It’s a funny old world when no matter how big the occasion we always seem to return to a competition at Aston le Walls. You can be at Badminton, Aachen, the world’s biggest stage in Paris and the next week you find yourself negotiating the roadworks that are part of the carnage that HS2 is causing across the country and in Nigel Taylor’s back yard for Aston #23.
So today saw Jonelle with just the one ride, Full Monty de la Lasence ( FM) in the intermediate and he is full steam ahead this half of the season with a new found buzz after his Millstreet 3*Long performance. He posted a 28.6 on the flat, jumped, in Jonelle’s words, a “beautiful” show jump round and then cruised cross country for 9.2 time and eventual 5th in his section. Jonelle was pretty much done by 10.30 am so she headed home to ride some ponies and catch up on everything that has been sidelined by the Games.
Tim also had an 8am dressage but with 5 rides his day was scheduled to be much longer. He is in the enviable position of having 10 advanced rides which comes with the un-enviable position of having to make choices when he had 7 horses vying for the 5 spots available at Aston as they only had one day of intermediate. It is a tricky juggling game as Tim works out which horses are more in need of one day runs and which ones can easily skip a run and head up at the next event without one, and one which he is constantly monitoring.
Tim kicked off the day with a new ride for him, Global Quest (George), who is an assured advanced horse with a 4 Long win under his belt and they started off their partnership in a quietly confident way with a 29.3 and a double clear with some 17 time so not to trouble the leaders. Jarillo (Milo) was the Team Price dressage winner today with a 27.3 and he also posted a double clear with around 25 time and found himself very happy to be back in his comfort zone at an OI. Milo has really been up against the coal face in the last few weeks with Aachen CCIO and Team Camp where he had to practise the Olympic test and I am sure he was mightily relieved to get back to junior school and run around an OI with consummate ease! As always he did it with aplomb and he will now head into his autumn campaign on a solid basis.
Happy Boy has also been out of the Field of Play for a while whilst extensive health checks have been in motion since his early walk home from Saumur 4*Long back in the Spring. A 29.6 and a double clear on Happy’s comeback one day show that everything is good in Happy’s world and he is right back on track to show the world what they have been missing. It’s also a slightly an enigma that although Happy is called Happy he is actually a grumpy little man who finds putting his ears back easier than smiling. In the words of Freddie Flintoff, our mission is to turn Happy from a Grumpy Little Man into a Happy Little Fella. Today was definitely a step in the right direction!
Kinsale Oltaire (Phoebe) was awesome in her OI with Tim for 8th spot with a 29.8 and a double clear with just 3.6 time for 8th. Phoebe is a genuine intermediate that ended up in an Open Intermediate with all the big boys and girls and still held her own. She is a girl with a big future ahead and an unusual one as Tim generally passes over the mares in favour of geldings so a special girl for sure.
And lastly the beautiful Garcon (Tibo) who was Tim’s intermediate run. Tibo has missed out on so many potential runs this year, first because of the awful spring, then because of Aachen, Luhmuhlen and Paris but he just steps out at a competition and does the business for a 32 and another double clear today! He heads to Arville next week for his first international and I know Tim is excited about his future.
It was a really great day. Tim is riding on a high and Jonelle is, as always, fighting back from abject disappointment in the only way she knows…by putting down the results and building up her team. It’s good to have a one day done and dusted and the crew have 3 horses each at the British Open ( Hartpury) this weekend with all the action live on https://horseandcountry.tv on Saturday and Sunday.