After a few weeks of downtime it is always nice to reflect on what has been a positive season for us at HP Eventing.
My season ended slightly earlier than usual this year at the end of September as I had the metal work taken out of my femur from a fall that I had in May 2021. Thankfully the recovery has been very straightforward and I am back riding and feeling stronger already.
Whilst I was off games it was great to get out to Le Lion d’Angers in France for the Young Horse World Championships to support my fiance, Yasmin Olsson-Sanderson, with two horses, one of which I own. It was definitely a different experience being an ‘owner’ but Yaz did a great job with the 6yo mare, Global Karina, finishing 11th with a double clear. It is a huge aim of mine to ride at Le Lion next year as it is a hugely prestigious event and a great experience for the young horses!
After the very wet start to the season, the wet weather continued on to Badminton. Sadly Dynasty, my top horse and seasoned 5* partner, isn’t a huge fan of deep going so the event definitely didn’t go our way. The decision to go to Badminton and the preparation that takes place in the lead up is months in the making, so once you get there you really want to give it a go. Although Dynasty tried his best, he really hated the going right from the off. We were still clear up to the lake, probably three quarters of the way round, but sadly he rapidly tired and that was the end of our event. At the time the whole team were very disappointed as it takes a huge amount of work to have a horse at the level, but we were all equally grateful to be taking home a sound horse, none the worse for wear for his efforts.
Usually after a spring three-day event we like to give the horses a holiday before gearing up for their autumn campaign but due to Dynasty not finishing at Badminton our plans changed.
We were extremely fortunate to get the call up to represent Great Britain in the 4* SAP Cup at Aachen, Germany, the most prestigious Nations Cup event in the world. This was my first time representing team GB on a senior team and it was a huge highlight of my season. Aachen is indescribable in its size, the huge stadium and the crowds really make the event. It is also incredible being there alongside the best dressage and show jump riders in the world as they run all the disciplines over the same few days. Dynasty did his usual solid performance and finished in the top 20 and as second best of the British against most of the best championship horses in the world. A real experience of a lifetime!
This led to another Nations Cup team call up, this time in Avenches, Switzerland. Another stunning venue and Dynasty exceeded all our expectations to finish on the podium in 3rd. We were very disappointed with his dressage, getting one of our worst marks of the season, however I love events where the jumping phases and the optimum times are very influential, and this was one of them. We were just 10 seconds over the time on the XC, the second fastest of the day, to climb the leaderboard by 40 places. From a very disappointing Badminton, we were thrilled to have turned our season around!
I also took two of my younger horses out to Avenches with an exciting 8yo, Charlie Foxtrot, finishing 9th in the 3*S. It is a privilege to compete at these events and a great experience for the horses round the European tracks.
We had many other great weeks of eventing throughout the season with many top 10 results at national and international events. We had a great week at Millstreet in Ireland at the beginning of June with Charlie Foxtrot and Global Karina both picking up international top 5 results. We had a great trip up to the beautiful Blair Castle in Scotland, a favourite event of ours and it was great to have three exciting young horses in the British Young Horse Championships at Cornbury in the 5, 6 and 7yo classes, all finishing their seasons well. Notably 5yo King Carisma has shown lots of promise this season finishing on his dressage score in all of his events and in the top 6 in 4 out of 5 runs, including a win. It was also exciting to have Charlie Foxtrot at Blenheim Palace for the 8/9yo Championships - it has been a few years since I’ve competed at Blenheim and these big events never lose their appeal!
So all in all a very busy year with lots of horses stepping up a level and continuing to be competitive. I am a great fan of Equiratings and statistics - out of 64 runs this year I’ve had 53 clear XC runs and 34 top tens from BE100 up to 5*. Let’s see if I can better that next year!!