Wellington, Monday

We survived a very wet day two at Wellington with the horses happily going very well.

The Soapdodger did a very good dressage of 25.7, which had him right up there, he rolled two poles in the show jumping and even though it was quite muddy I bowled on cross country for 5.6 time faults. It was a good galloping track and I felt we were running out of opportunities for the 7yo championships at Le Lion d'Angers which he has been selected for. So overall he had a good day finishing 4th.

Reinstated had an excellent day winning his Intermediate section on his dressage score of 28.2 He did a good test with a couple of small mistakes. I was really pleased with his clear show jumping, he felt very scopey and careful and coped well in the conditions. In the cross country he felt very confident and galloped well and, apart from an extremely exuberant jump into the water, he showed no greenness at all, he has also been selected for Le Lion d'Angers, which is very exciting.

Little Fire was having to be very grown up again competing in his second Intermediate. He had a horrible muddy dressage arena but went extremely well and I was delighted with how he coped, scoring 27.7. He then jumped a superb clear show jumping, which was very pleasing as there was plenty of atmosphere and the course was plenty decent enough for him. I decided to run him cross country even though it was quite a question for him, and he could not have gone better. I didn't hurry him and he got 13.6 time faults and finished down the order in 5th. He copes really well in difficult conditions and took it all in very confidently. It is excellent he has now had two Intermediate runs under his belt, and he is now aiming for the 6yo final at Osberton.

Having missed Bicton it was great to have Secret Night out as I have not had many runs to get to know him. He was excellent in the dressage to score 27.1. He was completely unphased by the conditions and the camber in the show jumping to jump an excellent clear round, and there weren't many of those by the afternoon.  He then ran really well cross country for just 4.4 time faults. It is the first time I have opened him up a little bit and he seems to have a great gallop. He found the cross country very straight forward and didn't appear to worry at all about the mud, to finish an excellent 1st in his section.