Fedarman B - Great Meadow International - Aug ‘22

This is a video intended for the Annie Goodwin Syndicate. Well, guys, we took Bruno to his first proper, proper competition after a big victory at Tryon. I gave him a nice easy, steady run at New Jersey in the Open intermediate three or four weeks ago. And that was more of a just to get back into the swing of things event. And this weekend we took him down to the, the Great Meadow International, a big event down in Virginia. It was sort of a four star short, so it was nearly the highest level of competition. And Bruno was fantastic in, in all three phases. Now this is the dressage test. This was on Friday and Bruno went as good as he's gone with me. We scored a score of 28, which is getting pretty damn competitive. And the good thing is I do still think that there's, there's five more points to gain from that score. You know, it's taken a long time for me to sort of work out all the little buttons and, and all the little traits and habits that Bruno has. And he's such a good boy, as you can see here. He's, he's really starting to show off and relax and give some great work in the dressage. It was a wickedly competitive field, I've got to say. There must have been 50 horses in the class, 10 of them which are sort of either going to the World Equestrian Games or the reserve horses like Bruno, and then a huge list of four star, five star horses behind that. So it was some of the best riders, best horses in, in the country. Along with the two judges are international judges, one from Canada, one from Sweden. So it was, it was no gimme score and you're very, very pleased with the way Bruno went, you know, went down this, went down to this event wanting just a good, confident run. I wanted to do a good dressage test, which we did. I also wanted to have a great cross country round that, you know, worked on Bruno's fitness and also just still keeping in the back of our mind, still a little bit new to each other. So I didn't want to go full pelt and just save a little bit in the tank. And without making too many excuses like the ground was, was not good. It was, they hadn't had rain there for a couple weeks and it was pretty hard footing. So I played it a little bit safe and was a little bit easy on Bruno's legs. On cross country day, I probably ran him about 70%. We finished, I think with 10 time penalties, which is still a good fitness run. But I didn't sort of flog him or push him or race in between the jumps. I sort of let him coast around at his, his own pace and I was glad for it, actually. We trotted up nice and sound after the event and looked healthy and we still finished in, in 10th place, even though we, we went a little bit slow and cautious. I mean, he show jumped like a legend. You'll see the show jumping in a moment. I mean, I honestly, I didn't ride him that well and Bruno being Bruno, it doesn't even matter if you ride him poorly. He just jumps his heart out and it's really, really awesome. In the show jumping, we're yet to still have a rail for. I can touch some wood right now. Thanks. This morning I got the good news. We've been accepted onto the USA's Nations cup team to compete in Bukolo. That's in Holland. Anyone that can get over there, I'd recommend it. It's just an awesome event. It's some of the world's best four star horses. There's thousands of people there. Anyone that likes beer, there's the Garosh Breweries right next door and every cross country jump has a beer tent. And I think the show jumping is really, really tough there. So I think we've got a really good horse for it. I'll send out. We usually stay in a really cool hotel just 10 or 15 minutes from the event and I'll email you the details of that hotel. But it's a lovely sort of resort, which it's awesome. So I'd urge anyone that's thinking about just get over there and do it. You only live once and I think Bruno's in a perfect place in his career to really see how he matches up against the top horses in the world. So this is Saturday sort of evening, must have been about five or six o' clock and pretty tough course. But not for our horse, Bruno. He was awesome, jumped super relaxed. My two coaches were there, Peter Wild and Eric devander, both fellas, compared to some of the other horses I ride, are quite relaxed and confident in the show jumping. And Bruno gave us a great round, I think on the U.S. nations cup team. For Buccalow, they've picked Liz Halliday Sharp on a really good horse called Mixmaster C. And then a great guy called Jimmy Alliston who's English, but he's just changed his nationality. He's from out near California. He's got a good horse. Alyssa Phillips on a horse called Oscar, which is a super duper horse. And Alyssa's a younger up and coming rider. So I think four, four really strong horses and it'll probably be, I'll probably run him one more time a little bit easy again. I don't want everyone thinking I'm a big wimp, but I think it's important not to flog him and push him to his max every event. And, you know, a couple of times a year we're going to strike for it and really go for it. But then when these lead up events or if the ground conditions aren't that good, we can just cruise around and give him a nice run. This was my only dodgy fence and Bruno was such a good boy. It was a big, long free stride and he hung up in the air over the Tricina, landed a bit short and did a perfect three and a half and had every reason in the world to run out and he quickly ducked his head to the right and hopped inside the corner. So I was very, very thankful for Bruno's heart and spirit there.

And I know Annie, who we all miss very much.

You know, he doesn't have a whole lot of thoroughbred in his breeding. Bruno's the one up in the top left of your screen there, but he's actually got a very good gallop for a foreign horse. He's a Dutch Warmblood and he can really cover the ground.

Sea of clouds.

I mean, I was most impressed with him at tryon over that 10 minute course and never tired. His speed never deteriorated through the track. So I'm actually inspired by his speed and stamina. I gallop him quite a lot. You know, I think it's something that we've always got to be sort of

working on room for, for yourself.

Feel like he's confident, looking for his jumps. You know, big picture. I think next year my main goal is to find some of these big five stars around the world. And the year after, that's obviously the Olympic Games. So I think big picture wise, I'm always thinking of that in the back of my mind as what sort of training and the way I compete him and how hard I run him, he's all got to sort of revolve around that. And he's so good in the dressage and show jumping, we can actually go a little bit easy on him cross country like we did this weekend. Still have a good placing. He's a very sound horse. But my years of experience, longevity is the key here. We want Bruno to keep going and going and going. He really saw that distance and allowed the horse to get there. Looking after him well, training him, building his top line, his strength, his stamina, making sure he's on good footing and ensuring he's got the best blacksmith and vet, yada, yada, yada. It's almost like a race car that you've got a service and maintain on the reserve team. While I'm away in to go to off to Italy at the end of this week to go to the WEG with Thomas. Peter Wild's going to come down to my farm and jump my top horses a couple of times, which is really nice of him. Guys that work for me will keep up with his fitness work and Sylv will be here for the majority of the time. She'll do his dressage so he'll have top training even when I'm not here. And again, probably the week after I get back, I'll give him. I think there's an intermediate down in Virginia and then a couple weeks after that we'll jet off to Holland, one

that can hang up on a ditch a little bit. He certainly doesn't get you any thought that he has a second hesitation.

Great seeing Annie's fiance, Jake. Great Meadow. He's working not far from the event and all of Annie's mates are there cheering Bruno on. He's got quite the fan club.