Jonelle was supposed to be at Farley on Friday but due to the heatwave all Friday classes were moved to Monday…which made life a tad complicated as Jonelle was due to leave for Maarsbergen late on Monday night!
Just Indian Tonic (Indie) and Chilli’s Midnight Star (Ollie) for sun baked Farley and as Jonelle pointed out, if you enter Farley in late June you don’t expect ground to be perfect. She added that she thought they had done the best they could given the weather in the build up and she was happy to run her horses at a steady pace.
Indie was having a somewhat unusual prep for her trip to Maarsbergen with her one day event on day of departure! She warmed up for the dressage in a better mood but was then slightly scuppered as she could see horses running cross country as she went up the centre line which did take her a couple of movements to stop gawping at. I would doubt that would have ever occurred in Germany! She then show jumped her best round to date and the plan was to just jump a few fences on the cross country but she was so full of herself Jonelle decided to let her hack the whole way round and ended up in 5th spot despite some 17 time.
Ollie was having his first run back since Badminton and it was great to see that he led the dressage in his OI section. He also show jumped beautifully before having a steady run cross country which will have been good for his mind and brakes as Jonelle pointed out as his build up to Burghley begins.
Jonelle and Rebecca Howard are having a girls trip out to Maarsbergen and so they headed off form Farley in the general direction of Dover and stopped off at Tweseldown where Rachel Faulkner was kind enough to provide a layover. Indie found herself turned out in the dressage field for a few hours before continuing her trip back towards her homeland and her first international with Jonelle.