In this video, the rider/trainer of the horse Radish recounts their first intermediate-level competition together at the Fair Hill Horse Trials in Maryland. Due to limited preparation—most of the prior week spent abroad—the team only managed brief dressage work, a short cross‑country schooling session, and a rainy show‑jumping practice before the event. Radish performed solidly in dressage, earning a score around 30 despite an unrequired flying change that cost a few points. The cross‑country phase revealed the horse’s inexperience on a large, demanding course, with moments of overwhelm and over‑jumping. Show jumping was conducted in rain, highlighting a turning difficulty to the right and a vertical down. The rider reflects on Radish’s temperament—a talented, careful jumper with a wild, thoroughbred‑type side that requires rideability training. Looking ahead, the plan is to drop to a two‑star long competition at Bromont, Quebec, where the rider believes Radish can be highly competitive. The overall message emphasizes methodical, long‑term training over short‑term results, using these outings as education and fitness rather than purely competitive goals.
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This is a video for the Fetiche de Rouge Syndicate. Well, guys, we took Radish to the Fairhill Horse Trials which is not far from me. It's in Maryland, the next state over, but it's actually only about half an hour from the farm. This was Radish and I's first intermediate together. Now he's done a few of these in England. He's been at this level last year with Laura Collette. He's done some intermediates three star short and three star long. So we weren't that well prepared for this competition just due to the fact that all of last week I was away in England. Silver rode him on, on in the dressage for me for a couple of times before she came over to Badminton. And then the rest of the time he just did conditioning work with my staff on the hills and on the. I got one Canadian guy that gave him, gave him a gallop for us and I got home on Monday and then I gave him a little cross country school Tuesday and then a show jump practice on Thursday and then we're off to the show. So this was, to be honest, we hadn't done much dressage work. So I was actually pretty pleased with the way he went on the flat. He's what I'd call a very, he's a good minded horse on the flat. A lot of the horses get quite nervous in the dressage at Fair Hill. I don't know why. There's, there's some flag poles up the other end you can't really see on the video and. But Radishe actually keeps his, keeps good composure. But this is, this is by far not our best performance and it's still pretty good. And I think we got a score of 30 from memory. We have one mistake actually. In the, in the canter, in the counter canter. We do a lovely flying change. So we had to. So we got a, we got the. These were all sevens and eights and then we got one One bad score for the. For doing an unrequired flying change. Unfortunately we didn't get much of the cross country. I think there's one little snippet from the cross country. He was a little bit green and a bit overwhelmed in the cross country, to be quite honest. It was a very, very big course. It was where the old three day event course goes and they're, they're very, very big wide jumps and I've been keeping the training pretty easy for Radish at home. Just getting to knowing him, know him and then trying to actually he's a very, very good jumper. I've more been working on trying to keep it really, really smooth with him. And anyway, I probably haven't jumped him big enough at home. And by about the second fence on the cross country, Radish is like, holy hell. And he. And he jumps really, really high and we're a little bit out of control for some of the jumps. But the good news is, guys, our next competition, I'm actually going to take him up to Bromont. And this was sort of my plan along was I'm going to do the two star long on him at Bromont. So he'll actually go down a level from this event. So this event was at the intermediate level and Bromont will be at the two star long level. It'll be a longer course. I'm guessing it'll be an eight minute course up there in Quebec, Canada. It's a really, really cool event actually. If anyone's looking to get away for a couple days, it's right in the middle of Bromont, which is a lovely town, great restaurants, nice hotels and it's where the Montreal Olympics were back in. I want to say 70 something, 76 maybe. Anyway, it'd be good to take Radish up there. I think he should be very, very competitive in the two star level. He should go close to winning it just because he's got such quality and it should be easy enough for him. The hardest thing I found with him is I think the dressage is right there. He's going to be really good on the flat jumping. He's a super, super duper careful, scopey, great technique jumping horse. He's a bit of a wild man and he's a little bit green or inexperienced, so. And he's a real sort of thoroughbredy type. So if he gets a fried or if he gets excited, he sort of scoots up and he puts his neck up in the air and he's a bit, bit wild. So a lot of our training's got to be sort of a fair bit of rideability and he needs more education too. He's. He's sort of. I think he's gone a long way in the sport just off his natural talent. So, you know, and it's got to take a year and it's, there's no magic. It's just got to be methodical. Methodical training. So the show jumping, it was pouring with rain by the time we went. And I said in the back of my mind, all right buddy, you're from France and you lived in England. So you can, you can deal with this just fine from memory. I, I think we had part of this combination down. You see, he's a little bit tough to turn to the right. That's right. He had the vertical down and then he, then he woke up a bit saying that with these horse trial event, the, you know, often we're not really getting them super duper prepared or making them jump clear at all costs or trying to get the dressage of a lifetime every time. It's more a bit of an outing for the horses. And also the cross country round in itself is a great experience, a good education and a good fitness run for the horse. So a lot of these competitions don't get too worried about the result. I mean, obviously it's nice to be competitive, but we also, we want this guy. We're more thinking about where we're going to be in two years time with Radish and we don't ever want to risk him or, or run him too quick at these events. So all in all, guys, he's in good shape and yeah, Bromont, I think that's in about three or four weeks and he should be very, very good up there in the two star long and sit back when you jump over a brush so you don't fall forward like that, it's terrible riding. Anyway guys, all is well and thank you all for the support.
