressure on him. And Bruno's got such a good head that he, he really is flamboyant with Bettina on him. And. Bettina was very kind, typical German, she never gives a free compliment, but she told me that she felt like Bruno was going way, way better than when she last saw him, which was in France in October, which was a compliment. All these small things though, if you look at this hold here, it needs to be perfectly square behind and you can see we're just sort of wriggling his legs around again. So that could easily be a 9 and I think we probably would have got a 6.57 for it. So again, a little bit the weather and just it's been, you know, January and February. We can't expect Bruno to be at his peak just yet, but he's heading in the right direction and flying changes. Was good here. Beautiful. Bruno. Good man. So obviously we, we did an intermediate horse trial at the beginning of February at Pinetop, which was quite good. That was sort of more of a cross country school than anything. And then with Bruno, we, we took him to Ocala, Florida and we did some show jumping down there. I also did a dressage show here at Bruce's Field a couple of weeks ago and other than that, we, we been just working away. Not only did we have Bettina Hoy coaching us, we had the mighty Peter Wild come into town and we just had one jump school with Peter on the Wednesday before this competition. And as usual, Bruno was, he was fantastic. So, you know, generally speaking, things are going very, very well with Bruno. His fitness is getting right up there. We're cantering four miles once a week at the moment and he's doing it easy, he's hardly puffing. We're not going very fast. But you know, for January and February, it's a lot of the longer, slower stuff and Bruno is very, very fit and he's very, very healthy and sound as well. Had the, the vets check him over once or twice and he pulled up perfectly after this run. So we're in good health and straight after this competition we, we shipped Bruno back to Pennsylvania. So I'm doing my voice recording here from, from Cochranville, Pennsylvania, where we've got the whole team of horses and it's, it's great to be home. We had a good, we had a good Aiken. It was a good couple of months down south and it's great to be back in Pennsylvania. The, the galloping and the fitness up here is awesome. Look how wet I am. God, I have to get that dry clean soon. So anyway, we've got access to beautiful, beautiful gallops and hills and everything here in Pennsylvania. So. And it's good to be reunited with Silva, who is obviously going to play a big part in our dressage training along with Bettina. So obviously this is the, the show jumping. So this was Friday evening and Bruno jumped a fantastic round. He warmed up perfectly and came in and jumped the moon, which was typical Bruno. A pretty tough course, actually would have been pushing a meter 30 somewhere and you know, Bruno was foot perfect. I'm still proud to say we've only ever had one rail together. So having a horse like Bruno going into the show jumping is a wonderful feeling. Just the feeling he gives me in the warm up the practice areas, incredible. And I just feel like he's loving his jumping at the moment his ears are pricked and I don't know, he feels super confident. So this was obviously a high profile event. Bruno jumped super and then cross country, he put in a fantastic round. Cross country obviously it's a bit of an unusual event. I think the, the time on the cross country is four minutes 18. So it's sort of about three quarters of the, the length of a. One of the normal horse trails. But it's, it's quite intense and we wanted to be competitive so we gave him a good sprint around by saying that I didn't go ridiculously fast. We picked up a couple of time penalties. I wanted to be competitive and get in there and get amongst the leaders. But I also in the back of my mind thinking of bigger and better things that have come this season. So I sort of didn't completely empty him out or take too many risks. And Bruno's very, very good at these courses. We had just one hairy moment which you'll see on this bridge coming up by saying that the bridge jump that we had a bit of a moment at, it didn't jump well all day. There was all sorts of trouble and challenges and crashes and awkward fence, awkward jumps from other horses. So it was a bit of a weird design. It was great seeing a number of the Annie Goodwin syndicate at Bruce's Field. Obviously Bruno's a star in Aiken, South Carolina just because of his sort of born and bred there. Well, not born bred there, but the bulk of his career or his life has been in Aiken obviously with Annie. So through that history he's got a hell of a fan club. This was a tricky fence. This was a corner which he jumped well. You really had to sort of guide them in there at the last minute. And then this next fence is the unfinished bridge jump. And Bruno was good. I nearly lost my position a bit here and somehow we made it over the skinny, which is a testament of the champion Bruno is. Even when everything was going wrong there, he kept his ears pricked and stayed focused and still managed to jump the skinny fence, which to me is a true shot. The sign of a champion horse. Anyway, guys, we ended up finishing in, we finished in third place, which was good money, actually. It would have been nice to win it, but we won $15,000, which is always nice. And we had a, you know, a very, very good, good run. Felt like the horse, I don't know. He was good in all three phases. They're still bits of improvement in all three phases, but I don't know, even when he doesn't go perfect, he's still. He's still unbelievable. I think my gut feeling is our next run will be back in Aiken. It will be at the Stable View Four Star short. I think this will be our sort of preparation event before Kentucky. Kentucky Four Star shorts. The, the event that we've got to really go well in. That's at the end of April. So I think Stableview Four Star short, that's in about five weeks. So we've got plenty of time to put a lot of gallops into Bruno up here in Pennsylvania. We'll also be a main focus would be working at this dressage, getting the dressage better and better, which will be a combination of Silver and Bettina. And the jumping I think we're in, he's jumping fantastic. So it's more of a matter of just keeping him sweet, keeping him confident and I mean, he's jumping out of his skin, so he feels fantastic. And then we'll, we'll keep working at this cross country, but I can't see a. I can't see a cross country course in the world that he's not going to jump anyway. Guys, I think everything's humming along really, really well with Bruno. Nearly fell off him just there, but. And we're in good shape coming towards Kentucky Four Star in April. I'll keep you all posted in our training, but we're in good shape, guys. We're in good.
