In this informal video addressed to Dan and Amber, the speaker recounts a recent competition day with his horse Harry at the Plantation Horse Trials in Pennsylvania. Harry entered the dressage test as the first horse, scoring a 29—a notable improvement from a previous 33‑34 at Malvern Park—thanks to recent work on partnership and calmness. The speaker highlights significant progress in show jumping, attributing gains to visits from jumping coaches Peter Wild and Eric Devander, increased fence height at home, and more focused training. Harry displayed a relaxed demeanor in dressage, staying calm while many other horses were tense. The competition conditions were ideal: warm weather, fresh spring grass, and a well‑maintained arena. After dressage, the day included a short show‑jumping round and a light cross‑country segment, culminating in a class win. The speaker notes Harry’s comfort jumping on grass and his strong galloping stride. Looking ahead, the next target is the Tryon Three‑Star Short in North Carolina, where the course will feature lighter poles and shallower cups; the speaker plans to continue incremental training to further improve Harry’s show‑jumping before that event.
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This is a video for Dan and Amber. We took Harry to the Plantation Horse Trials, which is only about 10 minutes up the road from our farm in Pennsylvania here. And he was the very, very first horse to go in the dressage. He was on at 8 o' clock this morning and he went in and did a really, really good test actually. It was sort of. I'm still getting to know him and it was very, very helpful going to a couple of weeks ago where he. I thought he did a good test there, but, you know, learnt a little bit, you know, about him and tried to get him moving a bit better. And he came out today and did a wonderful test. I feel a little bit more like we've got a partnership now and that I could sort of go for it a little bit more in the test. The judge loved him as well. At the end of the test, the judge hopped out of the car and asked me what the horse was and background and whatnot. So it's always a good sign. He scored a 29, which there's still a little bit of room for improvement, but it was a drastic improvement from Malvern park where I think he got a. I want to say it was like a 33 or 34 a couple of weeks ago. The thing that I was most happy about this weekend was his show jumping. He gets the improvement award. He jumps so much better. My sort of jumping coaches, Peter Wild and Eric Devander, have sort of been visiting me at our farm a number of times with the build up towards Kentucky and I've got them to help me on Harry a number of times. And obviously we've got Harry feeling a lot better in his body. And then I think the biggest thing is that we started jumping him just a little bit bigger at home. I felt like, you know, when I first got him, I was probably jumping just a little bit small and a little bit low and he didn't have to try that hard or work that hard. And then obviously we got a bit of a surprise there at Morven park and had a couple of rails down. So we jumped him two or three times since then. Once cross country, just a nice easy cross country school, and then two proper show jumping sessions where we put the fences up a little higher and made him work a little bit, you know, jump a bit better. So you'll see he's jumping around in a moment. We had one pole down anyway. I felt like we got to the jump all right and not quite sure where he had it down, but overall he was jumping higher and being more Cautious and a bit more careful with his legs which was great, great thing with him is he, he seems to stay very, very calm and relaxed in the dressage. Where this ring is, is, it's, it's right on the top. And a lot of the horses get very, very tense and nervous in the dressage. And Harry's a bit of a veteran actually. I gave him a bit of a ride early this morning before the class started at about 6:30 and just schooled him a little bit long and low in the warm up ring just to get a little bit of nerves and energy out of him. But by the time I went in for the test he took a deep breath and he was very, very calm and concentrate. A lot of the other horses in the contest went nuts. They get very, very nervous and sort of look out across the hill there. The conditions for this competition was absolutely perfect. The spring grass has come through. We had a little rain last week and it was just a nice 60 degrees all day today. So happened pretty fast. We did the dressage first thing this morning, went down show, jumped him, changed gear, went across country and we were heading home by about 11:30. So all in all it was a really, really pleasing result. He won the class and you know, I decided not to push him too much cross country for the speed. We're still sort of getting to know each other and to be quite honest this was a great competition but it was, it's not the be all and end all. It was, you know, was, it was, I think there was 15 horses in the class and I don't know, I was using it more as a training competition so it was nice to win especially when sort of we weren't going for broke as well, which was quite encouraging. So being a horse from Ireland he didn't mind jumping on the grass. Some horses get really, really weird about jumping on the grass and he jumped really well. Like I said before, I just feel like he's jumping up a little higher now, Being just a little bit more careful. Our next competition is going to be a big one. It's going to be the tryon three star short. It's down in North Carolina. It's a, at a beautiful facility called the Trion International Equestrian Center. Now this is the pole he had down. Felt like I got there. All right. Look like he just got it, caught it with his hind legs going up. Good thing is that felt like the rest of the course. He jumped in. Great style and great technique. It was a, it was actually a hard, hard course to jump. Well, it's a bit of a flimsy, flimsy course and the jumps are a bit prehistoric at Tryon. They're going to be much lighter poles, shallower cups. So we're gonna have to still keep working away at his show jumping to make sure he jumps well. There one thing with this horse, he's a great galloper. I don't know, like he just gives me a nice speedy feel again, I'm very, very confident in his cross country. He's got a, I don't know, like he's got a good length of stride. He's brave. I feel like he really, really enj. Quite a tough course for intermediate. But I have to say Harry felt very, very comfortable around it. Like these next jumps here is a right handed corner to a left handed corner and he didn't flinch at all. So I'll give Harry a couple easy days and then just keep chipping along with his work. Like I said, I'm very, very pleased with the way he is in the dressage cross country and then I feel like the show jumping's a work in progress and we're improving all the time. And I think by the time Tryon comes around in three weeks time, he'll be even better than this. So, yeah, very, very pleased. Big improvement from a couple of weeks ago and you know, I think he's going better and I actually know him a bit better now, which sort of all falling into place. Anyway guys, catch up.
