Hartpury - final day

After their very pleasing dressage tests both horses jumped superb clears. Parker felt fantastic and his clear round put him 8 marks in the lead.

Although the ground was fairly good, and Hartpury had worked a huge amount using their irrigation system, I still felt it was too firm for him so decided not to run.

Avoca Alibi’s show jumping was one of his best rounds and although he was keen he was very rideable, and moved up into second place to Parker.  Given the quality and size of field this was really pleasing.  He then gave me a great ride cross country, I didn’t want to hurry him, so he got 10.4 time faults finishing fourth.  He gave me an excellent ride and particularly as this was his first big run for a while, I was delighted with how he felt.  He was very genuine and clever and certainly enjoyed himself.

Hartpury did a fantastic job organizing such a huge number of entries over three classes, it is always a very enjoyable competition and the atmosphere was great, everyone could not have been more helpful and friendly.