In a personal video addressed to Bonnie ("Bun Bun"), the speaker provides a detailed update on their horse Lulu’s recent competition and training progress. Lulu competed in the Open Intermediate class at New Jersey Horse Park, earning a score of 26 and showing notable improvements in bravery, cross‑country ability, and flatwork despite some nervousness in canter and a few spookier moments on the course. The speaker credits recent help from trainer Eric Devander, who worked on Lulu’s flatwork, breathing, and topline, and from Peter Wild, who assisted with show‑jumping sessions. They discuss upcoming plans to enter the Maryland 3‑Star event in three weeks, noting logistical challenges (early start, shipping, warm‑up) and areas for further work, such as increasing stride length, loosening the canter, and refining jump confidence, especially on left‑handed corners. The speaker also mentions health monitoring—easy days, lunging, and penalties incurred—to ensure Lulu remains sound and competitive for the upcoming 3‑Star and potential 5‑Star events.
Chapters
This is a video for Bonnie Stead. Well, Bun Bun, we hope you're getting along all right. I've had a busy couple of weeks. Just got back from Italy and we took Lulu out to the New Jersey Horse park, did battle in the open intermediate class. And I have to say from at the beginning of the year when she first started going intermediate, she so green and spooky and unsure and it's amazing what six or seven months does to a horse, you know, she was so. She's so brave and honest and keen and she's turned into a real cross country machine. The dresser. She got a little bit hot and tense. I mean, she'll be so much better at, you know, like at. I think our next event is going to be the Maryland three day event in three weeks time. She's doing the three stars long there and you know, these events don't suit her that well where you sort of wake up early in the morning and you ship her up there and warm her up for half an hour. She's a little bit tight and nervous. By saying that the judge loved her, she, she got a score, yeah, 26 in the Open intermediate. Now it looks good. Bon. Bon. But it was a little bit generous. But we'll take it, we'll take it. She got a little bit, a little bit nervous in the canter work. This trot work actually looks good. Eric's been helping me the last, this last week. Eric's been at our place and Eric Devander's been a really, really good help actually. We cross country schooled her on Thursday and then and Eric helped me a couple times on the flat and basically trying to just get her to take a breath and really sort of let go across her back and her top line and so it's better. I mean, she still needs to get looser, especially in the can as she gets a little bit choppy. But while we're away, Peter Wild was kind enough to come to the farm on two occasions and jump all the horses and he absolutely loves Lulu. She show jumped great for him and sadly today I was a bit over, over confident, I think. Bon. Look at that. Hol. Yeah, we jumped the first half of the round really, really well and I think I was just expecting her to fly around the course unscathed and she got a little bit spooky at the combination line. You'll see it in a moment. And she didn't whack it out, but she just got a little bit spooky and a little bit low and tapped it Out. So anyway, in three weeks time, we're going to take on the Maryland three Star, which is the same week, you know, the same competition as the five Star. I think it will be a little bit harder than what we went through at Bromont, but not much, you know, in theory it's the same, you know, the same degree of difficulty, but it'd be a really good test of, you know. Her weaker part is that she doesn't have a huge gallop stride and she's a very careful horse. Taking to these big, big cross country courses are good for her, but she's, you know, she's got to learn to learn to be brave and take on the jumps and she definitely has got the hang of that this year. So anyway, this week we'll, we'll give her an easy day or two. Might give old Peter Blounter a call and see if he come over and just trott her up and lunge her a bit to make sure that she's good and healthy. She feels very, very sound. And like Bromont. Like the last event we did was Fair Hill and then this event at New Jersey, they're not that important. So I didn't sort of risk her legs going too, too, too fast, you know what I mean? I think we had 10 or 11 time penalties. So what, 30 seconds over the time. Over 25, Definitely looking stronger. You know, it's good for me to watch these videos because she a little bit scrawny and skinny and runty for a long time and every now and then like she's starting to show a little bit more presence, muscle, which is great. Yeah. I think in hindsight, Bon, I was a bit, just a bit casual. I didn't warm her up that bigger, bigger jump. So to sort of put her through the paces and the back of my mind I thought, ah, it's Lulu. She should jump well good. She was jumping in a great way. So nature with her front knees and front legs. So about now on the course, I'm thinking this girl's jumping, jumping for joy. She got a little bit spooky at this combination and I think she popped that one down. She got a little, little bit fast and deep to that, that one there and just ticked that. So they weren't horrible rails but they unfortunately still count. It's just like a little tap. She's a good cho jumper though. No need to panic. So she's definitely getting brave across country, like, especially if the jumps are a little bit spooky, like she's still quite strong and aggressive to the fences, which is nice. And then I was a little bit nervous about this jump. Just it's a left handed corner. It was an OXA bending four strides to a left handed corner. And earlier this year we had troubles at left handed corners, but now you can see she's brilliant. Locked onto that jump, jumped it beautifully. All right, Bon, we hope you're feeling better, mate. Lulu's going great gun. She's having a fantastic year and it's good to get this event out under our belt. And I think she's set up perfectly to be very competitive there at at the Maryland five star world three star in three weeks time.
