In this first‑person video the rider recounts the three‑day Jersey Fresh four‑star short event, held two weeks after a disappointing crash at Kentucky. He explains how he prepared his horse Ludwig for the competition, including a novel cross‑training routine—riding a jumping saddle and galloping on the cross‑country warm‑up course before the dressage test—to calm the horse’s nervous energy. Ludwig delivered a personal‑best dressage score of 23, the highest at the event, judged by international judges including a Tokyo Olympic official. The rider then describes a clear show‑jumping round, detailing the effort to keep Ludwig’s neck long and balanced, and notes a minor anxiety point on a turn. The cross‑country phase was feisty, with Ludwig initially aggressive but settling mid‑course. Overall Ludwig finished second overall, winning dressage and remaining clear in both show jumping and cross country. The rider reflects on Ludwig’s health, considers entering the upcoming Le Moulin five‑star event, and plans further discussions with his trainer to improve cross‑country speed.
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This is a video intended for the Long Island Tea Syndicate, Just come back from New Jersey, or the Jersey Fresh four star short. This was two weeks after our disappointing crash at Kentucky. Ludwig got home well after Land Rover and we jumped in cross country one time and he felt really, really good. Gave him a little show jump as well before we came to this one. And this was a sort of a. The timing was good. He was fit and sound after Kentucky and sort of, I felt like he was in good spirits. And this event was just slightly easier, obviously, than Kentucky. So I thought it'd be a good competition, getting back on track. And on Friday he did this dressage test and he was really, really good in the test. To be honest, it wasn't quite as good as feeling as what I got at Kentucky. Like, at Kentucky, I thought it was sort of our best test ever. You know, we'd been really working hard at that particular dressage test over and over and over for weeks and weeks and weeks. And, you know, after Kentucky, we gave him a couple easy days and I worked him in the dressage a few times, but didn't quite have the build up that we did at the Land Rover. But by saying that he went in and did a really, really good tester, figured out that you know, last year he was getting really, really excited and being a little bit feisty in the canter. So I've come up with a new game plan. The morning of the dressage, I put a jumping saddle on him. I take him out to the cross country warm up, give him a bit of a gallop around and there's some nice grass hills there and sort of take a little bit of the excitement and energy out of him, just in a more passive way. Like he's so good at dressage that he doesn't. I think riding him more and more dressage just makes him a bit sour. So, yeah, my new system is doing a bit of cross training an hour or two before the test and really sort of gets that nervous energy out of him. And. And then when I feel like he does the test now, he's quite settled and relaxed. So even though it didn't have the quite as good as feeling as Kentucky, he scored. Unbelievable. He was actually the highest scoring horse at Jersey Fresh. I think we got a 23 from this test, which is competitive anywhere in the world. It's my personal best test score on him. And these, the judges that score them are international judges. The one of the judges I think that was the highest scoring judge is actually one of the Judges from the Tokyo Olympics. A Swedish, Swedish judge. So it's sort of, you know, like sometimes at the horse trials when you get these unbelievable scores. It's, you know, the little old lady down at Wawa handing out big numbers. These are proper, real deal judges. Actually, they were the three judges from Kentucky, five star. So they were top, top judges. So it, it is an indication of how well the horse went. Got a little bit feisty in this change, but it was still decent. The old tail starting to swish there. Ludwig just there. I think I could get his frame uphill a little bit more for probably one more point. He finished this test really, really well with a nice extended trot across the long side. So, you know, this weekend was all about, you know, I did actually want to be competitive, which we were. We finished second place, which is pretty, pretty good. This is an international competition. He won the dressage, was clear in the show jumping and was clear cross country. In the cross country, that was the little bit dicey. You'll see a bit on the video. It doesn't look as bad as it feels. At the beginning of the course, he's quite sort of, you know, aggressive and fast and racing at the jumps and then sort of about halfway around he settles down. So in the four star short division, we actually got to show jump first. So I was jumping on horse to horse and still in my cross country clothes from the. The three star cross country. And Eric Devander helped me warm Ludwig up and I was thrilled with the way he show jumped. Obviously, last week we had Peter Wild come up. Peter actually hopped on and schooled him a bit. And what we're trying to do is get Ludwig's neck to sort of stretch out as we come to the jumps. And because he gets a bit quick at the fence sometimes it's easy to pull his mouth and his neck just gets shorter. So it's a real tricky balancing act of trying to keep him sort of long and open in the stride and keeping him jumping with good scope. But I lost him a little bit on this turn here. He starts getting a bit anxious here. So it was the only part of the course that he started getting a bit rangy, but he still was jumping careful and clean. It was a tough show jumping course. It was big footing wasn't that good and technical, and I was really, really pleased with Ludwig's clear round. So then the cross country was later that day. This is. Got a couple clips. It's not much of the course, but it was quite feisty and fired up. I think from Kentucky and I sort of see a good distance and then he runs past it a little bit and gets a little bit close to the jumps here and there but saying that he came through the event really well I trotted him up that evening and again the next morning and he's really, really healthy. So I'm still toying with the idea of going to Le Moulin five star. I think it's about six weeks time and I don't know it's just tempting because I really feel like he could be right in there after the dressage show jumps clear and if I could figure out how just to ride him a little faster cross country would be in with a real shot. So anyway I've got some discussions to go over with Eric and I really want to go there with the idea of being ultra competitive so I'll keep you all posted. The horse is happy and healthy and it's a good run for him so second place in the four star short.
