Photo credit Jackie Olivier
Cross country day at Millstreet and much discussion amongst the riders regarding the ground conditions as they were far from pitch perfect. Ireland is not known as the Emerald Isle without good reason…that shade of green only comes with a considerable amount of rain. Jonelle is not a ditherer by any means and rarely questions her own judgement but even she was unsure whether she should or should not run.
The ground jury took out fence three and took the whole last minute out of the track which brought it down to around 5 and a half minutes (although that was slightly academic since no one made time) and Jonelle said that made a huge difference and she decided to give it a go.
And give it a go she did! Grappa Nera (Grape) headed out to take one for the team as test dummy and despite being such a diva princess she is never one to shirk a tough track. Jonelle said it was a proper 4 star course with plenty to do and even the fly fences were huge which, when you added in the tacky ground, they jumped like serious big fences. She said that the first minute and a half was pretty hard work up to the first water but then it got better and you just had to ride the horse you were sitting on and respect the track. She said that they all came home feeling like they had done a proper piece of work so it was a good decision by the ground jury to take out as much as they did.
Grape came home clean with just 11.6 time to add to move up into 5th place. Capitaine de Hus Z (Alvin) was just as assured for 14.4 time and a clean jumping sheet and 11th and Senor Crocodillo (Diego) was equally brilliant and the fastest time of the day to add just 6.8 time and to sit in the lead overnight. Grape ended up as third fastest of the day which is impressive and I think it’s safe to say Jonelle smashed it out of the park today!
And how did she spend the afternoon after riding three horses around a tough 4 star? She went for a run of course!