The gloomy, damp weather definitely made it feel like the morning after here at The Fork, but no-one told Manoir de Carneville that! As Sinead Halpern, his rider said, “it’s his turn to dance!”, as he piaffed down the jog lane, tail straight up like an arab!
Happily, he passed and hopefully will save it for the jumping later! Megan does a super job looking after him, and the whole crew are great dancers.
Jessica Phoenix looked just as beautiful as both her horses, here with Exploring, and excuse the photography, but you can take my word for it!
Clark Montgomery & the lovely Loughan Glen, exciting for the future
Icarus looked frisky, but under control, while Wonderful Will has been there, seen that!
Lisa Barry’s Kenzo de la Roque looked fabulous this morning, and equally so yesterday across country. I was thrilled to meet Lisa’s dad, Joe, last night, but have yet to meet Lisa’s brother Chris, who wrote that wonderful blog post for me from Red Hills. Lisa flies to England next week to groom for Steph Rhodes-Bosch at Badminton, then comes back to prepare her horse for Jersey Fresh.
Another nice combination out of Chattahoochee – Carl Bouckaert for Belgium with Cyrano Z. He told me he was thrilled with his ride yesterday, going fairly conservatively for qualifications and because the horse is quite green at this level, but was so happy with him, and the way he came out this morning – fit as a fiddle and on his toes!
Susan Beebee looked smart, and was perhaps in the minority because she didn’t sport the ubiquitous Dubarry’s! Neither did I, and after cutting through the long grass back to the barn, I have wet feet and hems – not a good look!
Danielle Dichting was delighted to pass, and even happier that the ground jury told her Tops was the horse they would most like to take home this weekend!
Quite a few of the riders elected to jog in their show-jumping attire, which always looks smart. Otherwise, Phillip Dutton always looks appropriate, and handsome, and it doesn’t hurt that his string of horses are always immaculate too; my favourite this morning was the slightly energetic William Penn. John Holling might give Phillip a run for the best dressed man award, and I promise to do better with the photos next time. For the girls, Jessie Phoenix looked great this morning, but really anyone who can have themselves and their horses looking as good as they all did at 8am this morning deserves a prize.
Onto the show-jumping, not sure if I’ll have time to post again before I start to drive home, very slooowly, must NOT get any more tickets! However I know EN John will keep everyone up to date on the important stuff so keep checking EN, check my tweets for the less important stuff (!), enjoy your sunday, and go eventing!
