Fetiche Des Rouges - Pine Top ‘24 - Syndicate Update

This is a video for the Fetiche de Rouge Syndicate. Well, guys, Radish made it to his first ever American horse trial. We went to Thompson, Georgia, to the mighty Pinetop Horse Trials, which is sort of one of my sort of favorite winter horse trials. It's not very glamorous, as you can see by the the arena or the show jumping, but it's got a. It's got a really good cross country course. And we entered Radish for a very, very easy class. He was competing in the modified division, which is about two or three levels lower than what he's been competing in in Europe. I really sort of was treating this weekend as a bit of a get to know each other off the farm experience, a bit of a schooling show, and all in all, I'm thrilled with him. This is the dressage wheel, the very first horse to go at 8am on Saturday morning. And as you can see, he's in the small arena, which will probably be the very last time he'll ever compete in the small arena, just because we're in a class for more greener horses. The great news, guys, is he's got a wonderful character and a beautiful head for it. You know, you never quite know what you're getting when you're getting a new horse. And I was so impressed by the way he warmed up and he was a little bit more excited at home, but almost sort of better, if you know what I mean. Like, he sort of wasn't silly or nervous or tight. He sort of just got a little bit more extravagant. His walk is unbelievable. I sent this video to my wife, Silver, and she thinks that he's got a walk that he should be able to get a 10 for. Anyway, training has been going very well in Aiken, South Carolina. The first couple weeks, to be honest, are just very, very easy work. He had a long trip from England to Aiken, so I really didn't want to push him too hard in the first bracket of our training. And then slowly but surely, we'd been increasing his work. He started to do some slow gallops once a week. The jumping, we've been keeping it pretty low and easy and I've cross country schooled him just once. I just popped him over some cross country jumps a couple days before this show and he was brilliant. I feel like in our training in the next month, I feel like he's got to get sort of stronger in his body. He's a very trainable and rideable horse, but he's still a little bit weak and I feel like he's got to sort of strengthen up in his hindquarters and his back and his hind end, which. There's no magic out there, guys. It's just consistent work. Jumping wise, he is super careful. He's ultra sharp. And as I said in our last video, our jumping coach, Peter Wilde, absolutely loves him. So this was a pathetically easy competition for Radish, being a modified horse trial, but I really wanted to make our first outing easy. Obviously he's not at full fitness yet and it was more. I just wanted to get a feel if he was quirky at the competition or if he was spooky on the cross country. And he gets an A. He is brilliant. He's got a wonderful head for competition. He's bold, he's brave, he's careful and he's sensible, which is. It's just awesome. I'm very, very pleased with him thus far. I think, looking forward, our next competition will move him up one level to the two star short, and that's going to be in three weeks at the Carolina International. That's down in Southern Pines. I think he'll compete on March 14, 15, 16 again. I'll be just sort of cruising around, getting to know each other. I think it's important that we build a partnership together. This show jumping course was a bit too easy for Radish. He was like, come on, where's some bigger fences? He's got a great technique. He watches the top rail and he's really loose in his hind legs, which is a wonderful attribute, especially as the jumps get bigger. See the cross country in a minute. He was really, really good. I think he's going to be very, very fast. We just sort of canted around the course, but he feels like he's got about five more gears left in the. In the cross country. I think we've got one more week left in Aiken, South Carolina, and then Radish will probably ship back to Pennsylvania. At the end of this week, my jumping coach, Peter Wild's going to be in town helping me a bit. So we'll probably, probably give him a light jump school on at the end of the week before he heads back to Pennsylvania. And then I'll slowly but surely put him on the couple of the gallops at home which are using the hill. Being from England, I'm sure he would have done a lot of hill work back there. And I love this guy. Look at his ears pricked. He's looking for his fences and he's got a. He's got a wonderful gallop stride. So obviously this is quite an easy cross country course for Radish. But I sort of don't know him very well. So I wanted to make sure that the jumps into the water and the ditches were small and he's got a little bit of a right drift, so when he jumps he just falls out to the right. So I'm going to work on that a little bit in his training. But he's bold, he's brave and he's lightning fast. To be honest, I was just looking after his legs and not worrying about the speed, but I think he still made the optimum time which modified. Nothing to boast about. He's a French bred horse and I think he's got a. If you look at his pedigree, he's got a lot of thoroughbred in there. So I think the speed and the stamina and endurance will come easy to Radish as we go up the levels. So I'm sort of taking it event by event. Our next one, like I said, is going to be the Carolina International at the two star level and then if that goes well, I'll probably, you know, just look at running him once a month. And the next one would be Fair Hill and if he keeps progressing how he is, we'll move him up to the three star level. But I feel like these first couple months is really building a partnership and getting the hang of him. There's been no surprises so far, which is a huge relief. When you buy a horse of this magnitude, you are always nervous that you've missed something when you trial him. But at the moment, guys, I'm absolutely thrilled with Radish and it's very, very exciting to think where the future might take us with this, guys.