Penhill Celtic - Morven Park - April ‘23

This is a video for Roger, Lauren and Beck. Well guys, we finally got Donald to his first show of the year. We took him down to Virginia, which is about three hours south of our farm, and we tackled the open prelim at Morven park horse trials. And it was a good competition, it was all on one day. So we woke up very, very early in the morning, drove a couple hours south, dressage at about 8:30 this morning, show jumping at about 10:30 and cross country at about 11:30. So it was a fast and frantic day. But I thought it would be good to put Donald in an open prelim for the first start of the year. I knew he'd be a little bit fresh and feisty and I wasn't wrong. It was bloody cold and windy at Morven park and the warm up, Donald was definitely up on his toes and very, very fired up for the, for the compet. Luckily for us, after a good warm up we knocked the wind out of him and he went in there and put in a nice test. I think he scored a 31 in the, in the dressage. I wasn't too worried about the result this weekend. It was more just getting Donald off the farm in a weird kind of way. I wanted to make the competition a little, little bit easier for him. I feel like Donald being Donald, the first event the year, I knew he'd be a bit of a wild man and I thought if we make the level that he's competing slightly easier, if he is a bit silly or what not, I could sort of kick on and push him through it. And knowing that the jumps aren't very big and whatnot and he was actually pretty impressive. He was definitely fresh and excited but in all three phases he was a good boy. He was, you know, I got to be on my guard when I'm riding him just because his mind wanders pretty easy. But he, he was a good boy. He got a 31 in the dressage, he show jump fantastic. He got a clear round in the show jumping and then my plan was just to coast around the cross country and I couldn't believe my eyes when he, he got the time. He's deceiving. He's got a big gallop track, a big gallop stride and on top of that he's very, very educated. Their preliminary levels super easy so I didn't have to balance him up for too many of the jumps and you know, he felt good. Felt good. I think after this run we should point him out. Two weeks time, there's an open intermediate at Plantation Horse Trials, which is usually a good course not far from our place and be a great, great competition just to gently scoot Donald back up to the higher levels of the compet. We got back to Pennsylvania in the beginning of March and I don't know, Donald seems to like it better up, up north. Firstly, there's a lot more grass to eat, which is something we've got to watch because Donald's a big boy. But the, the gallops are much better and we've got a good cross country, a lot of hills and stuff like that. I don't know, he just seems like he's in, he's in better spirits. He's been very, very healthy. We've had the vet check him over and he seems in good nick. I didn't quite trust him at the show jumping course, so in hindsight I probably overrode him a bit. Sometimes when Donald's a bit fresh, he starts thinking about everything else other than the jump. So often you'll see after the jump, sort of spur him and sprint him away a little bit just to make sure that he's in front of me and concentrating. But to be honest, the course was really, really easy for him. It was easy work. It was quite, quite small. It was a preliminary level and he could jump about six holes higher. I was sort of using this weekend more of a fitness run and a bit of a competition to blow the cobwe off him. And it worked out well. The ground was very, very good for the cross country. We had a fair bit of rain yesterday and last night, so the footing was very, very good and soft. And then as you can see, the, the dressage and show jumping rings, synthetic footing. So it's actually a really good competition. So I think we should. We'll put Donald in the Open intermediate in two weeks time at plan. And then after that we should, you know, maybe do another intermediate or find in advance. I'll just see how he feels around the intermediate. Make sure that whichever direction we go with Donald with selling him or keep going with him, that we put him in competitions that he's successful at by saying that he. I don't know, like he. Sometimes it doesn't matter really what level he is, he is very, very sort of broken, brave and confident. He's well educated over all the jumps and the movements in the dressage and the show jumping. It's just making sure that his mind's on the job. But at the moment everything seems like it's rocking and rolling again, which is fantastic with him. And, you know, after a bit of a sluggish start to the year, we feel like we're back in business. And Donald's humming along well.