In this informal video addressed to Bonnie Stead, the speaker provides a comprehensive update on the horse Lulu’s recent competition season, focusing on her performance at the Bromont FEI four‑star short in August 2024. Lulu achieved a 71% dressage score (≈30 points), placing third in a competitive field, then cleared the show‑jumping round and delivered a strong cross‑country run, ultimately finishing fourth overall. The speaker credits Bonnie Silva and Silver Martin Dressage Services for Lulu’s dressage improvements, and mentions coaching input from Peter Wild and Eric Devander. He notes that Lulu was not at full fitness and the course was muddy, so he managed her pace conservatively, with a perfect trot‑up the following morning indicating good health. Looking ahead, the team plans a mid‑September four‑star short as a prep run, then aims for the PO (Pau) five‑star event in late October, believing the flatter, twisty course suits Lulu better than the hillier Maryland venue. The speaker also outlines ongoing fitness work, observations on Lulu’s jumping stride and carefulness, and expresses pride in her progress from a young horse to a reliable advanced competitor. The tone is conversational, supportive, and enthusiastic, ending with personal well‑wishes.
Chapters
This is a video for Bonnie Stead. Well, Bon Bon, Lulu's on absolute fire this year. We took her up to Bromont to do the, the FEI four star short and it was a tough, tough course and Lulu was bloody fantastic. She was fantastic in all phases. This is the dressage test obviously that we did on, on Friday and she, she got a great score. She got a 71% which ended up to be about a score of 30 and she finished in third place out of a pretty competitive field. Now I can't take all the credit myself. Bonnie Silva's been doing a lot of the dressage training on Lulu so her work has been improving at a great rate in the dressage ring and it's many thanks to Silver Martin Dressage Services. We've been working hard and she's, I don't know, like she's really improved this year and really come on and it's very, very exciting to see her, her progress. So we were third after the dressage and then she show jumped clear and then she was an absolute machine around the cross country. I didn't push her. She's not at full, full fitness at the moment. The ground was a bit muddy so I didn't, I didn't push her crazy speeds in the cross country. I sort of coasted around just making sure that she is good and healthy and we, we trotted her up this morning and she looks perfect on trot up which is very, very pleasing. So in the end we finished in fourth place in the four star short which is, she's turning into quite a reliable advanced four star machine. Bonnie in October. I've been sort of chatting around to my coaches, Peter Wild and Eric Devander and we've all come to the consensus that we'd love to take her to Poe 5 Star which is in towards the end of October and we think that, that Poe will suit her perfectly. It's a five star cross country but it's a, it's a flat course and it's right up Lulu's alley. It's sort of twisty and turny and we just feel like the PO will suit her where she is at the moment. I'm worried that Maryland, with all the big hills, it might sort of knock her around a bit and we feel that if we could take her to a flatter course and the, the show jumping is always wickedly hard there at PO and we feel like she'd be a very, very competitive chance if you're up for it. We've done two four star longs one at Triumph, one at Bromont. So it's time to take her to the final level of the sport and it's very, very exciting. I think she could be very, very competitive over there. So between then and now we'd like to run her one more time and probably, probably go to try on horse trials or try on, you know, the thing down there and run her in the four star short. I think that's in the middle of September, about September 13th or 14th and take her there for a run and then hopefully stick her on a plane and head over to the south of France and do battle with the, the Frenchies. I feel like we've got to get her fitness level up a little bit more from memory. This is the flying change. There's one that I did well, one that I did bad. This is a good one, boom, a little bit quick. The next one my wife yelled at me about because apparently I wrote it wrong which I thought was a bit, bit tough. She's been a quite a hot horse in the dressage and one of the. When we take her to an event, if we can get her there a day or two before the competition starts, it's usually a big help just because it, she's quite nervous and sensitive when you first get there and she's better at these three day events. So that flying change wasn't too good anyway. We've got to work on that a bit. The great news is that this horse is, it's a super duper duper jumper. She's lightning careful and I used to worry that she had a bit of a short stride and she's got a, now she's got quite a nice ground covering stride and we actually can sometimes on the longer lines like this we'd add an extra step but now I feel like we can get across there without adding a stride. And it was a little bit hard to get the time on the show jumping. But Lulu was brilliant. She, she jumped a clear round which was pretty hard to get a clear round on the day just because it was a very tough course. But she, this would be her strongest phase. She's sharp and careful. A little bit spooky, but spooky in a good way. Where she's unsure of the jump, she goes higher. The, the cross country was very, very difficult. There was about a third of the field didn't make it around. And I was very, very pleased with the way Lulu went. She, sometimes she used to be a little bit spooky and nervous at the coffins, but now I sort of built one at our farm here in Pennsylvania and she's really got the hang of them now. And so on the cross country she was brilliant. Being August and the ground a bit boggy, I. I just didn't go flat out between the jumps. I sort of jumped all the fences at the right pace and did the right number of strides. But in the cross country I just sort of tried to protect her or look after her a bit between the fences. But she looked good on Trot up this morning, so I think we're in, in good health. Anyway, Bon, I hope you're doing well, mate. We're always looking forward to seeing you again. You should be very, very proud of this horse. It's really come on a long way since we first got it as a youngster and she's very, very brave and keen to the jumps and we're having a fantastic season with good results at three day events, good results at the shorts, good results at the showcases. She's turning into a bit of a star, Bonnie. There's a lot to be proud of. Anyway, mate, I hope you're doing well and looking forward to catching up with you.
