Feitiche Des Rouges - Bromont Three Day Event - June ‘24

This is a video for the Fetich Des Rouge Syndicate. Well, guys, I'm in Montreal airport heading back to Pennsylvania after an epic, successful, exciting Bromont three day event with Radish. He was fantastic. We had him in the two star long. This was a big deal, this event. It's sort of an fei long format three day event and Radish was in the two star long. He'd competed at the three star level in Europe last year. So I sort of thought that he'd be very competitive because it's sort of one level lower than what he had been competing at with his previous rider. And I just thought this would be a great event to get to know each other, get to figure out all these little quirks. And also it's a sort of a high profile event in the international world of eventing. And Radish did not disappoint. He did a sensational dressage. We scored a 20, which is probably my very best ever dressage corps. It's must be up in the record books. It was about 83%. The judges absolutely loved him. This dressage test was first thing to go on on Friday morning and at this level, Radish finds it very, very easy. There was two international judges and they were just throwing eights and nines. And I'll send you a copy of the, of the dressage test sheet. It was, I might frame it. It's probably the best one I've ever, ever got. He's brilliant actually in the dressage. He's a very calm, quiet, trainable horse for the flat work. And then when he goes in the ring, he sort of puffs himself up to almost. He feels like he's 17 hands high and he sort of gets a little bit excited and dances around. And anyway, the exciting news is that I think that this is how he's going to be at all the big shows. He's going to go in there and blitz them in the dressage. So we'd sort of put in a fair bit of fitness work to get Radish ready for Bromont. It's usually a pretty challenging course. There's a little bit of terrain there, there's quite a few little uphills and it was a longer track. So it was about an eight minute course which is two or three minutes longer than what we'd been going in his lead up events. The one thing I found with him especially cross country is a hell of a galloper. Now what I also did find on cross country is he's a little bit Sharp and a little bit spooky. He was, he was up on his toes in the warm up of the cross country. And then I got a rude surprise coming to the second fence where there was a cameraman with an umbrella and a garbage bag raincoat on. And Radish spotted him, stopped and spun around and tried to head back to the stables. And I just managed to hang on. You'll actually see it in a minute. It's quite, it's quite a. It's quite funny. Anyway, I gathered myself back on and then I had to go like the clappers to get the time I really wanted to, to win this one. So anyway, going back to his dressage, he's getting stronger. I feel like when he first arrived in America I felt like he was a little bit weak over his back and he's hind end. And there's been no magic, just sort of consistent training on the flat with the dressage work. And then, I mean, I've been putting him in our pond at home once or twice a week for some sort of resistance training against the water, which I do think has helped. And on top of that he started galloping sort of once, sometimes twice a week up the hills in Pennsylvania. We've been very lucky to use the synthetic racehorse track gallops which has definitely built him up. My plan is to probably give radish 10 days vacation. I don't think this three day event knocked him around at all. Like he was very healthy throughout the event. He was full of life after the cross country. So I think he needs a bit of a mental break. And he'd be a little bit stiff and sore, but his legs are good and healthy and we'll give him a short break and gently just keep working away. We'll probably move him up to the three star intermediate level after this event. The big thing I think, which you'll see a little bit in the cross country is he's lightning fast, but he's a little bit wild and out of control. And one thing's for sure, he's got the speed and the stamina and the gallop. And I think over the next 12 months a lot of my training will be the adjustability and the turning and the shortening up in a smooth way in front of the jumps. Because I think that's his flaw, that's his weakness. He's an exceptional jumper, he's ultra careful, he's lightning fast in his gallop, but he's, he's a bit all over the shop with his control. Anyway, going back to the dressage. He did a phenomenal test and we were in the lead by about one point. And then it was onto the cross country and you're about to see us going to fence one. And that's a Radish having a bit of a shy and I'm like, you're kidding me, aren't you? I gave him a bit of a tap with a stick and then after I gave him a touch with a sticky, he took off. And I spent the next sort of minute just trying to calm him down and, you know, keep going fast. This was the first real question of the course. A big wide table down to that left handed corner. Star level in the uk. So it was very hard to make the time in the. In the two star cross country course. There's only one or two horses that done it. And then with our little spin around coming defense too, I thought, oh my God, if we're gonna win this, I'm gonna have to really open him up. And Radish loved that idea and it was beautiful ground. It's a wonderful event. Bromont. You can just see him flying up the hill here. There's no need to sort of encourage him to go any faster. He's as fast as they come, which is going to be wonderful once we get him up to the five star level. The gallop is so important. This horse is absolutely beautiful. I was watching. It's kind of nice actually. It was a longer course than we'd ever done and once I got the freshness out of him, he was actually lovely to ride. The second half of the courses, I was more just sort of guiding him around. He really loves his job. I think he's gonna ultimately be a very, very good cross country horse. So after a brilliant dressage, we were one second over the time in the cross country, which is pretty impressive considering our little detour. We're in the lead after the cross country and basically we had to jump a clear round in the show jumping to take the win. One thing with Radish, he's a very, very good jumper. Last week I actually took him up to Sogarty's to the hits at the Hudson jumping show and jumped a couple of rounds with Peter Wilde. So I sort of was quietly confident. This is the health inspection, the trot up. This is Sunday morning after the cross country where the vets and the judges just check that the horses are in good shape. And most of the horses in the field look a bit tired. And Radish at his ears pricked and he was I'm actually a bit lame there. Look at me. Anyway, Radish was up on his toes. He's been a very healthy horse so far. We've had to keep a close eye on his feet. At about four weeks, his feet get quite long. So we've started shoeing the horse every three and a half weeks just to keep his toes underneath him and his angles of his feet in good shape. So, anyhow, we're last to go. It was very exciting. We had a number of the syndicate members here cheering us on. It was a great event. For anyone that's looking for a couple days away next year, I really encourage you to come up to Bromont. It's the most picturesque event in the world. It's in the sort of a ski town and wonderful restaurants and just had a great. A great feel to it. I think the hard thing with Radish's jumping is not to wrestle with him too much. And sometimes he gets a little bit keen to the jumps and it gets tempting to sort of pull him back a bit. So my coach, Peter Wild's been trying to. Just trying to encourage me to go with him and leave his mouth alone at the fences. And he's an incredible jumper. He's got a wonderful technique, plenty of scope, and I feel like he really measures the jump. Like when you're coming to the fence, he looks at the top of the pole and I mean, the biggest thing is that I sit really, really quiet on him and let him do his job. It's going to be a wonderful horse, especially as we go up the levels when the show jumping becomes so critical of having a horse that just wants to jump clear after the cross country. It's a wonderful, wonderful feeling as a rider. Anyway, guys, we'll get Radish home and give him an easy week, week and a half, and then just gently bring him back into work. The ground's a bit hard at the moment, being summertime, and I'm off to the Olympics, so we'll give him a bit of a rest, continue with his training and work towards getting him up to the intermediate and three star level. But thank you all for your support. I'm really, really excited where this horse can take us.