I was very happy to meet Colleen Rutledge yesterday as I set off on course yesterday to take pictures of the jumps. Shiraz looks fantastic – very fit, and was on high alert! Colleen told me she was looking forward to her husband and children arriving today, and coach Jimmy Wofford is also due to stop in and walk the cross-country with her on his way up to a family trip in Scotland.
Shiraz will be relieved that these pheasants are a) not real and b) in a coop! c) hopefully he’ll be far too focused to notice anyway as they’re on course in the combination at 20, but if you’ve been keeping up with Colleen’s blog, you’ll know pheasants and ducklings have been something of an issue!
I also caught up with fellow Americans Boyd Martin grazing Neville, (even though Eventing Safety John tries to claim him as an Aussie still!) – they both look wonderful, and I met Jules Stiller who is charming, and hope to catch up with the rest of the Americans later today.
Can he pull off the Badminton/Burghley double? Mark Todd catching up on EN tweets whilst hacking out on Major Milestone
The footing is perfect, and the weather forecast couldn’t be better for four star eventing – cloudy and cool. As ESJ and I chatted over a couple of ciders last night (EN expense account!) we couldn’t even pick a top 3 – this year is wide open and promises to be an exciting few days. Stay with us and go four star three day eventing!