The Kincooley Ceili ( William) breezed through the jog and looked amazing thanks to supergroom Hels and he had time for a bit of a nap before he showjumped in the afternoon sun. Well, the sun was out but it didn't look particularly warm!

Rails fell all day today and dreams were dashed in the arena. It was a very grown up showjumping track with a technical course and a tight time.. as you would expect from a championship. William just had the in of the treble for 4 faults which was good enough to move him up into the top 20 and a seriously good performance from him which Sammi was delighted with.

Sammi said that you either have a 7 year old superstar that you take to Le Lion to win with... or you have a 7 year old which has the potential to be a 3 or 4 star superstar and you take them the Le Lion for the experience. William sits in the latter category: he is a big, dorky, hugely talented and with massive ability and make no mistake, a spooky test, a clear jumping round and just 1 rail SJ is no disgrace at a Championships. Its not Osberton for sure!

William undoubtedly has a huge future and he has had a long and hugely educational season... he will be glad to be heading home to a holiday with hundreds of new images in his mind! Susan Lamb should be justifiably proud of her lovely horse and the way that Sammi has produced him....they are a good team! When you look at the history ( Shannondale Santiago, Kincooley Cruising, Toledo de Kerser) you can see that no one is actually more amazing at producing future superstars than Sammi.

Anyway, William is now trucking home with Mike Winter and Hunter Valley ( Gizmo) is heading through France with Jonelle Price and Sammi is about to leave Le Lion with an empty truck for the meet up in Pau. Sammi did say she hoped that the thug Giz was being nice to Faerie Dianimo ( Maggie May). I pointed out that Maggie May will regard Giz as a total peasant and by the time they arrive at Pau Giz will be spellbound and Maggie May will be both unscathed and indifferent to his advances. She has that effect on the boys. Quite the Ice Queen. It will be good for Gizmo to realise that he is actually not the Boyd Martin of the Aussie boys and he may have to update his Aussie bravado conversation and try something different!

And in a final note its great to note that Ed Birch has been following all the news and info from France diligently whilst working flat out this weekend. Ed, I salute your persistence and look forward to catching up in Pau!