Jonelle and Rosie left Chedington with Coup de Coeur Dudevin (Joker) and Hiarado (Jools) on Tuesday to head to Wiesbaden in Germany and they were having a great run up until 1.30am Wednesday morning when they were just an hour from the venue and a catastrophic crash on the motorway just ahead of them left them parked for some 6 hours. The stable manager at Wiesbaden had been so helpful on providing his own personal stables whilst awaiting the opening of the official stables so it was even more annoying not being able to access them until 7.30am! They had plenty of room on the truck though so the 2 horses travelling in first class were none the worse for their extended journey and arrived at the venue safe and sound.
Wednesday morning saw Tim answer his 3am alarm call and he set off for Aston le Walls in Northampton with 4 rides for the day. We did ask for early times to be fair and they certainly accommodated with an 8 am dressage and all done by early afternoon!
After weeks and weeks of rain and greyness England has suddenly sprung awake and everything is green and shiny again. Tim said that the footing was perfect after 10 days of warm weather ( and the occasional thunderstorm on Monday night!) and Nigel Taylor had done a good job with the track. Chio 20 was on good form for a 27, Dromgurrihy Gold (Dara) tried hard to keep his long legs inside the small arena for a 31, new boy Garcon (Tibo) got his second start with Tim for a 32 and Viscount Viktor also knocked out a 27. Tim was happy with all of them.
All the boys jumped clear apart from Dara who made a couple of errors but jumped some of his best fences this season as well. Intermediate is all about the learning curve and Dara is stepping up to 4*S at Millstreet at the end of the month so these runs are invaluable along the way.
Cross country was fun to ride according to Tim…nothing like an intermediate track with lovely horses after the pressure of Badminton! All the boys popped around the track for a good training run before Bicton and Millstreet which are coming up fast.
Tim was also quick to praise Kerryn who had driven the horses up and since they were flying solo was pretty flat out for the day! Kerryn headed back to Dorset in the early afternoon and Tim headed for Kent and the start of his trip to Germany to meet up with Joker in Wiesbaden.
Never a dull moment at Team Price!