Sinead was kind enough to send us an update from Hartpury late last night with her perspective on how it went, not only for her and Tate, but also for Allison and Arthur who have been training alongside her all summer in England, and now Burghley bound Sharon White and Reggie (Rafferty’s Rules) who arrived in the UK recently and are based with Rodney Powell – because I’m not homesick enough already! Thanks a million, Sinead for taking the time to write this and for thinking of us, and many, many congratulations. Bring it, Burghley!
Hi guys and Eventing Nation!
A quick update from SHE!
Wicked weekend at Hartpury! Huge 3 star!! With the UK, NZ, AUS and US represented! Dressage was on a par with top 4 star results with a high 30’s score winning and those in the low 40’s remaining competitive ( but about 30 horses being in that range!).. Our American horses looked pretty darn good( I might be biased!)
Allison put a test forward that should have been in the 30’s, no doubt, but maybe an unconvinced jury held out on scores.. but still a flawless ( and spookless!) performance that left Sharon, myself and Isib (Elizabeth Power) feeling she was in a different league.
Sharon had lovely trot work and Reggie might have been ready for the xc when he entered the canter, not misbehaving but showing a lot of enthusiasm!
Tate I was thrilled with – I had 2 mistakes, one being my over eagerness in the first medium trot which led to a break to canter, and the other being me ‘forcing” the rein back which made it a bit abrupt. Other than that he was simply beautiful.
Show jumping led to Sharon and Ally having both one unlucky rail. Tate jumped the best clear round to date.
Then the xc led to more than 3 massive holds on course with Eric Winters’ large track asking some serious questions.
I was quite pleased with the course because it asked several questions that Burghley will be asking in a few weeks, but I’ll be honest it was a track that made you work for your round! Tate jumped brilliantly and in his usual style he answered the questions with grace and confidence. Sharon was happy with her round but was held on course for over 20 minutes! Allison had some bitting issues and had to work hard with Arthur. She did a brilliant job as usual with a very talented but complicated athlete!
We are all feeling excited about Burghley and have a clear view of where we need to be in 3 weeks time!
I am personally enjoying competing with the worlds best, and every 10 minutes I feel like something new is learned! I am forever grateful to my amazing partner Tate who is hanging tough with some of the nicest horses in the world!! ( I think he is one of the nicest in the world but again i am biased 😉 )
xx sinead
Again, many thanks to Sinead for the update, and I agree with her that Tate is one of the nicest horses in the world, but I might be biased too! Go Burghley and Go Eventing!
