In this video addressed to Tina Patter and Jake, the speaker recounts taking the horse Bruno to the Virginia Horse Centre for the Open Intermediate Horse Trials. The event comprised dressage on Friday, show jumping Friday afternoon, and cross‑country Saturday morning, all under muddy, rain‑soaked conditions. The speaker highlights a recent clinic with German trainer Martin Plover that helped soften Bruno’s dressage, notes a switch from a Pelham to a snaffle bit for cross‑country, and describes targeted training such as brush‑through jumps, ditch work, and brush reduction on the course. Bruno delivered a strong dressage test (noted for an 8 on the extended walk), cleared the show‑jumping round without recent practice, and performed boldly on cross‑country, finishing second overall. The speaker assesses Bruno’s fitness as excellent, outlines a plan to enter the Tryon CCI3-L (three‑star long) in two weeks—opting for the three‑star level despite prior four‑star experience—and details upcoming training (gallops, sprint work, dressage score targets). The report concludes with confidence in Bruno’s health, readiness, and potential to place well at Tryon.
Chapters
This is a video for Tina Patter and Jake. We took Bruno down to the Virginia Horse Centre and we put him in the open intermediate horse trials. Dressage was on Friday and then I think we show jumped on Friday afternoon and then we did the cross country Saturday morning. As you can see by the ground, it poured with rain and bloody. It was a mud mess. Bruno did a good dressage test. We did a. Took a clinic actually with the German trainer Martin Plover a couple weeks ago, where I worked him in the dressage with him a couple times and worked a little bit on getting him a bit softer and a bit more supple and feel like he did a good test. It wasn't, you know, there's still five more marks in there. He still is a little bit stiff and whatnot, but very relaxed and very obedient and very trained and schooled at this level that's going through this intermediate dressage test. Works quite easy for him. Obviously we had a, not the best run at Malvern a couple weeks ago, so we. I hadn't even show jumped him. I've cross country schooled him, let's see, two times between Morven park and Virginia here. And obviously Morven was a little bit surprising. You know, he obviously there's a lot of big brush over the jumps and then big, big ditches. So I changed the bit in his mouth just to a snaffle like the. I feel like sometimes the Pelham curls him up a little bit too much. So for the cross country I had him in a, in a snaffle and in training at home I just jumped lots of baby ditches and bigger ditches and then a couple of like the prelim trucan that we have there. And I also got the, the guys that work on the farm to cut down a lot of brush and stick it in inside the jumps and tried to get Bruno to understand that he's not supposed to jump over the entire brush jump, he's supposed to brush through it a bit and he's good. He's got an awesome walk, as you can see there, that the judges love that. I think they gave us an 8 for that extended there. And again the show jumping round. You see in a moment he jumped like a champion. I hadn't jumped a show jump since the last event, but he's such a good jumper that we didn't need to practice any of the show jumping. So this event obviously went, went really, really. We won the dressage clearing the show jumping and then I went reasonably fast in the cross country, but not flat out. We actually finished second place which is pretty good in the sense that it just gave me a good feel cross country. He felt bold and brave and there was a couple brush fences on the course that he jumped with no bother and one easy tricana that he didn't even look at. So yeah, he felt really good there. So I think what I'd like to do is take him to try on three day event in two weeks time. And even though Annie had him at the four star level, I think it'd be wiser for me to put him at the three star level. It'll just be a slightly easier course and give me a bit more of an opportunity to, I don't know, get to know him, build up a partnership without it being a massive, massive track. I think it's also time that I, you know, around that three star long course that I could open him up and gallop him a little bit faster and try and make the time. Obviously it'd be great to win tryon that would be the goal. And after this weekend's performance I think we're in with a good shot. He should do a good dressage test. He should be a good boy cross country and can nearly guarantee a show jumping without being too overly confident. Never ridden such a good jumper. Feel like we've got him pretty fit. So I'll probably gallop him probably once or twice more. One, one big gallop probably on Friday and then just a shorter, softer sprint on before we leave for triumph. Bruno's been really, really sound and happy and healthy at home. I feel like his fitness is great. Obviously it'd be good to zero in on this dressage the next two weeks and see if we can get down into the 20s which I'm sure he'll be very capable. So this is the show jumping the afternoon after the same day as the dressage. He just played with it. I think we could have gone up about four or five holes more and Bruno still would have jumped clear. I suppose in the jumping I've sort of been working at get trying to get him to jump across the jumps a bit more. Sometimes he goes really, really high and lands a bit steep. So sort of trying to flatten out his jump, which sounds ridiculous. This is the cross country. This is sort of later in the course. I gave him a couple taps with the whip in the warm up just to let him know that, you know, we need to concentrate and be honest and he reacted quite aggressively. He once I gave him a little tap with the whip and the warm up, he started charging into the jump so I actually had to spend the first few fences just slowing him down and getting him not to be too keen and too bold. The ground was really good with so much rain. It was good soft turf, good footing for him and obviously we'll trot him up tomorrow, but I believe he'll be in good health. So anyway guys, I look forward to checking in with you all again in Tryon. Put him in the the three star long and I really think we're in with a good sh. 11 to 12.
