Rebecca and Roquefort jumped clean to clinch the CCI ** at Bromont, hurray, that will make the long journey home to North Carolina tomorrow (about 17 hours) much easier to bear!

Today is a long day of waiting, packing and one round that can make or break your spring – no pressure!  The CCI* is done and dusted – Congratulations to Will Coleman and his lovely horse Zipp, who actually came from Carl Bouckaert’s yard originally. The two star riders are assembled at the in-gate, gagging to walk the course, and their horses are either still in the barn, or being led around depending on where they go in the order. 

As in everything, all riders have their preferred methods of bringing their horse to the trot-up feeling and looking their absolute best. There were some going out for hacks, some hand grazing, hand walking, and some doing long and low work in the arena.

Dr Yves Rossier is the FEI Veterinary Delegate for the Bromont CCI, and was kind enough to explain what this entails, and why Bromont is a little bit special!

Derek has designed the cross country courses at Bromont for the past five years.  This year there was no doubt about how popular they were among the riders as they walked them in the days preceding the event, and that was borne on out on a cross country day that didn’t see a single major incident across four divisions, Open Training to CCI ***, all day long.  By no means does this mean that Derek builds easy courses – they’re big and beefy, making use of terrain and turns, and ask plenty of questions; I’m sure there were plenty of riders on saturday night kicking themselves for mistakes that caught them out, but also just as many who were on a high after a glorious gallop round.  Derek was kind enough to stop and extend his already long day by five minutes, to talk to us.

They’re making a film out of the very funny book, “I don’t know how she does it”, about a woman who manages to juggle everything, and the same title could very well apply to Nathalie Pollard. Always calm, friendly and beautiful, it’s hard to believe that she copes with a toddler and twin babies, a husband with (at least!)  two jobs and a barn full of horses, and still manages to ride a couple herself!  We spoke to her as she waited for Michael to go cross country, and as her father Carl “babysat” her oldest son, Phineas.

Like many of the competitors I’ve spoken to, Jordan, who has two horses in the Open Training Division here at Bromont, aimed his rides here specifically because he enjoys the event so much, and everything it offers. 

The Canadians love their canadians, and everyone seems happy to see Waylon Roberts back at Bromont to ride his father’s horse Faolan in the Open Training Division. We had a quick chat after his dressage where he corrected me on his horse’s name, thanks Waylon, and told me about what he’s learned in England!