Brookfield Cavalier Cruise ended a cracking season with a win in the 2* at the final running of Gatcombe’s Autumn International.  He put his best foot forward in the dressage to score of 24.1 and after an immaculate clear round in the show jumping set out across country at the top of the leaderboard.  He’s a super cross-country horse, very straight and easy to ride so I would have been disappointed not to hold on to the top spot.  Having finished 9^th in his first International in the Spring at Chatsworth, and 3^rd in the 2* at Burgham in the Summer, I couldn’t have asked any more in his third International event aged only 6!  He’ll now have an early holiday, I'm looking forward to next season with him.

The Intermediate horses went well with Merrywell Tradition and Mosstown Prince both putting in great performances.  Merrywell Tradition had been transferred into a very competitive Open Intermediate section in only his second run at intermediate level so I was delighted with his excellent dressage score of 26 to lie in the top few.  Mosstown Prince has been consistently improving in the dressage phase all year and did a good test to score 30 and both horses jumped really confident double clears. I took them both steadily across country as it was a training run for both horses and the ground was pretty firm.  It was Cavalier Crystal’s first run after time off with a splint.  She did a good test but a good spook in the show jumping at a filler meant we had to turn a circle, which was totally unlike her, but she's very short of match parctice since her last show jumping round was April. Luckily she hadn’t forgotten anything in the cross country, giving me a super ride. We managed to get a late entry a few days later at Mommouth, giving her an easy outing in the novice to get over the gawkyness, and then another intermediate run at Pontispool shortly after that, without the cross country. She feels back to her usual game self and is now set for Osberton where we needs to get her qualification in order to run at 4* next season.

We've recently taken delivery of a lovely new 10 year old gelding called Superstition for long term owner, Mandy Gray. I’m looking forward to getting to know him and building a relationship.  He’s been beautifully produced and ridden by Lucy Jackson since a six year old and was previously ridden by Lucy’s sister Sophie who had him from a three year old. He's a lovely horse. Another new arrival in the yard is Terry Miller’s Dassett Cool Touch who competed at 5* level before having the last year off. He was previously ridden by Dan Jocelyn for his owner Terry Miller, and will progressively return to full training from his rehab, with the hope to have one run together before the end of the season.