Just Tim flying the flag today with Supplejack (Jack), the ‘family’ horse at West Wilts Equestrian. He was joined by working students Bridget Garlick and Twm Cernyw but he got the pick of the times with a 10.04 dressage and all done by 11.23 which was a bonus when it was a solid 34 degrees here today with not a cloud in the sky.
Jack is owned by Tim and Jonelle and Cam Price and is an ex racehorse with some fancy parentage being by the Derby winner Australia. The original idea was for him to aim for the Cornbury Racehorse to Eventer challenge which has a first prize of £45,000 which is mind-blowing when you compare it to the fact Vitali just ran second in the British Open for £280. There then became two issues with this aim, one being that Jack is just 5 years old and fresh out of racing and the second being that with 45k on offer every TB horse in the UK is suddenly being aimed at Cornbury including the likes of Clarke Johnstone’s Sparky Lad who just finished on his dressage score of 31 at Hartpury 4*Short and his dressage score of 27 at Burgham 4*S.
There was a third reason as well, being that Jack had to have 2 MERS at novice to enter which is a big deal for a 5 year old in the summer and he had a very limited window in which to achieve them. Tim bit the bullet last week and decided to abandon the Cornbury challenge in order to train Jack properly for his future career which is why Tim is such a horseman and the bonus was we discovered he is actually qualified for the 5 year old championships run at 105 level which is much more attainable! Admittedly it doesn’t carry a 45k prize pot but Tim is pretty sure there will be allot of Hawkstone beer on offer so still a good class to pursue from that point of view.
So Jack was moved back to the 100 today at West Wilts and he was a total star. He scored a 29.3 on the flat, left all the show jumps in their cups for his first clear round and cruised around the cross country clear with some 19 time just for the education.
Some Team Price horses are aiming for Boekelo, Blenheim, Pau and Burghley. Little Jack is right on song for the 5 year old champs at Cornbury and it’s just as cool a milestone in the grand scheme of things for sure!