Stunning September sunshine for the jog at Blenheim this afternoon which was a lovely way to start the event. Jonelle just has Senor Crocodillo (Diego) in the 4L with a late draw at No. 80 whilst Tim has Happy Boy and Chio 20 at the start and end of the class. They also have rides in the 4*S 8/9 year old class, Tim with the 8 year old Dromgurrihy Gold (Dara) and Jonelle with the 9 year old Full Monty de Lacense (FM) but they don’t have to jog in that class as cross country is the last phase.
The jog strip at Blenheim is sponsored by Speedi Beet and they chose to use their logo not just on the fence alongside the strip but also in some big wooden planters. Two smaller ones were dragged out to the side edge of the strip and the big one placed at the end of the track for the horses to turn around. It was definitely designed by a very non horse person as the one at the end was filled with numerous plants that looked aggressively tropical and caused most of the horses to spook violently at on the way down, knock the riders off the strip and onto the grass on the way past and allot of side eye as they got to the far side of it and then a bolt back down the track to get away from whatever reptiles may be residing within it. It was far too big for the strip which was more Harrier Jump Jet size than 747 and it was probably one of the most entertaining jogs to watch because of it. One poor girl did a few laps behind the fence with an off its head chestnut before reappearing in front of the ground jury and there was a fair bit of trampling on riders feet along the way.
Happy spooked like he had never left the yard before, Chio looked magnificently powerful and borderline ADHC as he gawped at the (not immense) crowd and never even noticed said flower tub and Diego had that uber laid back ‘yeah its just a jog’ look on his face as he is a ‘too cool for school’ kind of dude and it doesn’t aid that image if you are scared of a pot of flowers.
There were a couple of brave photographers who were in the pathway of returning semi out of control horses who doggedly stuck to their spots despite several near misses. There were some odd outfits, some “well I used to fit into this” outfits and some very classy ones as always. The horses gleamed in the sunshine and with a backdrop for the event like Blenheim Palace it feels very special as always.
Live streaming on Horse and Country TV https://horseandcountry.tv
Live scoring on Eventing Scores https://www.eventingscores.co.uk
Times: (GMT) Thursday Tim and Dara 9.06 , Tim and Happy 14.12, Jonelle and FM 11.45. Friday Jonelle and Diego 15,21 and Tim follows on Chio at 15.27.
One in every colour please! The 5 Blenheim horses arriving on site.
