I am sitting at Heathrow airport waiting to come home. The last couple weeks have been huge. Things definitely didn’t turn out the way that I had hoped, but I can say that it was a huge experience and Arthur & I have both come out of this trip much better for having been here. I am also so grateful for how sound and healthy Arthur is at the end of the trip. He looks the same as coming into it all. It was really sad to say goodbye to him last night. He is such a good horse and a dear dear friend. He will fly tuesday night and should be out of quarantine on Friday.
It was disappointing to have some rails in showjumping. We won the warm up!!! Unfortunately that does’t mean anything if you can’t reproduce it in the ring. He seriously outclassed every horse there in the warm up. We couldn’t get him to touch anything, he was relaxed an jumping HUGE. He was super rideable and felt like he hadn’t done anything the day before (a lot of horses looked tired). I was really daring him at the warm up jumps and he kept jumping bigger and better. When we got in the ring we were unable to keep the same rhythm that we had in the warm up — not very conducive to jumping a clean round. I am so close to producing one of the best horses of all time — I can just feel it, now I need to figure out how to pull it all together and win the big stuff!
I know I have a top class horse that can win in the big time. He is not easy but none of the very best horses are and I still need a ton more mileage, but I am determined to figure it out.
Arthur gets a much deserved vacation when he gets home. I have to get cracking on the other horses as the season is fast coming to an end… where has 2009 gone?!!
Coming Home!
September 14, 2009 By
Hi Allison,
I was one of the fence judges at Blenheim this weekend. Just to say, I put Arthur in my personal list of top three great horses at the event (along with Chilli Morning and Mr Cruise Control). From our fence I could see him jumping into the lake, the second time, and he was glorious. Brave as a lion and obviously enjoying every moment. The very picture of an event horse with that little touch of magic. You did our fence (step up to the hanging log) OK, too. The atmosphere in the show jumping was intense so I’m not surprised he got tight. Good luck in the future: lovely, lovely horse and he deserves to do well.
Allison, I have loved following your blog! Pat and I were sorry we weren’t able to get to your cocktail party/fund raiser in Barrington – even the boys wanted to see your demonstration! Beau said, “Wouldn’t it be fun to go to a horse show?!” I have no idea how he even knows what it is! Please keep us posted when you’re back in the area so we can visit and hopefully support you in some way.
Come back with your head held high! Like you said, you have a world class horse and with you on his back, you two will go far! Congrats!