In this video, the owner/rider provides a comprehensive update for the Luke 140 syndicate on the return of their horse, Luke, to competition after a tendon injury sustained at Plantation Horse Trials twelve months earlier. The speaker outlines Luke’s extensive rehabilitation program—including daily treadmill work, pond walks, weekly three‑mile canters, and gradual introduction of jumping—while noting regular veterinary scans by Kevin Keane confirming soundness. The team entered the modified division at the New Jersey Horse Trials in cold, wet conditions. Luke won the dressage test with a score of 23, rode a cautious cross‑country course incurring 14 time penalties to protect his legs, and performed enthusiastically in show jumping despite limited recent jumping experience. The horse is currently overweight and being conditioned back to five‑star fitness. Future plans include a two‑star/prelim event at Morven Park in two weeks, continued weight loss and strength building, and a long‑term goal of competing at the Kentucky five‑star in 2025. The update also mentions support riders (Canadian champion Brad), upcoming visitor Peter Wild, and the owner’s wife Silver’s involvement in test rides.
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This is a video for the Luke 140 syndicate. Hello, everyone. After a long, long wait, we finally got Luke out competing again. It's just been exactly 12 months since he got injured there at Plantation Horse Trials last, last year. So Plantation was last weekend and 12 months later we've got Luke back. It's been a long road getting him back. Obviously we spent a long, long time doing his rehabilitation and I'm very, very pleased to be out competing him again. Saying that he was, he was very, very excited to be at New Jersey Horse Trials. We contested the modified division, which was a piece of cake for, for Luke and unfortunately it was cold, wet and windy. And in the warm up at the dressage, Luke was, was very excited. He cleared the warm up out at one stage and was jumping around and spinning around and neighing to his buddies. And in typical Luke fashion, he took a deep breath and actually was very, very well behaved for the dressage test. And I'm sitting very, very lightly and my legs are hardly touching his side, but he's a wonderful horse on the flat. Basically we've got him cantering once a week for three miles slowly. So we had Luke ultra fit for this competition. You know, as you can see, it's been raining and raining and raining. So the dressage and the jumping ring were a bit of a swamp. But the actual base underneath the footing was consistent and level. So I didn't think there was too much risk in doing the dressage and show jumping. And you know, my biggest goal obviously is to get him back to the very, very top of the sport. Still a long way off, but my sort of long term goal is to have him ready for Kentucky five Star next year. And I felt that if I could sneak in a couple of events at the end of this season, he'll come out raring to go at the beginning of 2025. So this modified Horse trials was, we weren't too interested in winning the class. We were more just getting him off the farm and jumping some small fences and trying to get Luke back into the competition mindset. And he loved being there. With Luke's tendon injury, it's months and months and months of long slow walking and trot sets and he goes on the treadmill once a day and then he's been walking in the pond and then we do the slow canners and then a little bit of jumping. And all the same time my vet, Kevin Keane's been scanning his legs and checking his soundness and touchwood. He's been absolutely Perfect. You'll see on our results. We were, we were pathetically slow in the cross country. In the dressage here, the judge loved us. We scored a 23, blitzing the dressage. We won the dressage by a mile. Now, it wasn't that competitive guy, so it's always nice to win the dressage. But the modified levels more aimed for younger horses, not five star champion horses like Luke. We were sort of using this has a bit of an off the farm experience and to be honest, I kind of like the idea of jumping smaller jumps on him and galloping slow. My vet checked his legs just before this competition and he said that he's absolutely perfect, he's perfectly healed, but it's more of a matter of getting his body back into five star shape. Luke's a little bit fat, a little bit overweight and hasn't done anything strenuous for about a year. So as an athlete myself, we're just slowly but surely building him up to full fitness, which will take some time. Now, Luke was wild in the show jumping. He was starting to see these jumps and just took off for them to get Luke jumping really, really well. We like to jump, we like to try and keep him slow so he goes really high. And Luke was pumped to be out in the, in the arena again. And as you can see, he's almost like a steeplechase horse. And I forgot how keen he was at the jumps. We've probably jumped him 10 times since coming, you know, back into full work. So he's still very, very fresh. Luke is a nightmare at home. Every single day he tries to buck and throw me off and he's just a high energy, high enthusiastic horse. And I'd say that he's just so excited to be competing again. Luckily, I've got one, one Canadian rider, a guy called Brad's the only other person that can ride the horse and Brad's a champion. I've fallen off Luke a couple of times. It's usually in the dressage, in the arena when he has a spook. And this is the cross country. And like I said before, we cantered around like a, like an old lady around the modified. I wasn't going to take any chances with his legs and I have to say he was actually very, very good. This competition was all on one day. So we got up early this morning, drove up there, did the dressage, then the show jumping and then this is his sort of third ride for the day. So by about the third time we rode him, he started to settle down And I forgot what an amazing cross country horse he is. I think we got 14 time penalties, which is a little bit embarrassing, but I just want to be ultra careful, ultra cautious on his legs this year and slowly but surely building back up. I feel like if he, if he's in good health, which I'm sure he will be because the ground was perfect at New Jersey, as you can see. But I'll probably run him back in two weeks time at the Morven Park. I'll put him up to the two star or prelim level and I think we'll give him just another slow, easy cruising around cross country round. Biggest thing is trying to get his body back, get a bit of weight off his tummy and also build a bit of strength back into his legs. He is an amazing horse. He's one of the best horses I've ever ridden. And the good thing with the tendon injury, they do come back out of all the niggling little soft tissue injuries that horses get, I've had the best luck with tendons. They're a part of their body that heals up well. We've got Peter Wild coming to the farm next week. There's a small chance I'm going to try and convince my wife to do the test ride at Maryland. Five star on Luke. I think it'd be good for him to run through the five star test and they've asked Silver to do the test on someone. He's keen to the jumps. Look at him just saying, let go of my mouth and let me go at them, Boyd. Anyway, guys, thank you for being so patient with Luke. It's obviously been a long road getting him back. Unfortunately, there's no fast way of bringing them back to full fitness. But we got him back in business now and I'm thrilled to be riding him, even if it was a modified. And I forgot how much of a champion this horse is and very, very excited for next season. It.
