Perfect weather and perfect footing for cross country day at Maryland and with just 22 starters it was a small but unique field that set out to tackle the questions that Pierre le Groupil had set for them.
Jonelle had some time to see the early starters go and her plan remained the same when she set out: she was pretty much going straight everywhere. One of Jonelle’s cross country strengths is her ability to change her plan very quickly if plan A is not looking so good and she employed that tactic in the main arena when Chilli’s Midnight Star (Ollie) jumped the first massive corner (disguised as some sort of bird) then went a bit green over the angled “bridge” of the B element so she switched to the longer route out in a nano second.
The coffin was a proper 5 star test and Jonelle had remarked that from Scone Palace 4 star Long in August it wasn’t just a step up to 5 star, it was probably about another 4 notches up! Ollie did get a surprise and shut down on the vertical in which resulted in him triggering the MIM clip for 11 penalties and again, Jonelle switched to the longer option to give him a bit more time.
Ollie did surprise her by being a bit ‘looky’ early on in the course but since he has been a bit blasé (to say the least!) at times, most definitely in France in May at Royal Jump when he was strong and opinionated, it was no bad thing to find some respect for the fences. Jonelle said that as she was galloping up to the main water she considered going long but the competitor in her looked at her watch, saw she was only 8 seconds down, and that took over so she headed into the straight route which was a huge angled brush with a gaping hole between the take off and the fence itself. Ollie, who as Jonelle rightly said, isn’t one to go around a question rather than over it, decided that discretion was the better part of valour as he wasn’t entirely sure about this question. He popped neatly down into the water instead of jumping over the brush into it and that’s where he picked up the 20.
They galloped home from there looking well within themselves and Ollie jumped everything with more confidence and looked like he had really got the measure of this 5 star lark. Jonelle was delighted with the way he finished, coming home feeling great and made the tough trip endurance wise with ease. Maryland is right up there with the Badminton’s and Burghley’s as a proper 5 star that requires a genuine 5 star horse and, to owner Nikki Axon’s delight, we now know that Ollie is that rare thing in the equine world, a true blue 5 star dude that will only get better.
Hopefully joint owner Mel Halstead is feeling equally delighted and whilst Jonelle sits in 10th going into the showjumping tomorrow whatever happens now will not take away from their performance today. Congrats to Kiwi Monica Spencer who spectacularly held onto her lead on her TB Artist (Max) who stormed around to come in some 20 seconds under time and to Tayla Mason who picked up a 15 flag penalty in an otherwise clear jumping round.
