A superb beginning for two talented horses.
We had a brilliant day at Ascott under Wychwood on Saturday, with my young horse Jjamaica (Elmo) competing at his first affiliated BE100 and bringing home his first win. He did a beautiful dressage test and went into the showjumping in the lead. After a lovely double clear he won the class. He’s certainly a very eye catching horse and has gained plenty of comments on both his outings. Sue Benson calls him Black Beauty! I’m very excited about his future.
Sues beautiful young Falco IV was also in the lead after the dressage after performing a really super test and jumped a double clear. With just a few deliberate time faults because of his age and the firm ground, he finished seventh in his section. He gave me a great ride and this was only his second outing too and I am really pleased with him. Both boys will now go to Berkshire College this weekend for another B100 run before I head to Luhmuhlen on Monday.
Sue, a former international event rider, is one of the UKs best known championship course builder and designed the cross country course at the 2012 London Olympic Games. She’s been course designing for 16 years working at Burghley, Bramham, Thirlestane and Boekelo, and it’s a real honour and pleasure to be riding for her.
For the horses heading to the German 4Star at Luhmuhlen International training has been going really well with Kaapachino and Amsterdam. We’ve had some super jumping sessions with Grant Wilson and some great dressage lessons with Isobel Wessel. The gallops at Barbury Castle have been fine tuning their fitness, and I’ve been also been fine tuning myself at the gym. For both the horses and myself our fitness preparation for Luhmuhlen began back in February.
Amsterdam will compete in the CIC3* and after a great performance at Houghton International, where he gave me a lovely feeling jumping a double clear, I’m really excited about riding him.
Kaapachino has also been going great guns, and I’m really excited about riding him cross country in the CCI4*. He was amazing at Houghton and skipped around the three star course there making it all feel very easy. Fingers cross for some good results at Luhmuhlen.
Jesse
