Fedarman B - Jersey HT - Sept ‘23

This is a video for the Annie Goodwin Syndicate. Well guys, we've had a whirlwind of a week. Last weekend obviously was a bit of a mess with the conditions at Plantation and Bruno just did the dressage and show jumping and I was in a bit of a mad panic because he hasn't. I love to run the horses about three or four weeks before a big five star three day event. And when last weekend get rained out, I was madly thinking of what are we going to do with Bruno. And lucky for us they put on a special event at New Jersey Horse Park. The organizers were very kind to us and put on what they called an advanced intermediate which was an advanced dressage test, advanced show jumping course and then a very hard intermediate course. So it wasn't, it was very, very easy for Bruno but it was not, it wasn't four star but it was a good, it was a six, six, six and a half minute course and the Northeast have been getting a huge amount of rain so the, the footing was still a bit, bit soggy but way, way what was last weekend which we ultimately withdrew. So we had a very good dressage test. I think this is our biggest improvement so far. With Silva out of action with her pregnancy the last few weeks I've been working a fair bit with Bettina Hoy and she trained me yesterday virtually and been really working hard at getting Bruno's frame up and getting his head and his neck and his ears and his pole the highest place point. And I feel like it's making him look way more impressive by saying that we had an interesting week. Obviously we got home after Plantation and we had a gallop on Tuesday and then on Friday we, I did a bit of a cross country school, a very light, easy cross country school. And then yesterday I worked with Bettina, did some work on the flat and then we're up to New Jersey horse trials this morning. So he did a good test. We scored a 28, which obviously is a great score and, and we finished second after the dressage. You know, obviously the, the biggest goal this weekend that Bruno had a good, good run around the cross country. A bit of a fitness test now. I did slightly screw up a bit in the cross country. Luckily there was no video evidence so the, you know, I had to wake up at 3 o' clock in the morning, drive up to New Jersey and then I walked the course on my, my bicycle at about 6 o' clock in the morning and most of the course walk was in the dark anyway. Long story short, we ran around the cross country course, and about three quarters of the way around, I nearly missed a jump and I had to take a big circle. So luckily, at the last second, I realized I was galloping past one of the fences on course and had to take a big circle, which cost us a boatload of time penalties by saying that I had no intention of being there. Made no sense in trying to win this weekend. There was not much on offer for the big win and more. Just trying to give Bruno a good fitness run, and it was a good course. There was a nice big jump into water. There was a couple of corners, narrows, big drop to a skinny sort of everything. We're sort of going to be seeing it Po, but in a much easier sort of pattern, and the jumps are smaller. Unfortunately, we didn't get much cross country footage for the video today, but Bruno was very good. He was very locked on, and, you know, I was very, very pleased with him. I feel like we've probably got three. Three more gallops left, and we should be ready to rock. Now, obviously, with PO, we've got a $20,000 grant, which is awesome. The trip's gonna cost slightly more than that, so I'll do some calculations. And I think we've got a little bit of money left over from the Moulin still, so I'm not expecting I'll be begging and pleading for. For too many funds for our big trip to. To po. So this is obviously the show jumping, and Bruno jumped very, very well. Wasn't that big. I felt like the show jumping last weekend was. It was harder and more technical. And anyway, Bruno jumped this course really, really well. We got him home tonight. We trod him up. He looks good and sound. I'm going to take him to the vet clinic tomorrow and just get my vet, Kevin Keane, just to go over him head to toe. I feel like he's good and healthy at the moment, but be good just to double check before we put him on the plane to France. And I feel like, you know, we're in a really, really good place with Bruno now. I feel like I've got a lot of confidence after the way he. He tackled Le Moulin, and I really feel like that his dressage is a lot better now. My goal to go to Poe is to get Bruno in the 20s, which we've done in his last two competitions. So obviously he's still got a lot of work to go, but I feel like, you know, we're in good shape. And as you can see, the footing was fantastic out at New Jersey today. And, you know, Bruno gave me a good round. I didn't sort of push him too hard, and obviously I had a nearly a bit of a course error late in the course, but I went around at about 80% speed. But he feels full of energy and fighting fit and ready to take on the best over in France.