Radish - Pine Top - Feb ‘25

This is a video for the Fetiche de Roux Syndicate. Well, everyone, we got Radish out to his first competition of the year. We went to the mighty Pinetop Horse Trials, which is in the glamorous Thompson, Georgia. Radish has been in work basically since beginning of December. In November, I gave him about a month off and brought him back into work. And then so far this year we've. We've actually taken him to a jumping schooling show in Aiken in Bruce's field a couple of weeks ago. But this is basically his first recognized competition. I decided to put him in the modified division, which is a very, very easy class for Radish. Unfortunately, with the easy class you have to go in the little small dressage arena, which isn't our favorite. But I really wanted just to get Radish out to sort of an easier competition. At the end of last year, we didn't have the best finish of the year, unfortunately. We were faced with a pretty trappy course there at Malvern park. And I just wanted to try and start the year off on a. On a good foot. His dressage was good again. This was sort of more of a schooling show for me and Radish. I mean, I wasn't too fussed about the, the result, but he did pretty well. He got a. He got a 28.8 in the dressage, which was probably 72% saying that he wasn't at his best. He was a little bit nervous and spooky up one corner of the arena. But the biggest goal for the whole weekend was to give him nice ride around the cross country. We had Peter Wild came up to Aiken last week and we had a great jump school. One of the challenges I've had with Radish is that in the competition he does get a little bit fired up for the jumping phases. At home in the training, I can keep him nice and relaxed, soft and steady to the fences, but then at the shows he lights up a little bit when you go into the ring and he gets a little bit sort of aggressive to the jump. So sort of been really working hard at trying to keep him settled and relaxed and calm between the fences and trying to teach him while he's still evolving that we don't want him to sort of go flat out at the jumps with his head in the air, which Radish is a sort of high energy horse which I think eventually is going to become very, very handy when we get to the top of the spot. But at the moment I've slowly been Trying to work at the idea of teaching Radish just to stay a little bit calm and. And he doesn't really need to give his full energy and effort at these shows. So he gave us a good competition. I went pathetically slow in the cross country. It's early in the year. He's not quite super duper fit yet. And like I said before, it's more trying to let Radish know when he goes to the competition. It's more of a relaxing run than a go flat out for the time. Radish is a very, very fast horse. He's a great galloper when we need him to go fast. At the bigger, more important competitions. I've got 100% confidence that radish will fly, fly around the course. But sometimes the easiest way to go fast is if you can have them quite settled. Sometimes when you, when you go too quick on them, they get a bit. They get a bit wild and you end up sort of fighting with them. Our next competition will most likely be again in two weeks time at this venue at Pinetop will obviously move him up a level or the other options. Ten days later there's one in Atlanta, Georgia called Chattahoochee. I'll just make sure that he pulls that wheel from this. I'm sure he will because we didn't go very fast. I think these early events we've got to try and sort of work on moments like that where he, he gets a bit juiced up in the ring and sort of starts running at the fences again. This was a very, very low height and easy jumps for Radish. Sadly, we did actually knock a rail down. It was a little bit of rider error. I sort of angled over a oxa but Radish is a good jumper. But the hard part is that he gets a little bit feisty to the fence. So I've sort of been gently trying to relax him and trying to keep his neck long coming to the jumps. This next jump I think is the one we bumped into. I cut the turn and took it a bit for granted and got there a little bit too close. At the end of the day that's not a big bad. Even though it was my mistake. Not a bad little error at these little sort of practice events where you sort of don't protect him too much. And it's, it's not a bad thing for Radish to bump into one here or there at the really important competitions. I could hold him off those jumps a little bit more. Yeah. Once he gets excited He's. His neck gets a little bit high. So one of the hard parts is trying to slow him down without pulling back. Often when you pull back on his mouth, his head just goes upside down. So again, these early competitions, all the horses are very, very fresh, nervous and wild. So I'm not too worried. You sort of just got to get through these competitions. Cross country, he was very good. Sort of the same issue just nursing him around the course. And at the beginning he wanted to go like the clappers. So I just sort of steadied him up and tried to give him a nice ride. And as the course went on, he got better and better. I think our biggest thing in our training is more just working. He's got all the quality and all the ability in the world. He's still a little bit green, to be honest, and just gently working away in our training to educate him more. In the back of my mind, I think our big goal for the first half of this year is to potentially take him up to Bromont three day event, which is, I think it's in June and they have a very, very challenging three star long course there. And I think that gives us plenty of time to improve Radish. He's a naturally fit horse, but I'd love to get just a sort of a long, long preparation where we start building some proper gallops into him. I think by the time Bromont comes around in June, he'll be very, very competitive just because he'll be a bit more educated in the cross country. And then the dressage and the show jumping will just get better and better from now to then. I think it's just a matter of gently working away in all phases. He seems very sound and healthy. His weight's good. You know, he's a nice, quiet, relaxed horse at home. And then when, when we get to the competition, he gets a bit buzzed up. So I'm going to try and sort of take him out to a couple of these schooling shows in Aiken, jumping shows and maybe a dressage show. And without having to go cross country just to work away at keeping radish sort of not getting. Trying to make the competitions just another, another day out rather than a big event at the moment. I think it's a very exciting year for radish. Obviously we're sort of just getting to know each other. Last year and as we know with horses, it's a long process and I feel like we've got a horse that's got all the ability in the world and now it's just a matter of building a great partnership with him and, and then slowly bringing him up to the five star level. But he's got all the attributes for a top, top class horse, so I think it's going to take a bit of time, but it's a very, very exciting horse to have. Just because he's young, he's enthusiastic, energetic and I don't know, the little bit of crazy that he has will actually come in handy when we get to the very top of the sport, when the going gets really tough. Anyway, guys couldn't be more pleased with him. Things are looking good for 2025 and I think this could be a fantastic year for Fetich Derough.