In this video addressed to the Long Island Tee Syndicate, the rider recounts his recent three‑star competition with his horse Ludwig at the Plantation International. Recovering from a personal injury, he deliberately entered a lower‑level class to reduce strain. Ludwig delivered a strong dressage test (score around 23‑24), placed second among 40‑50 horses, and performed an excellent show‑jumping round on a 1.20 m course, showing calmness and confidence. The cross‑country phase was approached conservatively at about 70 % speed to keep Ludwig relaxed; despite moments of excitement, the horse completed the course soundly. The rider credits team members Silva (dressage), Peter Wilde (jump training), and Mike (fitness work) for maintaining Ludwig’s condition. Looking ahead, he plans to compete in the advanced event at Malvern Park Horse Trials in Virginia in two weeks, followed by a potential four‑star at Galloway Downs, California, three weeks later, contingent on Ludwig’s health and performance. He emphasizes the horse’s excellent movement in dressage, careful yet confident jumping, and the need to manage cross‑country intensity while continuing training and recovery.
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This is a video intended for the Long Island Tee Syndicate. Guys. I took Ludwig to the Plantation International. I competed him this weekend in the three star class. Obviously the three stars a notch lower than in what he can compete. But it was sort of one of those events that I chose to do the smaller class just because I've been recovering from an injury. And I thought putting Ludwig around a slightly easier track would be a little bit less concussive to my, to my injuries. And I got to say, after finishing this weekend, I'm very, very relieved to say that I feel good as gold. Ludwig did the dressage here on Thursday morning. He was one of the first to go in the class and he did a cracker of the dressage test here. I think he got a score of 24 or 23. And he finds all these movements quite easy. Obviously in the four star and five star level, there's flying changes and whatnot. So it's actually pretty cool going and doing a slightly easier test. But like I said before, Ludwig just danced around it like it was nothing. I think there must have been 40 or 50 horses in the class and he finished second after the dressage. I've been very, very lucky that Silva's been doing the dressage on him while I've been healing up. So part of the reason why he went so well this weekend is I haven't even been riding him much. I started riding him probably about 10 days ago. And in that time I've done a couple of dressage sessions, one really light cross country school and one show jumping session. Been very lucky. Peter Wilde's actually been jumping him a bit. He took him to a couple jumping shows for us and Silver obviously at home. And then Mike had been doing a bit of the fitness work. So horse is in great neck, great condition. My plan was just to get through this event unscathed and I was sort of using this event as just a bit of a practice run. And in two weeks time I'm gonna actually, I think I'll take Ludwig to the Malvern Park Horse Trials in Virginia and he'll do an advanced event there and that will be a real deal proper track. So I chose to slow Ludwig at ride Ludwig a little bit slow in the cross country on Saturday. Just with the idea. I don't like running them two weeks apart. I think it sometimes a little bit hard on their legs. But we're, we're on crunch time now, so I thought I'd just go nice and slow around the cross country at Plantation here on an easier track and then in two weeks time, we'll run him again at Morven park, which will be a bigger, longer track. And then if that goes well, I want to fly him to California about three weeks later and, and he'll do the four star long at Galloway down. So there's a lot of ifs and maybes between then and now, but Ludwig finished this event good and sound and he was very good in all three phases. Obviously, one of the best things about Ludwig is how good he is in the dressage. Like, he's just an incredible mover. He's extravagant, he's accurate, the judges love him. And yeah, he's obviously always going to put in these great dressage tests. Ludwig, you'll see in a second, did a wicked good show jumping round. I was, I was just absolutely thrilled with him. And cross country, I gotta say, he was a bit fresh and wild. You'll see a little bit of that on this, on the video today, too. I haven't in the two months while I've been out, out of action. He's only done a little bit of practice cross country just one day and I sort of just did 10 jumps. And man, when I warmed him up for the cross country on Saturday, he was breathing fire. He was so excited to be running cross country again. He was a little bit strong and it wasn't the best course for him. When there's lots of uphills and downhills on the cross country, Ludwig gets pretty amped up and so he was a little bit out of control. But I've got a bit of time now between Malvern park and now just to give him just a bit of relaxation and some steady cross country training, just to slow him down a bit and get him to calm down. But this is his show jumping. This is. I know it was a small course, it was a meter 20, and Ludwig just jumped it. Unreal. It's the best I've had him show jumping. He's spending time in the air, he's being careful. He's, you know, sometimes he can get excited and run at the jumps and he just stayed cool and calm throughout the course. And like I said, I have to give credit to Peter Wild a bit. He's jump schooled him probably three or four or five times maybe while I've been injured. And it's made a great difference. He jumped him at Princeton for us a couple weeks ago. Watch this next jump. This was actually felt my groin pull a bit in the air. He jumped so high over this one. Watch his back end Here, Ludwig's flying. I mean, he's a naturally careful horse and I think now that he's more confident, he's just spending more time up in the air. So, yeah, I was thrilled with the way he jumped. Show jumped here. It wouldn't have mattered if it was two holes, three holes bigger, he would have jumped good. And this is obviously the cross country, and my intention was to go slow and just trying to keep him calm. And he started out alright, but as the course got on, he got pretty keen and fired up. And that's the key within cross country, I think, is to try and keep him relaxed and try and have him in a place where he's not just running blind at the jumps. But I was pleased with all this stuff, obviously running him about 70% speed and just trying to keep him relaxed and calm. This is just the sort of first section of the course and he's a good boy here. And then as the course went on, he got more and more fired up. I've got him quite fit. I think we've been galloping him quite a lot. So the master plan of running him at. At Morven park and then to Galloway down hangs in there. I think we've got a real chance. This part would be the hardest part of the horse. With the cross country, I've got him confident and brave and wanting to jump everything, but he just sort of gets a bit feisty here. And this is hard to go fast on a horse that's sort of running at the jumps a bit. But, hey, we're in business. I'm in business. It's great to be competing again and, yeah, I'm fired up to finish this 2020 off well with Ludwig. I think if everything stays in good order here, we've got a good chance of winning a big one at the end of the year at Galloway Downs. We'll just see how it all pans out, but I'd like to thank everyone for the support and I'll check in with you later. Thank you.
