In this video, the speaker provides a detailed recap of an advanced‑level three‑day eventing competition at Tryon International Equestrian Centre in South Carolina, aimed at the Wabanaki Syndicate. He outlines the context of the competition—less competitive than the recent Great Meadow four‑star short but still a proper test—then walks through each phase with Monty, his horse. In dressage, Monty scored a 32, winning the class, thanks to recent schooling on flying changes and his naturally relaxed temperament. In show jumping, the rider notes two faults: a Boyd Martin rail hit due to an overly fast approach and a Liverpool jump that led into a wall, both attributed to timing and distance errors. The cross‑country segment featured a challenging water jump modeled after a World Equestrian Games course designed by Mark Phillips; despite the difficulty, Monty performed strongly, showcasing his excellent gallop and speed. The rider celebrates the overall win, emphasizes the improvement since Great Meadow, and outlines the next target: the Morven Park four‑star long, planning a brief rest for Monty before re‑evaluating his future. The tone is conversational, enthusiastic, and instructional, offering both performance analysis and forward‑looking strategy.
Chapters
This is a video intended for the Wabanaki Syndicate. Monty and I went down to Tryon Tryon International Equestrian Centre in South Carolina on the weekend and Monty did his third advance. Well, he's done one advance earlier this year in Jersey before Tokyo and then he did sort of a four star short at Great Meadow in Virginia a couple weeks ago which was, which was really, really big. And then this was an advanced level competition. It wasn't as competitive field as what we saw at Great Meadow. A lot of the older, more experienced horses ran last weekend in Kentucky at the American Eventing Championships. But it was a proper, proper, proper test. Obviously we're seeing the dressage here today on Saturday morning and I feel like mon than what we did at Great Meadow. He. I've actually had Silver schooling him a little bit, especially in the flying changes and they were much improved. One thing about Monty is he's, he's really, really relaxed and quiet. Like a lot of the event horses get their fit and fiery and you sort of got to spend a lot of time just trying to get them quiet and chill. And Monty's the opposite. He's a laid back type charact and so you can sort of really put your leg on and go for it. In the, in the dressage test, Monty did a good score. He got a 32 and he actually won the dressage which was pretty exciting. Like I said before, it wasn't the, you know, it was a field of good riders on their sort of up and coming horses. There was a couple older experienced horses in the class but Monty did really, really well in the dressage. The show jumping, you'll see in a minute, that's also a work in progress and he jumped much, much better than he did at Great Meadow. Obviously Great Meadow was a bit disappointing again we were a bit starstruck and sort of throw him in the deep end slightly. With jumping such a big course with not much preparation and at Tryon it was an equally as toug. I got him home and really I jump schooled him I think three or four times between Great Meadow and Tryon and I felt like he really improved. I had two poles down but in general I think he jumped a lot better. The first rail, you'll see it was a little bit my fault. I sort of rode him in a bit too fast and a bit too close and he touched it behind him. The second pole you'll see is at the Liverpool and it was sort of the designer built this jump heading straight into the crowd or straight into the wall. And Monty jumped the Liverpool and sort of looked up and was more lost his concentration, was heading more towards the wall and had that down behind. But generally speaking I thought he was making, he was trying harder, he was a bit more relaxed and jumped really well. The cross country, unfortunately we didn't get much footage of the cross country. You know the World Equestrian Games were a couple years ago and we actually had a lot of the jumps that were on the WEG course, including the water. It was a really, really difficult water jump. If you remember back at the WEG we had to jump up that skinny sort of up bank and then one stride over and narrow and I mean Monty felt green and a little bit sort of couldn't believe his eyes. But he's a good cross country horse. He jumped everything. Captain Mark Phillips designed the course so it was a proper, proper track. Monty's a great galloper and I didn't go full tilt. I had to set him up and slow him down for a couple of the tricky fences. But one thing about Monty, he's got a fantastic, fantastic gallop and he's got plenty of speed. So even though we won, we won this competition and like I said at the beginning, it was a win. I'll take the win. It wasn't a class that had lots and lots of the experienced high level horses but it was still a win at the advanced level against the decent field. Sort of put a bit of wind back in our sails. Our next competition is going to be most likely the Morven park four star long. And this is nearly the pinnacle of the sport. This is sort of what I had in the back of my mind all year long. Again, Monty will be on the inexperienced side of things to tackle this event but he's, you know, the cross country is actually the phase that really sorts them out and he's a great cross country horse, you know. And I think after Morven park, you know, I think we should all re evaluate Monty and what we should do with him going forward. But I think at the moment I'd just like to focus on putting everything I've got into a great performance. Malvern park in three or four weeks time and then take a breath and see what we want to do with him. So this is the show jumping. It was at about 8:30 or 9:00 clock at night. It was under the lights at Tryon, big crowd, he warmed up well and then I thought he went in and jumped a good round and obviously I felt like he was a little bit more relaxed jumping with more scope And a little bit more careful and he, he put in a good round. You know, this would be, you know, I think he's a great jumper, Monty. It's the hard with him. He's a big sort of horse and he's a little bit hard to adjust. So you sort of gotta find your distance early. Now this next jump, this was a Boyd Martin rail. I sort of accelerated too much to it. Got a little bit deep and you just saw Monty tow it behind which was a bit annoying. And then the next fence now is the one where it's sort of the Liverpool jumping into the wall which he again just ticked it behind. So I think if I had my time over again, it would have been hard to leave the Liverpool up. That one he just had. But I think I could have ridden the OXA a little bit better. But again, remember this is sort of the pinnacle of the sport. It was a meter 25, meter 30. So it's not going to get too much bigger than that. Some footage from the cross country this morning. It was beautiful ground and as you can see, Monty's got a hell of a gallop on him anyway. We should be pleased with him. It's a remarkable improvement from last time. Get Monty home, give him a couple easy days and see how he looks. And most likely heading towards Malvern. Like to thank you guys all for hanging in there and I can't tell you how pleased I am to give you a positive report on a, a great event.
