In this video addressed to the Luke 140 syndicate, the trainer provides a comprehensive update on Luke's recent eventing outings, including a successful dressage test at Great Meadow and a challenging show jumping round at Princeton. He outlines management adjustments such as cutting grain, introducing daily treadmill work, and ongoing veterinary monitoring to manage Luke's nervous energy and weight. The speaker details the current training team—Peter Gray (dressage), Peter Wild, and Eric Devander—and outlines a phased competition plan: a low‑key 2 event at Great Meadow, a 4 Tryon in November, and the ultimate goal of a 5 Kentucky in the following year. Emphasis is placed on rebuilding fitness, reducing excess weight, gradually re‑introducing speed work, and maintaining Luke’s health and confidence for long‑term top‑level performance.
Chapters
This is a video intended for the Luke 140 syndicate. Well, guys, it's been a long time coming, but we finally got Luke back out to the eventing competition. It's actually not the first time he's been to a show. We've done one dressage show and one show jumping show. Now the dressage show went really well. That was a month or so ago at Great Meadow and he did very well there. And then last week he was a disaster. We took him up to Princeton and I think I jumped him in the meter 10 and he warmed up great, but he was a maniac in the ring. There was music playing, the flags were banging on the flag poles and I was so embarrassed I didn't want to send you the video. It was horrible. So anyway, I cut Luke's grain right back. So he's on very low energy food. And he was still a little bit sharp and nervous today, but so much better now that he's in. A bit more work. We can, you know, and it's hot weather, he's starting to settle down a bit more and he's on and we've also got this new treadmill. So he's going on a treadmill every morning to try and get a little bit of his extravagance, nervous energy out of him. He did really good in the dressage. The dressage judge loved him. He got a score of 21, which is pretty much eights and nines. Every, every number, every mark. Now by saying that it is the modified division, which is usually for younger, up and coming horses. And I intentionally put Luke in the modifier just because I wanted a very, very easy, soft, slow cross country and show jumping round. We're still. We're over a year from our injury, but I think it's important to gently build him back up to full fitness. So my plan was to just get him through this event. I knew he'd be a bit excited and I also wanted to track where the jumps weren't that big and punishing on his legs and that I could intentionally go around slowly. So he was good. You'll see the show jumping was good. We had one pole down. I sort of was more worried about him tearing off and racing at the jumps and spooking and shying. And he was actually very good, to my surprise. And we just had a casual rail behind, which I'm not too fussed about. We know he's a top, top show jumper and then the cross country, he was a good boy by then. He was a little Bit tired and by the time we went cross country it was lunchtime and it was pretty hot. So we'll have a relatively easy couple of days with Luke, get the vet to check him over and if all goes well, I'll probably take him to a show jumping show at the end of next week up in Princeton. Again, I think the more I can get him out and get him exposed to the excitement of being off the farm, the better. We did a bit of work with Peter Gray, a dressage judge this week and then he is at a place now where I'll start training him again with Peter Wild and Eric Devander. They've sort of been nursing him along the last couple months, just getting him fit and healthy. But I think now it's time to crack on with him. My next event would most likely be the two star short at Great Meadow. Again this will be just another easier event for him. Don't forget he's a four star horse. So we're going to be competing in the two star level which should be very easy for him, but again the jumps a bit smaller and just slowly building him back up to that four star level. My ultimate goal this year would be to compete him@tryon4star long. Now that's in November and that's the equivalent of, if you remember when we won the event in Galway in California and at New Jersey last year. So it would be a good 10 minute track at Tryon, big tough course and I believe if we get through that unscathed, he'll be ready for Kentucky five star next year. That's my ultimate goal. Obviously plans can change, but at the moment Luke's in good health. We've had the vets checking his legs over and he's still a little bit fat, to be honest. Like he lost a lot of his muscle and condition a bit from having a long break. So I've got to get a little bit of belly weight off him. He's doing a lot of long, slow canters on the track and probably next month I'll start in introducing a little bit more speed work. That was our rail behind if you saw it. Just cop down behind legs. I'll start introducing a little bit of speed work up the hills. Yeah, starting in August, which should have him fit as a fiddle and raring to go for try on basically. You know, I think Luke, long term wise, we're always, you know, from here on out we're thinking about the five stars and Olympic Games and championships and everything's focused towards that. I'm not too worried about any great results at these lead up events. It's more keeping him healthy and confident, sound and humming along. He's obviously one of the best horses out there. So it's my job as the trainer to, to get him at the top level and maintain him at the top level for a long period of time because I do think he's one of the greats and different to racing these horses, they've got years and years ahead of them.
