While many top US horses were in action this weekend at Rebecca Farm, some of their compatriots who are in England were competing at Aston-le-Walls. Aston-le-Walls is held at Ann and Nigel Taylor’s Washbrook Farm and it is one of the really nice events in the UK each year. To give you a perspective on the scale of the event, there were 6 advanced divisions at Aston-le-Walls.
Will Faudree did the combined test with Andromaque and they must have stayed on course this time because they finished with 0 penalties in the show jumping to add to their 34.8 in the dressage. Will did just the dressage with Pawlow, who is coming back after Luhmuhlen. Ernie just beat his sister by 1.9 points on the flat.
Will Coleman did the just the dressage as planned with Twizzel, scoring an impressive 29.3.
Julian Stiller did the full event with several of her best horses. Julian had the best advanced final result of the USA riders with a 5th place finish on Enjoy Me. “Elmo” scored a 29.6 on the flat and added 14.8 time penalties on the XC. In the same division, Kathryn Robinson and Let It Bee of Canada finished 21st. Julian finished in 20th with Chapel Amble in another advanced division. She just did dressage with Gunstone Wallstreet. Lastly, Julian finished in 51st place in the 8/9 year old advanced division on Axel Rose, capping off a weekend of all clear advanced rides. Julian has almost too many advanced horses to keep track of and hopefully I didn’t miss one!
Tiana Coudray and Ringwood Magister picked up 20 penalties in the cross-country in the advanced section K. I confess that with statue-gate and a busy Monday for many other reasons, I haven’t had a chance to chat with Tiana since the weekend, but hopefully it was something minor.
Cindy Rawson and Mocharabuiee of the USA finished in 14th of the advanced section H. Elizabeth Halliday-Sharp and Newmarket Malt were 21st in the advanced section K. Jacky Green will have an Aston-le-Walls report later with much more information on the event.
While I am talking about England, I want to give a very sincere, if slightly tardy, thanks to everyone in the UK who helped with my trip to London for the Olympic test event and Barbury two weeks ago. Nina Ligon and the Thai federation helped me with getting credentials well past the deadline, thanks to my typically terrible planning, and I will be forever grateful. The US and Canadian federations were really helpful with getting me situated and finding accommodations.
Thank you also to all of the US and Canadian riders for welcoming me and helping with whatever I needed for Eventing Nation. Thanks to Delta for resisting every natural instinct and tendency within that company and not losing my baggage. Thanks to all of the British and international riders that I met, it was wonderful to find so many EN fans all the way across the pond. Everyone I met was wonderfully accommodating and friendly. Also, I have to thank Julian Stiller again for letting me stay at her place along with Coleman during Barbury, despite the fact that I met her for the first time just a few days before. Staying at such a wonderful facility as Headley Stud is an experience I will never forget. Lastly, thanks to Mark Todd for welcoming me, Will, and Joules to his house for dinner after Barbury. Mark has been a hero of mine since I received my first Thrills and Spills video for Christmas when I was 6, and it was an amazing experience to get to know one of my childhood idols. Thank you all and to everyone I might be forgetting and go eventing.
