The fabulous summer of 2025 continues with another hot and sunny day out at Dauntsey today with Tim having three proper advanced rides in the OI. Jarillo (Milo), Chio 20 and Brookfield Future News (Matthew) all having a cruisey OI run before more important competitions to follow in their autumn campaign trail. Saying that the autumn trail is still being determined but Tim’s colour co-ordinated plan was deciphered a little today and it’s fair to say that my voice note recording of the breakdown is about as clear as an MI5 current breakdown of the Ukraine front line.
Milo won the dressage with a 28.4 as he likes nothing better than to leave the warm up and be alone in his own space. Matthew impressed with a 29.3 and Chio contained himself for a 31.8 which put them all in the game for the £1000 first prize generously sponsored for the OI class.
Tim had a couple of hours between dressage and jumping which was lucky as his stolen bike was not available. The good news however is that Tim had an air tag on his bike ( presumably due to ‘where the f**k did I leave my bike last night’ conundrum ) so it was located along with Cosby’s and a couple of other bikes where the pikeys had stacked them for safe keeping up at Burgham.
Entertaining owners at the Didi is a kind of submersive experience…think old school pub, spit and sawdust floor, an outdoor vibe and you will see that in traditional kiwi style the horses are outside and the food is in the back. Various factions came together for some good food for the crew as Bridget Garlick and Sean Duffy ran operations in a slick fashion.
Over at the showjumping the collecting ring had moved from the old next door field to the same field which meant for a fairly tight warm up. Milo is horse shy and he hated the tight space but the great thing about a small OI class is that the other riders recognised Tim’s problem and all walked when he jumped a fence. It’s so unique in eventing that no one takes advantage of some one else’s problem and really does make it unique in the field of play. Milo got some space and jumped an immaculate round apart from one fence which he rolled but, as Tim said, it was purely down to tension and better at an OI than when it matters.
Chio is a powerhouse. He is a brat of a horse with 5 star scope to burn and he has all the moves on the ground that leave most of us ducking when it comes to either holding him or, especially, taking his back boots off! He jumped a few fences, tried to drop Tim on landing, spooked at the jump trailer, attempted to use another horse as a reason to deposit Tim on the sidelines and then went in and jumped a foot perfect round. We left Sean to take him back to the truck and turned our attention to Matthew who was waiting patiently and quietly on the sidelines.
And what a dude Mathew is. He made no fuss about being third in line, he warmed up amazing and then jumped the most perfect round possible in the arena with no drama whatsoever. He’s careful, scopey, polite and has no attitude which no doubt appalled Chio but bodes well for his future!
With just the 19 in the OI cross country times were tight and the general consensus at the truck was Tim should ride Chio first as no one wanted to be hanging round the cross country warm up holding him. Tim agreed, Chio powered around the track like the utter pro that he is and made it all look so easy for just 7.6 time as Tim was literally just cantering. He is a true 5 star horse in the making with Tim commenting that he is so unbelievable cross country now that he has learnt to put his stride and power into the positives.
Milo was next out and he oozed class as always with a superb and easy clear. He added 16 time for a tick the box OI run and he heads to bigger things.
Matthew had to endure a lengthy hold at the start whilst the horse ambulance bought a victim back, safely and securely delivered to the truck park which was good to hear. Tim unplaited him whilst he waited and after some 20 minutes the all clear was given to start. Tim was determined to give Mathew a smooth run and was horrified when they announced that he had accumulated just 1.2 time as he finished but that was corrected to 20.4 so Tim’s internal speed dial does not need any alteration! It was a building blocks for the future round and Tim was super happy with him.
Yep, the £1000 first prize on paper looks great. In reality the real time worth of Milo, Matthew and Chio is so far beyond it it’s incalculable. These boys have far bigger prizes on the horsizon but congrats to David Doel who won today and took second to boot.
And shout out to Bridget who brought her own Riverside Kasanova ( Errol) back to competition after a long lay off and scored a 23 and a double clear for 4th. Just cant beat a great comeback!