Fetiche Des Rouges - Bromont FEI - August ‘24

This is a video for the Fetiche de Rouge Syndicate. Well, everyone, we had a very successful trip up to Bromont, Canada and we rode in the FEI three star short. Now Radish had done a three star short and a three star long with Laura Collett in England. But it was our first time together at this, this higher level. And all in all, I was very, very pleased with Radish all weekend. We didn't quite get the dressage tests that we got at Bromont the last time we were up there. A lot of movements are a little bit newer for me. Radish and I just felt like he looks pretty good there to be honest. But he was just a little bit unsteady with the self carriage at some points of the test and he's a little bit spooky like looking around a little bit. And so I didn't quite have him as focused as I would have liked by saying that we did well. He scored a 30 in the dressage so we were in sixth place. Now eventually he's going to do a, you know, 75, 80% test at this level. He's very, very capable. I gave him a little bit of a break when we were at the Olympics. I gave him about a 10 day rest. Felt like Radish has been working hard all year and while we're in France I gave him a little breather. So sort of got back from Paris Olympics and got straight back into him. And I do believe in time the dressage is going to be unbelievable. And the good news is when we're at a big three day event like we were in June with him and I get up there a couple days earlier and really get him settled, he'll be nearly unbeatable in the dressage. The jumping, the show jumping in the cross country was my biggest sort of focus for this show. He's a very, very good jumper. Like, he's super careful, sharp with his legs, quick, nippy, almost a little bit arrogant. Like he sort of, sort of get this feeling that he sort of wants to tell me he knows what he's doing and just to leave him alone, which is so our biggest challenge in the jumping is actually getting him settled and relaxed and he's quite keen to the jumps and especially in the cross country and a little bit in the show jumping. Towards the end of the course he starts racing at the jumps and it's Radish being quite over enthusiastic. So I intentionally ran him very, very slow in the cross country. I'm trying to get him to a Point where he like, he gets very, very wound up before the, the cross country and excited. And I try and give him a little bit of a slower round or make him wait for his fences a bit just to try and get him to calm down a bit. And the fastest way to ride a horse is when they're relaxed and quiet and you can just sort of go with them. And at the moment, Radish is sort of charging at the jumps and I'm trying to hold him back and not fight with him, but it's a, it's a real challenge. And we've got the same issue in the show jumping by saying that he is getting better. I feel like it was a real issue at the beginning of our partnership and every time we take him out it's a little bit better and a little bit better. It still needs to improve, but we're very close to being in unison with each other. The great news with him is I can promise everyone when it really matters. This horse is fast, he is quick, he's light on his feet and he feels like he's got no bottom to his energy levels. He, he, he, he feels like he'd gallop for days. So I feel like in a lot of the competitions we're going to be doing in the next to the end of this year, I probably won't be pushing him for speed and I'm more trying to get him to calm down a little bit and take his time. The, the great feeling I've got though is that we've got a horse that's got wonderful natural ability. Carefulness, carefulness, speed and scope. So he's a little bit of a hot head, especially in the jumping phases. So we got a score of 30, we were in sixth place and this was Friday and then the very next day was Saturday and he jumped well. As the course goes on, he gets a little bit harder and faster to the fences. In the warm up, he was quite relaxed and I could keep his sort of neck down and his head down, but once he gets in the ring, he buzzes up a bit and sticks his head up in the air and charges at the jump. So it's a bit of a tricky ride where I'm trying to balance him and keep him supple through his head and neck, but without using up too much time. And as the course goes on, he gets a little bit more and more feisty. But the hardest thing for me is Peter Wilde gets me working on it is trying to not slow him down while I'm in the air. And unfortunately I have the second last fence down where I sort of start slowing him down as he. Before he's landed and sometimes he doesn't quite finish his jump. Then he sort of blocks his back and I think he just towed it with a hind toe towards the end of the course. This is one of those competitions where I wanted him to go well, but it wasn't like I was using this more of a schooling competition. And it wasn't sort of jump clear at all costs or just that jump there, you just missed it there. Just with his hind toes in. I think I take a little bit of responsibility with it. Like leaning back in the air as he's landing hollows his jump out. Anyway, cross country, he was great. Like I said before, the ground was a bit muddy and it was a new level for the both of us. So I more like tried to. I didn't sprint in between the jumps, so I sort of did a jump and as you can see there, just coasted along to the next fence. So we, we ended up finishing 10th, but we had a boatload of time penalties on the cross country. But the great thing is these harder combinations which you're looking at now. He looks for the fence, he wants to jump it, he knows to get through the flags and it's very, very exciting. I think our next competition will be most likely plantation or try on in about a month's time. But we're in good shape, guys.