In this vlog for the Annie Goodwin Syndicate, the rider recounts taking Bruno, a three‑day event horse, to his first competition since the Paris Olympics at Tryon International Equestrian Centre. He describes Bruno’s excellent health after a three‑week break, noting the horse’s quick recovery and clean veterinary check. The main focus is on dressage, specifically a persistent left‑lead to right‑lead flying change that makes Bruno nervous under pressure, despite flawless practice sessions. The rider details training routines, warm‑up successes, and the contrast between practice and competition performance. He also reviews Bruno’s show‑jumping and cross‑country rounds, praising the horse’s natural scope and confidence despite limited recent training. Looking ahead, the rider outlines a strategic plan to target five‑star events, especially the PO in France, while expressing concerns about the hilly Maryland course. He invites supporters to follow their journey, emphasizing Bruno’s strong form and the team’s ambition to contend for major titles in the coming season.
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This is a video for the Annie Goodwin Syndicate. Hello, everyone. We got Bruno out to his first competition since the Olympics. I took him down to Tryon International Equestrian Centre down in North Carolina and I put him in the advanced division, which is exactly the same course in the show jumping, exactly the same course in the cross country, the four star. But my intentions were to run him quite easily and slow. So I thought I'd sneak out of the very expensive entry fee of the international class and just put him in the national class in the horse trial. All in all, Bruno felt fantastic in the competition. Very, very pleased with him since getting back from the Olympics. We gave him a three week holiday and he came back from the Olympics. Well, I was surprised. Sometimes after a massive championship like that, the horses just look totally exhausted and, and empty. And by about the second or third day, Bruno was up on his toes, cantering and galloping around his paddock and in good spirit. And obviously we had our vet check him over from head to toe and he comes through the Olympics unscathed. Usually big Olympic Games really takes a lot out of the horses, but we very, very lucky that Bruno came through it. Well, basically our main focus has been the dressage. Silver's been really working hard with me improving the dressage. The biggest challenge we've got is this left lead to right lead canter, flying change. Silva took him to a dressage show I think 10 days ago and she took him in the fourth level test. And basically, Bruno, we can get the flying change perfect at home. Like he must do 50 of them every day in the ring. When he gets a little bit nervous and tight, he gets anxious that anxious and a little bit tight through his back. And the left lead to right lead one. He's just, he's almost a bit sort of, he's got anxiety about it. So anyway, we understand that this is the, a huge if we can fix this, you know, this really puts us in contention to be a winner at PO 3 day event at the end of the year. So Silva's riding him in the test ride at Plantation this coming weekend. She's also riding him at dressage at Devon in the fourth level. And in the fourth level, I think there's about five or six flying changes. So we're really working hard. In my warm up at Tryon, I got perfect flying changes. And then sadly in the ring, which you'll see in the moment, it wasn't as bad as the Olympics, but it was still, still a bit tight and nervous and it wasn't what we're after. So anyway, after this dressage test, I took him back to the warm up and did another 10 or 15 flying changes. So it's quite frustrating because you really don't. He's really very good at them until he's actually, until he's under the pressure of the competition. And he does change in the ring a bit. He's obviously a very quiet, laid back horse, but in the ring he does get slightly nervous and anxious. It's only a very, very. It's probably Bruno's only flaw as a competition horse, but as we saw at the Olympic Games, it's a game of inches and to reach our full potential, we have to fix it. So unfortunately, you're about to witness a dodgy left to right change. He just sort of gets nervous and I don't know, I feel like he's sort of tight through his back. Anyway, I was quite disappointed just because he'd been doing them a lot. And to be totally honest with everyone, it's not my strongest point as a rider. I feel like I need to get better at it as well. The, the good news is the right lead to left lead change, which you're about to see now, is perfect. And I'm very confident in this one. Boom. Anyway, going onwards, we haven't jumped him that much since Paris. I did, Peter did one little mini show jumping school at our camp for all our spectators. Then I did a nice brief smaller jump school about 10 days ago. And then earlier this week I jumped about five cross country jumps out of my field. And, and that was a whole jumping preparation for, for triumph. But as you're about to say, this guy is such a seasoned campaigner. To me, it's just unbelievable that, you know, without too much training or practice, he now is so experienced and so worldly that he can come in and just float around the show jumping with ease. And actually the cross country, it was a joke. I mean, I could have gone around the cross country with one hand on the reins. It was really, really impressive. So I'm very, very confident of any cross country course that we're faced with. He'd be very capable of. So this was the show jumping. It was later in the evening trying. It's an awesome ring. The next line was the only line. I regret a bit. I wanted to do eight strides here and I ended up on a backwards nine. So just a little bit of mistiming on my behalf. But after that he flew around the course and he's still obviously jumping as well as he ever has. And with not much practice or training, he's just a natural, scopey, careful jumper. So my goal obviously for the end of the year, I'd like to go back to France and tackle the five Star at po. I really feel like this Five Star is the most suited to Bruno. It's a flat course that's got. You need a horse with high speeds and really adjustable horse that's good at the accuracy fences and that's Bruno's specialty. It will be a very sort of similar track to Versailles, the Olympics. And also we did PO last year and, and the show jumping is always tough there. So I just worry that Maryland Five Star is a bit too hilly for our horse. He doesn't have much thoroughbred. So I know it's a long mission to get to the south of France, but I just feel like we've got a real chance of, of jumping or being much more successful at Poe Five Star. And part of me just worries that Maryland five Star, he's such a good hearted horse that he won't give up on me. And with the big long hills in it, it could potentially really take it out of him. And I think obviously we've got a horse that we can be looking forward to next year at some big competitions, potentially Arkin and some other five Stars. And he'd be a hot contender also for the World Championships the following year. So there's a lot of cool events on the horizon for Bruno. I went around this course just at a fast show jump in Canada and he was just fun to ride around the whole track. He was just brilliant. He still is jumping his socks off and got a huge cheer from all the spectators. So anyway, Bruno will do a couple more gallops, probably take him to a show jumping show up in New Jersey in a couple of weeks and then obviously Silva's got some dressage tests to do at dressage at Devon, which should be quite a cool experience actually against all the other big fat shiny dressage horses. Old Bruno, the three day eventer, will be rubbing shoulders with them out there and should be a cool experience to compete this guy against just pure dressage horses. I'd love to see any of you that are looking for another trip to France to come out and cheer us on at poe. I really think that we're a hot contender and I really want to strike while the iron is hot with this guy. He's in brilliant form and looking forward to finishing the year off in great style.
