In this video for the Luke 140 syndicate, the rider recounts taking the horse Luke to an intermediate competition at Morven Park, Virginia. He describes the cold, windy, rainy conditions, a fiery warm‑up, a solid dressage test that received a low score of 35 (which he attributes to a grumpy judge), a smooth show‑jump round with one spook at a camera, and a straightforward cross‑country. He highlights Luke’s quirks—spooking at water fences and a camera, earning the nickname “Spook140.” The rider notes ongoing virtual coaching from Bettina Hoy (Germany) and in‑person coaching from Silva (Wellington), and outlines recent conditioning work on hills and long‑grass gallops in Pennsylvania to rebuild fitness after a year on the shelf. He outlines the upcoming competition schedule: Advanced Horse Trials at Fair Hill in three weeks, Le Moulin in June (a flatter course chosen to ease fitness buildup), and a target of a Maryland five‑star later in the year. The overarching goal is to have Luke peak in mid‑20s dressage and show‑jump scores, with quick, controlled cross‑country runs, while managing his temperament and avoiding early‑season over‑training.
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This is a video for the Luke 140 syndicate. Well guys, we woke up early this morning and took Luke all the way down to Morven park in Virginia Leesburg, Virginia. And we were the very first horse on at 8am and it was cold, it was windy, it was raining and Luke was breathing fire in the warm up. It was, it was a very, very exciting warm up. I had to hop off and lunge him. I got on him at 7 this morning. I knew he'd be fiery and he was very, very wound up. Anyway, he settled down and he went in and did a very nice Test. He, about 10 minutes before he went in he started feeling a little bit tired and stayed settled and did a great dressage test. Unfortunately the dressage judge was a bit grumpy early in the morning. She gave us a score of 35 and I thought she was a little bit harsh because as you can see here, Luke was putting in some really good work by saying that I'm not too worried about the results. Often when you go to sort of these smaller competitions the, the judging's all over the shop so it's nothing to get too wound up about. I, to be honest, I was very, very pleased with the way he went. Bettina Hoy's been helping us once a week virtually from Germany and then Silva's back from, Silva's back from Wellington now so she's also been, been training us as well. So he's working well. We've been mostly focused on the sort of five star work, the advanced work, so flying changes and half pass. And like yesterday I did a little bit of practice of this test but this intermediate level is very, very easy for Luke and this weekend Luke, as we all know, is a bit of a quirky horse. And this weekend was more just getting him off the farm, you know, and giving him a bit of a run to blow the cobwebs off. Our next event's an important one. It's in three weeks time. It's the advanced Horse Trials at Morven Park. No, the Advanced Horse Trials at Fair Hill. I'm sorry. And I felt a nice slow, easy run this weekend at Morven park would be good for him. And he was good in all phases. He stayed relaxed here in the dressage. He jumped a beautiful show jumping around and then he was, he was a good boy in the cross country. It was very straightforward and easy for him. But that's sort of what I was hoping for, just a nice calm, quiet competition with him behaving himself the last three Weeks have been good. We've been back in Pennsylvania slowly but surely increasing Luke's fitness work in Pennsylvania. We've got wonderful conditioning hills, so we're starting to gallop Luke up the long grass gallops. You know, one of my concerns is Luke hasn't done a really big event for some time now, and he would have lost a little bit of fitness with his, you know, he's been on the shelf for a little bit over a year now. So his body and his lungs and his legs haven't really been pushed hard since just before the Olympic Games. So sort of one of my thoughts going to Le Moulin is Le Moulin is a flatter course. So physically it won't be as hard on him as what Kentucky would be. So it'd be a good one to get under our belt. And then I think if he goes really well, Le Moulin will aim him for Maryland five star towards the end of the year. And by then we'll have a really, really strong fit animal back again, you know, and going to La Moulin in June, it just gives me a little bit more time to truly get him fit. And not just fit, but going really, really well. You know, I think it's important that the really important competitions now we aim Luke at is he performs to his best ability. And that means getting him in the mid-20s in the dressage and show jumping well, and going quick cross countries. He's a tricky horse, but as we all know, he's got amazing ability, just natural ability, great movement and fabulous jumper and a good galloper. So if we remember back to Bruce's field showcase, I think we did the dressage in show jumping. He was awesome in the dressage and then in the show jumping, I rode him a little bit too fast. He warms up a bit quiet, and then as soon as you go in the ring, he really sort of lights up. And I felt like I did a really good job this weekend of just keeping him just calm and chill in the show jumping. He does have one spook at the end of the course, which the girls at the barn Call him Spook140. And there was one of these automatic cameras underneath the jump. Anyway, the course wasn't that hard for him. It was intermediate, which is a meter 15 meter 20. But he jumped it well. And he jumped in good technique and good shape and different to Bruce's field. You don't see any sort of fighting with him. Bruce's field, like, I'd spur him and then he'd run at the Jump. And then I'd yank him off the fence. And his next fence is the last fence. This is where he spooked. Whee. Still left it up, though. What a champion. The cross country wasn't long after the show jumping, so sort of his third. Third ride of the day, which was to our favourite. And the ground was beautiful. And the hardest thing, like this jump here. I love how he jumps this one where he just picks it up out of stride. The problem is you do a couple of fast ones like that and then it's almost like putting fuel on the fire. And you can see him at the next fence, like, let me at it. And you're sort of holding him back. That's sort of the story of his round a little bit where I'm trying to ride him at a speed and give him a good ride to the jumps where he's not just bolting at them and then I have to yank him off the ground at the end. I'm trying to sort of lighten him up in front of the jump and softly have it where he's jumping out of stride. As I said before, the ground was perfect. We had a little bit of rain last night, plus some more rain in the morning, so. And I went slow as a boat. So he touched wood. I don't think this was very hard on his legs and he jumped well. I mean, we had a couple of fences where he locked his jaw and ran past the distance, but 90% of the course was quite rhythmical. And I'm hoping that he'll remember this for our next competition at Fairhill. Fairhill. In three weeks time, it will be a proper, proper course. It'll be the first really, really big competition in size since. Since before the Olympics. By saying that, I feel like I've got him in a good place. It's been, you know, our main goal is Le Moulin in June, so it was always important to me of not pushing him too hard in January and February. Keep remembering that we've got to have him peaking in June and sometimes in the winter it's a bit easy to get overly excited early. And we've just done the one event at Pinetop in February. Funny enough, if there's one jump that he's weird at, it's water and I school it a lot. But you can see him just get a little bit nervous of water fences. It's something I just got to lock away in the back of my mind. He's never stopped, but he. I don't know if he had a fright when he was a young horse. I remember when I before we bought him, I looked at a video of him as a six year old and he was a little spooky at the water, but he always goes. But he just has this sort of moment of whoa, just before we go. So anyway, guys, I feel like we've got Luke exactly where we want him. Things are about to get serious with him. Three weeks time, we've got Fair Hill. Three weeks after that, try on four star short couple dressage and show jumping shows and hopefully then we're off to Germany to do battle at Le Moulin.
