Luke 140 - owner update - Dec ‘24

This is a video intended for the Luke 140 syndicate. Well, everyone, Luke's been going very, very well since his last event in October. His last run was at Morven park in the open prelim. I decided to keep him going in work. November is a very, very quiet month for all of our horses at the farm and it gave us an opportunity to really focus in on some of his dressage training. Silver Martin, My Bride, basically took over the ride for the last couple weeks on him and really honed in on his flying lead changes. Luke's always had good changes, but I think it was a great opportunity where he just sort of turned into a dressage horse for three or four weeks. Luke also did the test ride with Silver and the Maryland Five Star. The Maryland Five Star was a bit of a blur for me. I obviously fell off and crashed and then flew to France. So sadly I didn't update you guys with his dressage test. But Silva did the the five star test ride and he did very, very well. He scored about a 31, which was pretty impressive considering the week before. I did the dressage in the open prelim and it was a disaster. We worked him very, very hard and took no chances. And Silver went in and under a lot of atmosphere in the big ring at Maryland Five Star. He went in and floated around with really only three days preparation. The flying changes Silver's been doing are his new party trick. They're in succession, they're in a sequence here. I think you're seeing them every four strides and then from memory, I think she then narrows it down to every second stride. And obviously this is a dressage movement for like pre St. George or inter 2 or. The grand prix test has two time changes. Luke will never have to do these tempe changes at competition, but I think it's always nice to be training your animal at a higher level than what it needs to compete. Just to get really technical. He needs to become a little bit rounder in his frame when you see his head and neck. Actually Silva does a can of pirouette exercise just to fold him up and get him to drop his frame down, his neck down before she does the flying changes. This time as a bit of a schooling, working pirouette and then puts his neck down to. To create. See how he just climbs up there a little bit at the end. Anyway, I feel like we've got a real good horse for next year. My goal is to take Luke to two CCI five stars, the first being Kentucky, if not Kentucky, we could Always do lumoulin and then towards the end of the year, you know, it's a long way away, but Maryland five star would be my goal. Obviously he's had a few injuries, he's had an injury in both tendons now. So we've got to be a little bit careful and cautious of how hard we run him at the lead up events. And he's his own worst enemy, Luke sometimes, like he's just wild. Every day he bucks and he runs around and then you have to work him quite hard to get him settled and you know, and he jumps really, really high and then throws in an almighty leap around. So he's, he's a bit hard on his legs, but we're going to be very, very cautious. We've got him at the level now. He's already done a five star last year there at Le Moulin, so it's just a matter of tuning him up in the dressage. Obviously the show jumping in the cross country is fantastic and I think all of our lead up events towards our five star will be a little bit controlled and then we'll go for broke. Anyway, guys, thank you for all the support with Luke. I know it's been a frustrating time, but 2025 is our year. I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy new year and get ready for 2025. Before I leave you, we've got a couple of words from the chief wizard, the boss, the dressage trainer.

Hi guys. I've been working away with Luke for the last few weeks. I've been riding him every day, which is a rare opportunity for me. But I really enjoy it because I get a really good partnership and I, I get a lot of progress done with them. So I, I love him, he's a wild man, which I don't love, but he, he's so rideable and I, I very excited for his future because I think he can do a awesome test. I think this can be a winning dress. I mainly work on his suppleness. He does everything pretty easily, like nothing is very hard for him. Teaching with flying change was a challenge, but now the single changes are really awesome. So I've been working on the 10 piece. Not really because he ever has to 10 piece, but because I just want the changes to be so easy for him so that when Boyd rides in next year he has no excuses. Anyway, he, he, he's doing great fours grade threes. The twos he's doing, which he'll never have to do in his whole life. They obviously need to be a lot more supple, but I just want him to be so dull to. To change to an aid for the change that a single change is just a. A walk in the park. So the ten piece are still, you know, a little wonky, but he. He's almost like a young dresser show. So I so enjoy riding him and working with him and I. I think he has a great year ahead of. It's when it. Sa. It, Sam, It.