Monty - Pine Top - Feb ‘22

This is a quick video for the Dawnland Syndicate. We took Monty to his first horse trial this year and as you can see, we did the dressage very, very early on Friday morning at Pinetop in Georgia. This was his sort of first proper event for the year. So far in 2022, we've taken him to a couple of jumping shows and also to a couple dressage shows and he's been actually performing really well. I like going to Pinetop Horse Trials. It's actually a pretty crummy venue for the dressage and show jumping. But the cross country course is brilliant. It's fantastic footing. It's a nice big open course. The design is the same designer as Kentucky, Derek DeGrazio. It's just usually a good run for them. Cross country. That aside, Monty was good in the dress. He scored a 33, which it's good. It still needs to get a lot better. Been working away with Eric Devander a couple of times, once in January, once in February. So far, Eric's come up and stay with me for a couple of days and we've done a bit of dressage and jumping and cross country training with Monty. Monty's show jumping is coming up on this video and a moment. It was a little bit disappointing, actually. The big thing with Monty, he actually jumps really well, but he's a little bit tricky in the ride abilities, sometimes a little bit hard to balance and keep soft and supple and through. And I've taken him to the jumping show at Bruce's Field, I think two times so far this year at that jumping show. He's been really, really good. And then, I swear the horses know they're about to go cross country. Got the pine top. He's still jumping clear round for us, but as you'll see in the video, that he got a little bit long and funny with his mouth again. And it's sort of being an ongoing sort of challenge to get him better in the connection. And up until Pinetop, I really thought we'd had it all solved and sorted out. And sadly, when we got to the show jumping there in Georgia on Friday, he reverted a little bit back to his old ways by saying that he actually jumped really well and was being very, very careful, like he was not tapping the jumps or anything. But on a couple of the lines he just got a little bit rude in his frame. So still a work in progress, the cross country. Unfortunately, we didn't get any of the footage of the cross country. I had a number of rides all on the one day On Friday and the grooms were busy washing and cooling horses down and tacking them up. But he gave me a great run cross country. I really didn't push him for the time. I got a big season coming up. So this first event of the year, I sort of tried to use it as a bit of a cross country school and I just cantered around. He went around, I think with about 15 or 20 time penalties. So I just went around the cross country nice and easy and he got through it unscathed. He trotted up perfectly on Saturday morning. So our next event's going to be an advanced horse trials at the same venue in two weeks time. Next weekend we'll take him to the dressage show and put him through either second or third level tests. Keep chipping away at that. My main goal this spring would be to get him to try on four star long, which is in the spring. I think it's in the beginning of May. This event will sort of qualify him for the World championships and the Olympics, which I know is a bit of a long shot. But it would also increase his value considerably if we decided to sell him through the year. So that's our sort of short term goal. Between then and now we're just continuously training him at home, trying to improve him. All three phases. Feel like we've got him very fit, in good health. Obviously in all three phases he's still, you know, he's at the top level of the sport now, but he still lacks a little bit of experience. So mileage and schooling and education at home is really, really, really critical. So I think we'll do Pinetop Advanced in two weeks time. Then he'll head Pennsylvania for a bit and we'll take him to the Carolina International at the advanced level. And then Fairhill four star short and then Tryon four star long. I think Fairhill's in April and then Tryon will be in May. As you can see here, he's jumping well. He's just a little bit fussy with his mouth, especially on the lines where he's got a jump on a long straight line. Whenever there's a curve to a ju. Keep him in a little bit better shape. But so far Monty's been going well this year and he seems in good form.