Well I have had an interesting few weeks. Two weeks before Don Skipcello's first 3* at Wandin, I was on a flight to England to check on Under The Clocks.
Five days over there allowed us to sort out some issues that come from changing everything that was typical in your horse's Australian lifestyle. Under The Clocks is well and on a schedule that can get him to Luhmuhlen CCI4* star in Germany.
I got home on Sunday night with five days to get things in order. Thanks to my wife and everyone at the business, we managed to turn the haphazard into the semi orderly.
I am sure it helped that ‘Dressage and Jumping With The Stars' being at Werribee Park meant that I had to shift my weekly lessons there to Tuesday. This left the other afternoons to catch up on everyone's lessons at home and run freshman's showjumping on Friday afternoon.
Then we headed to Wandin with just two horses (we are trying to save money).
The Pre Novice horse was much improved and is such a delightful horse who should be sold soon I hope. Don Skipcello worked nicely for the dressage and although I thought he would be well placed, I was pleasantly surprised to be told be was in first place!
Show jumping was a nice big open course and Chris was a little exuberant. On one hand he jumped most of the course well, on the other he got distracted for two green rails.
I was really happy with how this little horse coped with his first 3* track
Cross country was serious enough even for 3* and especially when you are sitting on a debutante on a course where no one ever gets inside the time. He did notice things were bigger and faster than normal, but after some discussion with me he seemed to commit to the task. We ended up with the second fastest time, which for a warmblood under 16 hands, who was a stallion just over a year ago, is pretty cool.
So a first place in the 3 Star, Moët et Chandon champagne and a new Stubben jumping saddle certainly made everything worthwhile. I think the Wandin event has settled back into an exciting and sustainable event and the Anker family and everyone involved should be commended.
Murray
