A funny weekend as I originally had seven entered with entries from BE90 through to the CIC* - with all the horses being spread over two days. With the withdrawal of Bruce and Sid it left me riding five horses at BE90 & BE100 on the Saturday, as many of you know the set up at this event it meant I was going to have to be fairly organised as the dressage is a fair walk away from the lorry park!

I was once again riding Kevin’s horse HC in the BE90 and I was pleased with his dressage score and very happy with his show jumping in an arena that caused many problems. Unfortunately we had a ‘green’ look at the ditch that comes fairly early on in the course and we were ‘officially’ given two stops, though I do believe that was quite harsh as he didn’t step back. He jumped it and carried on the course and gained in confidence the rest of the way. An educational round, though on paper not the best result we were actually very pleased with him and I am looking forward to our next event together.

Jamesson was having his second run since his change in career and I was very pleased with him. A 39.5 dressage, an unfortunate fence down with 4 time penalties in the show jumping. Many competitors got time faults in this phase and it was a shame that the time was so tight as many horses at this level are young and inexperienced, therefore they need to be balanced down the incline etc. but nevertheless I was pleased with him as the show jumping arena was a hive of activity and had quite an electric, busy atmosphere and he coped brilliantly. Jamesson cross country was fantastic; a lovely clear inside the time put a smile on my face!

Three horses in the BE100, NT, Flight & Wesley.

Slightly frustrated with NT, he did a good dressage and just didn’t quite ‘try’ in the show jumping phase and had two fences down, but again I must take away the positive from this and be pleased with how well he coped in a busy environment. Annoyingly the ditch early on in the course caught us out but we went on to complete the course and again finished confidently.

Flight did a slightly wild dressage but did a lovely double clear in the jumping phases. We picked up some time penalties but that was because I was using Brightling as an educational run and setting this lovely horse up for the future.

Wesley was a good boy, as always a lovely dressage test, he really is a horse that is pleasing to watch and the judges seem to like him, a double clear inside the time sent us home with a 5^th place rosette.

Brightling Park International Horse Trials was a lovely event and the hospitality for riders wonderful. To turn up and be offered free coffee & a croissant was very welcoming. The organisers had made lots of effort with the ground, the presentation of the courses and the trade stands were fantastic, a lovely event with superb prize money in the CIC** - I will certainly be back again next year.