Busy Times for Sam

Third at Burghley!

Well, our big excitement this month was of course Burghley where Sam and Happy Times finished in 3rd place!! What a result - to now have been 3rd in the world's two biggest 4 star three day events is just staggering and what a special horse Happy Times is. Having been for some fantastic lessons with Carl Hester in the run up to the event, we had really got the 'polish' on the test and Sam knew that they could do a stunning test. However, no one had predicted those incredibly strong winds over the two dressage days and the wind did get a little bit under Happy's tail and he just made a couple of mistakes - without those, we know he could have done a winning test. Nevertheless, Sam and Happy scored a very competitive 48 which kept them in the top 10 after dressage.

Having walked the cross country course 5 times over the week, one would expect it to start looking a little easier but no such luck- the course was HUGE and Happy is still relatively inexperienced at this level so needless to say, the support team just wanted them both back in one piece! However, they did the most fantastic round and finished clear and inside the time which sent them flying to the top of the leaderboard - amazing! As the day went on the course seemed to continue to cause so many problems so Sam and Happy remained in the lead right until the bitter end until Ollie Towned just pipped them right at the end of a very exciting and dramatic day!

So suddenly the pressure was really on for the next day. Happy pulled up better than ever that evening and the next morning he looked an absolute picture at the final vet's inspection so all that was then left to do was to endure the long wait before it was finally time to jump. The atmosphere in the show jumping warm up and of course the main arena is absolutely electric by the time they get to the top few competitors but Sam remained incredibly focused, the warm up went exactly to plan and it was soon time to jump the most important round of their career. As can be imagined, the support team could hardly watch but Happy jumped beautifully. Unfortunately, just one pole down in the treble dropped Sam and Happy to third place overall (Sam was so furious with himself!) but to finsh 3rd is a massive acheivement and their performances in all three phases were so solid.

World Championships 2010

As a result, the selectors are very interested in Happy Times for the World Championships in Kentucky next year and also these results have propelled Sam into the top 3 in the HSBC world rankings. All so exciting. Happy is now enjoying a very well earned break in the field whilst we all gather our breath after their fantastic season and try and plan our campaign for the 2010 World Championships.

Blenheim

However, horses are the greatest of levellers and it has not all been plain sailing. We have just returned from a disappointing week at Blenheim, with both Penton Raptor and Danaan Prince putting in below par peformances for their experience but these things happen and it certainly bought us all down to earth with a bump after Burghley! However, Sam did have one very high profile win during the week - he and his groom, Sally Potter, stormed to victory in the wheelbarrow race and won a brand new 'Fold a Cart - Pro' generously donated by Southern Stars saddlery! All is not lost!

Coming Up

In the lead up to Burghley, Sam was incredibly busy with all the rest of his team with a lot of events in a small space of time. Real Dancer has been showing good form with a 4th place in the Intermediate section at Wilton earlier in the month, along with Summer Heat, who finished 5th. The younger horses have all been making exciting progress as well, with a win for Sam and Kudini at Highclere - this is a new ride for Sam - he is a very talented 5 year old for which we all have high hopes and is owned by his breeders, Charles and Louise Huxley . The intermediates also went well at Highclere with a 4th for Penton Raptor, a 6th for Motion Bound and an 8th place for Danaan Prince. The previous weekend Sam had a convincing win with Mumbo Jumbo in the Novice section at Hatherleigh - the organisers here had done a fantastic job as they had had the most torrential rain in the lead up to the event and to be able to run at all was a miracle.

We are off to Gatcombe this weekend with Motion Bound and Real Dancer in the two star as preparation for their forthcoming trip to Le Lignieres CCI** in France. Sam then has eight horses to ride at South of England the following weekend and we then leave for France the next Monday - it really is a crazy life!