A great day of cross country for Jonelle out in France today. Senor Crocodillo (Diego) ate up the meaty 4*S track and Jonelle said that it was plenty tough enough for sure. Diego has developed this habit of shaking his head at Jonelle during the cross country phase when she puts some tension on the reins which, as she says, does make his life more difficult, but despite that they just picked up 1.2 time to finish on 27.3 and 4th place overnight. Jonelle said that he was ‘really genuine, really looking for the lines’ all the way through and that she would have easily made time had he been more compliant to the contact. His flatwork shows its definitely not an issue apart from nerves and he has had every test available to ensure that is purely a mentality thing and Jonelle’s thinking is that since he is at his worst when he is super fresh hopefully running at Lignieres will settle him down for Pau.
Capitaine de Hus Z (Alvin) has a different rein issue…he gets really strong! Jonelle credited him today with coming home clear around a track that didn’t necessarily suit him with lots of turning questions and some short distances. She also said his jumping was “insane!” as he threw some super shapes, stayed safe and she felt they had definitely built some more good foundations. They did add 8.4 time but Jonelle noted that to make time at a 4 Short you do have to come out of the start box pretty aggressively and she felt that she and Alvin are not quite on that page yet! They sit on 36.9 in 16th.
Not a pole covers the top 5 and with 42 completions there is still plenty of entertainment to come in the showjumping tomorrow.
Live scores : https://app.horses-and-competitions.com/live/event/3381/
