Phillip Dutton posts a quick clear on Alex MacLeod’s Railroad Man Jim
The good news is it’s slightly, very slightly warmer here this morning. The bad news is it’s started raining! When Phillip Dutton wears his warm weather cross country gear, the yellow waterproof jersey – you know it’s not good, I knew there was a reason I love to watch those bright blue colours fly across the countryside!
Sharon White and Bettina Star were perfect trailblazers for the prelim division at 8am this morning, galloping around fairly steadily but posting a lovely clear round. The rest of the morning the course seemed to ride fairly well, with the bank at 7 causing the most trouble. As I write this we are coming to the end of the Open Divisions with the J/YR and PR divisions still to come so it will be interesting to see if they have any more trouble. The Advanced is due to start at lunchtime.
Doug on his second prelim ride, Cellar Door. He’d followed Sharon earlier on Lysander – both horses looked fabulous.
Kate Chadderton clears the last on Check out the Charmer, one of multiple great rounds I saw one after the other – Kate, Bobby Costello on his lovely, grey young horse Fernhill Teddy Two Two, so genuine and talented but they apparently missed out a jump, Erin Sylvester’s Paddy the Caddy, Lauren Lambert’s Opera Ghost, Will Coleman on Lynn Symansky’s Osborne…
I also really liked Allison Springer on Eclipse, above, not what I’m used to seeing her on. Many thanks to the show-jumping announcer and scoring crew for letting me shelter in their cabin while I type this up, even though I’m going so slowly because my fingers aren’t moving. Check back later for an advanced report, hopefully! Thanks for reading, Go Southern Pines, go away global warming and go eventing!
