In a personal video addressed to Bonnie Stead, the speaker provides a comprehensive update on the eventing horse Lulu after her first competition of the year at Pine Top. The update covers the early‑morning dressage test (noting a score around 35, nervousness in the walk, and choppy canter transitions), a flawless show‑jumping round, and a confident cross‑country run performed at a conservative pace with modest time penalties. The speaker details recent training work, including gymnastics exercises with Peter Wild and flat‑work sessions with Eric Devander, and outlines Lulu’s current fitness regimen (up to four miles of cantering weekly). Specific riding challenges are discussed, such as Lulu’s tendency to drop her neck on landing from high jumps and the need to keep her canter open when she becomes tense. The plan moving forward is a short preparation period before competing in the advanced division at Pine Top in two weeks, with expectations of improved dressage changes, strong show‑jumping, and a step‑up in cross‑country difficulty. Overall, the tone is enthusiastic yet cautious, emphasizing Lulu’s sound condition, confidence, and the team’s strategic approach to her progression this season.
Chapters
This is a video for Bonnie Stead. Well Bonnie, we took Ms. Lulu herself for her first event of the year and she was very, very excited to be out eventing again. This is a dressage test early this morning. Now I knew she'd be hot and nervous so I got up really early and gave her a bit of a school at about 7:30 this morning for half an hour and she was breathing fire obviously. We took her to the dressage shower a couple weeks ago where she was very some reason knows that she can almost see the cross country jumps there and she knows at the pine top that she's going to finally get to run and jump. Anyway it wasn't disastrous. She held it together. She got a little bit nervous in the walk and one canter strike off. But all in all this event was more just to get the rust off, get her out and about and start preparing her for her debut at the advanced level in a couple of weeks time. Show jump very well. We had Peter Wild help us on Tuesday of this week and Peter gave us some exercise, some gymnastic exercises and then also did a little bit of coursework. Then Eric Devander also was here on Wednesday and Thursday and we worked Lulu together on the flat and she went really, really well. And like always at this time of the year she's pretty fired up when she gets to her first event. So I was sort of being very, very cautious in the way I rode her and tried to, tried to keep a lid on her. All in all she had a good weekend though Bon like she did a decent dressage test then she show jumped fantastic. She jumped the moon. And then cross country she was bloody brilliant. Obviously being the first event of the year I didn't push her at all for the time or anything like that. I just cruised around slowly and looked after her legs a bit. She pull up well she's still quite fit from last year's competition so. So I think basically my game plan from here on out is we'll have a, an easier couple of days here and then I think we're all set to compete at the advanced at Pinetop in two weeks time. That'll be on Friday and Saturday. In two weeks time it's, you know, she'll be a little bit green in the flying changes in the dressage and then I actually think she'll show jump the track there really, really well and then obviously the cross country will be a step up but she's, she's up for it. She gave me a great round of cross country Today she was full of running very, very confident and jumped all the fences well. So obviously as we know from this time last year, it's always a, a challenge when we move them up a level. So we're just looking for survival and completion. Bon see there she gets a bit nervous and not the best transition there. So we've got a decent dressage score. I can't, I think it was 35 or something like that, which obviously the walk she got quite nervous and tense in and then the canter she gets a little bit choppy when she's fiery like this. The hardest part is when she gets tense. She gets her counter goes a little bit up and down on the spot. So Eric was working on trying to keep her canter quite open and free. Once she gets a little bit tense, which it's easy to say and it's hard to do, especially when she's fired up like this. She's trotting up really, really well at the moment. She's been touched some wood. She's been very, very sound in all of her training and like I said, we've been slowly but surely building the fitness into her. She's up to cantering four miles slowly either once a week or twice a week, depending on how much jumping we do. The old Pinetop, still Pinetop, it's obviously got a great cross country course and the, the, the show jumping and dressage is a little bit primitive, but to give them a, a good run and a good outing, it's a good venue for it. So I try and take all the, the upper level horses here to Thompson, Georgia. She's obviously a very careful jumper. One of the hard things, Bonnie, is when she sort of jumps really, really big sometimes my upper body falls a bit forward just because she jumps quite high behind so. And she sort of lands a bit neck down. So trying to work on sort of elevating her neck and her head, especially on the landing side of the jump. But she's very, very careful and she used to have a little bit of a short stride in the jumping but it's now that she's more confident, it's grown a bit. Very, very good front end on her. Funny enough. The clear rounds and show jumping have been handy obviously. Her win at Bromont last year and her top finish at Maryland was all thanks to a clear round. And it's luxurious riding her in the show jumping just because she's so careful and classical. So we got a couple bits and pieces from the cross country today. As I said before, I just sort of went around slowly. We picked up about 15 or 20 time penalties just for going slow. There's, in my opinion, no need to sprinter around this early in the year and she felt very, very confident around the track. So I think we're in good shape to have our first advance in a couple of weeks, mate. Anyway, we hope you're feeling well and Lulu's in great shape and I think she's going to have a good season this.
