After Penhill Celtic's second three-star long at Jersey Fresh, the rider breaks down each phase: dressage showed head instability in walk, cross-country was an 8-minute-30 gallop at pace, and show-jumping stayed solid. Next up is two weeks rest before easier advanced events, building toward a four-star later this year.
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This is a video for Roger. Lauren and Beck just took the big Penhill Celtic around his second three star long here at New Jersey. And he was fantastic in all three phases. This is his dressage test. I think this was, it must have been Friday morning. And he did a great test to be honest. I think he should have scored a bit better. But I always think that if I had to be critical of his test, I think I lost a few marks in the walk. You'll see in the walk old Donald started being a little bit unsteady with his head, but obviously he's a very, very flamboyant, flashy, extravagant animal. The judges seemed to like him. So I think we. It was a massive field of horses. I think there's 40 or 50 horses in the class. Donald stays nice and settled in the test. I've sort of been amping him up a little bit to try and show him off a little bit more. And you can see that he's a little bit up on his toes in the walk. So I looked at the scores and yeah, that we lost a few points on the walk, otherwise he would have been in the 20s. He was really, really impressive in the cross country and show jumping as well. The cross country, let's say it was like a 8 minutes 30 cross country course, so it must have been about 3 miles. And he's deceiving Donald. He's a, obviously a big boy but he gallops like the wind and you wouldn't think he's as fast as he is. So we, we roared around the cross country and he did it very, very easy, made the time and he pulled up really well. The trot up was no worries. He sound. So I gotta fix up all these little things here where he goes a bit crooked in that counter transition. And then show jumping, obviously he's been a, he's a great jumper but he can be quirky in the show jumping where he loses his concentration and starts dreaming of another place. So it's been a tricky sort of process where, you know, I've been having to gallop him around pretty fast and get him in front of my leg, but then not get up him so much that he loses his carefulness. So I felt like he jumped really, really well on Sunday. A tough enough show jumping course and he did a good round. So my game plan is to, I'm going to give him two weeks off. He's been going pretty hard this year, been galloping him, getting him really fit and pushing him quite hard to improve for this event. And then so I just think he needs, his body needs a little bit of a break and I think mentally he's sort of, we just got to make sure we don't make him sour by pressing on him too much. But he's ready for advance. He's done, let's see, he's done two, three star longs, both of them. He's finished on his dressage score and he feels very, very comfortable around the, especially the cross country which is the big part of it. So I'm going to try and find a couple easier advance just to test him over the bigger stuff. And if everything goes to plan, I think he should be ready for a four star later this year. I believe he's, he's, he's growing up a fair bit with the, you know, how he behaves a bit. You know, like obviously it's cold and windy, he can be a little bit wild but I don't know like with the sort of consistent hard training we've been putting into him to get him to these events, he's sort of permanently a little bit worn out from the day's training. So he's, he's been pretty well behaved. I'm really, really impressed with the horse though. He to me doesn't have a ding like he's obviously a good mover. He's a fantastic galloper, brave horse. Cross country and then in the show jumping he wants to jump clear. So this is a bit of video from the cross country. We didn't get that much of it but he had to go a bit to get the time and I decided to cut him loose a bit. And he's a good boy, he never questioned any of the jumps. This is cross country course towards the end so this would be about eight minutes about here. So he still ears a pricked and he feeling fresh, still got plenty left in the tank. So there's no question in my mind that he could go the extra distance at the four star, four star level. And then like I said he, he is very, very sound and healthy after the cross country and seeming good spirits for the show jumping. Peter Wild's been helping me a fair bit with his show jumping along with Eric Devander. And we've got him jumping well. I think he's got a really, really big stride. So all the distances on the show jumping and the cross country course are he finds short. You know, he's got a big stride so you know, we kind of weigh it. It's, you know, you've got to always keep balancing him and steadying him up but he, he put in a great round jumping and can't remember what place we finished overall but it was, it was good. I would love to have won it but I suppose we've got to just keep improving the dressage because the, the jumping and the galloping phases I think are good to go now. So yeah, go easy on him for a couple weeks here and then try and pick off find a couple easy advanced events and then try a four star short just after the mid year sometime and if all goes well I think he'll be raring to go potentially for a four star long or short towards the end of the year somewhere. But he's a happy healthy and I can't tell you guys how much I appreciate you sending him out to give me a crack with him because he's slowly but surely evolving into just a really, really top horse and you know I'm starting to think the sky's the limit with him.
