Friday, with just Candide & Foxs Castle doing day before dressage, I also took Pusiden with me for a ride and school on the flat whilst I was there.

Candide did a nice, rhythmical test but SOE just wasn’t her event. We arrived back at SOE early Saturday morning to sj & go xc with Candide & Cooper who had already done their dressage tests, as  well as Wesley for the BE100.  With a silly stop SJ on Candide it kept us out the placings, but as always though she gave me a really good positive ride cross country and felt fantastic.

Foxs Castle, Owned by Brian Lear did a very smart dressage test to score 26.5 a lovely double clear inside the time gave us a well-deserved second place, slightly miffed to of been pipped to the post by Point to Point Jockey & Trainer Nick Pearce who did a 26 dressage and a double clear! That ½ a mark kept us from the red rosette……

Wesley also competed today, with me back in the saddle and he was the star of the day, he led the dressage in his arena with a score of 30, over half the section had a dressage score of 40+. He also jumped a beautiful double clear, feeling mature and confident in all phases to take a win with a four point lead. His second consecutive win in only his 4^th BE100, clever pony.

Sunday was the turn of the big boys and was something of an emotional rollercoaster. Pusiden (Squid) was having only his second Intermediate run but it was my last ride event on 707. Both horses performed well in the dressage with the ‘who’s who’ of eventing in both my sections, William Fox-pitt, Andrew Nicholson, Jonelle Richards, Christina Cook, Bettina Hoy, Mary King it certainly was a celebrity turnout. 

Squd performed a very reasonable dressage for a mark 32.7, which is improving every time. One down SJ added 4 penalties to that, but he went on to give me a superb ride cross country, answering every question without fuss and really is starting to feel like a horse who will go places. He finished a very creditable 6^th place and will now be let down to have a holiday.

In direct comparison to Squid at one end of his career, 707 or Brooke to his friends and I had our last event together. After 5 fantastic years together we have taken the incredibly difficult decision to let him down to a semi-retirement, at 20 years old he still feels wonderful. His dressage has never been his strongest phase but I was pleased with his mark of 34, however we were unable to compete with Lucinda Fredericks mark of 16! The last part of the combination down sj was unfortunate but otherwise he jumped a good round. As ever his xc was fantastic and even though I can feel that he has slowed down a bit, for the first time ever I actually had control coming down the hill, he was still one of the best rounds all day, incurring just 2.4 time faults and was 4^th quickest horse around the course, which made a hard decision even harder. As we finished the course it really hit me that I was never going to get to ride him around another track, he has been the most wonderful, grumpy, awkward and amazing partner taking me from Intermediates to my first 4* and I will miss eventing him more than I can begin to say. He will not be retiring completely as he is definitely not one to gracefully disappear from the scene, but the decision as to exactly what his future will entail will be taken over the winter. Thank you Brooklyn. I will miss eventing you, you really were the most amazing horse and has taught me so much xxxx