A 19-hand gelding named Donald competes in his first advanced three-day event at New Jersey Horse Trials, scoring 31 in dressage under judge Valerie Viscarando and going clear in show jumping. The team, including coaches Peter Wild and Eric Devander, had started flying changes just a week before the event. Next up: a four-star short at Great Meadow in Virginia.
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This is a video for Lauren. Roger and Beck took the big fella, Donald to the New Jersey Horse Trials this weekend for his first advanced event. This has a reputation of being a slightly easier advance. I was eager to try and spin him around a slightly softer course before I head overseas. So this is obviously the dressage from yesterday and I gotta say he was pretty good in typical style. I started training the flying changes about a week before his first advance. So to start with they were a little bit of a mess and I was lucky actually. He got both flying changes sort of decent. I had to throw him over. You'll see, see it in a second. But Silver was actually kind enough to ride him a couple of times for me and schooled him in the dressage and try and fast track his flying for his big advance debut. He pulled up really well after the three day event at New Jersey in May. We gave him, I think three weeks rest and then just gently brought him back in and I was sort of keen to get this advanced under his belt before I head overseas. I'm gone for about three weeks and then my game plan is to actually come back and then aiming for the four star short at Great Meadow, that's in Virginia and that gives us sort of a good time to build him up for that, I think from getting back from Japan. I'll be here for three weeks. I'll have plenty of time to cross country school him and jump him a couple of times before Great Meadow. That's usually. It'll be much harder than what we went through today, but it's usually a good four star short. You know, he's very, very strong in all three phases and this weekend was sort of just about survival, getting through it and he actually exceeded my expectations. He, I think he finished in third place, which is really, really good considering we were just on completion mode, if you know what I mean. He's a deceiving horse like he, he' boy big thick horse but he can gallop like the wind. And I wasn't really even trying to go fast on him cross country and I think we had six time penalties. So obviously if I decided to put my foot down, he would have easily made the. Easily made the time because on the cross country we see a little bit of it in this video, but it was a little bit green and I sort of set him up for all the tricky combinations in the show jump. I've been lucky. Peter Wild and Eric Devander have been coming to the farm coaching me a fair bit and I've Been able to slot Donald in in those training sessions. And Peter Wild's a great jumping instructor and really, really likes Donald. You know, nothing fancy. We're trying to get him to shorten up his stride. He's got a ginormous, you know, canter stride, which is awesome for galloping, but a little bit hard dressage and show jumping. So getting him a little bit balanced and sitting back, obviously he's a very good, scopey, careful jumper, so I sort of don't need too many tricks to make him jump better. It's more sort of the rideability. He doesn't turn that well, especially to the right. He's a little bit stiff on the roaring and he still can be a little bit cheeky. Like every now and then he catches me out just when I think he's trained and a seasoned campaigner, he does a bit of a hop and a spin on me. Now, here's our first attempt of a flying change. Come on, big fella. There you go. It was clean. Had to sort of pull him from one side to the other, but it was. They're in there. And I think by the end of the year, I'd ideally like to do a four star long on him somewhere towards the end of the year. And by the time October or November comes, those flying changes should be sweet. So I think he scored a 31 in the dressage. It was one of the good judges. It was Valerie Viscarando, who is the judge, who's actually a top FEI judge. So pretty good score considering it's his first whirl at it. Here's our second change and this. Basically these flying changes are the big difference. They're pretty good, you know, big difference between intermediate and advanced, obviously. So, all in all, I was actually thrilled with the way you went here because, you know, we practiced the test a couple of times, but not. Not nearly the sort of focus that you have for the. The big three day events. It's bloody hot, actually. So this is the show jumping, which is about 4 o' clock in the afternoo on Saturday, and he jumped really, really well. Sort of a tight course and you had to sort of zip along a little bit for the time. He's still a little bit tricky to turn right especially, and then obviously turning left's the side that he could go a bit silly. And so I sort of gave him a little bit of a tickle with the spur on that left turn. The good thing is, like, earlier this year, he was having the odd down. Like, I felt like I Had to override him slightly in the show jumping so he wouldn't be naughty. But then he lost his jump a bit and I sort of found a good mix now of making sure he's in front of the leg and being honest, but not sort of charging around like a wild man and losing his carefulness. So I had three horses in the class and he was my third of the three and it was bloody hard getting a clear round for me now. I did cross country school them a couple days before, so they lost a little bit of their sharpness. But Donald's such a good jumper, he still got a clear round. I think we were in like sixth place or something after the show jumping. This is a couple little snippets of the cross country. This is about a third of the way around, a bit of a turning exercise to a one stride through the water. And he's a deceiving horse. Like I said before, he's got a big stride and he's got a real engine. This was a tricana down to an offset two strike. Anyway, all in all, I can't tell you how impressed I am with him. He did this Advanced Horse Trials, easy. Next event will most likely be a four star short there at Great Meadow in Virginia. And then if everything keeps going well, we'll try and find a full long frame. Anyway, thanks for your support, guys.
