From sweltering in Normandy at Royal Jump to winter coats back on in Somerset as the first week of June in the UK came in with a massive low pressure system. Mendip Plains used to be known as Ston Easton and ran a pre Badminton OI back in the nineties and it is good to see it back in the calendar with an old fashioned feel about it. Green it certainly was as we have had non stop rain for the entirety of the last week and the footing was, if anything, good to soft!
First up for Jonelle was Osz Lo (Tommas) who did some 100’s last year and considers himself quite the pro in his six year old year. There is always something eye catching about a dapple grey and having posted a 31 dressage then executed a smart and fault free double clear to finish in 5th spot.
Fernhill Happy Hour (Hugo) was at his second ever event and having had the benefit of his surprisingly spooky behaviour at Aston le Walls Jonelle was a little more prepared today. He is very worldy wise in some ways….quite un-bothered at being left all alone at the truck when his day mates went off to do their thing but his tension manifests its self in being spooky to ride which is the exact opposite of his uber brave attitude at home. Another 31 dressage was cool and its a tricky warm up on the all weather at Mendip as it is very small and as Jonelle commented, hard to get in a rhythm before you go in the ring in such a tight space. Jonelle did well to sit a huge handbrake turn in the middle of the warm up then showed Hugo the first fence when she went in to avoid a repeat of Aston when he basically fell through the first in confusion. Having sighted it Hugo wasn’t at all sure he needed to go near it so Jonelle engaged 4 star speed which definitely helped but made the next vertical a tad tricky! Hugo’s default mode is to go high which is always a bonus and it was a babyish but solid clear round.
He joined Tommas in a smart clear cross country so it was mission accomplished for both the 6 year olds today. Jonelle now heads to Bramham with Senor Crocodillo (Diego) for the 4S before back to West Wilts on Sunday for the 100 with this cool duo.
Meanwhile, congratulations to Ginny Rusher, Glyn Norcott and Gillian and Steve Brooker for The Highlander (Ivar) who added the 4*S in Kronenberg to his tally of international wins which includes 2*S and 3*L. Tim wanted to go undercover for the week (hence no write up) but Ivar clearly had other ideas!