Geisha had a fantastic run at Melbourne 3 Day, starting off with a great, calm dressage test, her best one to date. It was a massive section of 90 competitors, and she was placed just below midfield. She then proceeded to make light work of the technical cross country course, coming home clear and well under time. There was a lot of trouble out on course, and she made a significant climb up the leader-board. She pulled up perfectly after the cross country, and proceeded to jump a clear show jumping round on the final day. This moved her up into the placings (just!) with a 15th place rosette. I couldn’t be happier with how she performed, her best dressage test to date and then finishing on that score! It was a super event for her.
On the other hand, Melbourne 3 Day did not go to plan for poor Hughie. I had a great ride on him when we arrived on the Wednesday, but come Thursday morning (trot up day) he was non weight bearing on one of his hind legs, having shifted his shoe overnight. We did everything we could to have him right in time for trot up, but in the end simply ran out of time. He went from non weight bearing in the morning, to about 90% sound for trot up. We decided to give it a go, and in the end it was so close, but not quite enough to pass and sadly we were spun – ending our event before it even began! By the next morning he was completely better (of course!) and I had another great ride on him. Talk about seriously bad timing. At least he wasn’t actually hurt though, and we ended up putting a late entry in for the Saturday night entertainment speed class, where we dressed up as a cowboy and pulled off a clear round and 6th place.
Chuckle competed in the 5yo Young Event Horse Class, and coped amazingly with full on atmosphere in the indoor. Brad and Craig from Top Foda put on a great free BBQ in the indoor and it was a massive hit, making it quite the experience for young horses. She jumped a clear round and finished just out of the placings in 7th place.
Finally Zachord, an OTT TB by Zabeel who I have been retraining for Rockmount, took part in the Off The Track Showcase, and wowed the judges to be selected as the “Top Pick” of the Masters sections.
