Aston Le Walls

Just two rides on Thursday and two on Friday for the Birch team and with Finduss PFB (Louis) out on the Thursday we also saw the return of Hels to the event scene as her pet doesn't go places without her. Like many in lockdown Louis has certainly packed on the kilos and could quite easily be entered for the Dublin large hunter class although I am not sure the ride judge would like him much!

Louis had the look of a prisoner who is quite happy in jail that is thrust out into the open all of a sudden. He didn't know whether to be over exited (dressage), scared (coming back from showjumping) or simply beside himself with delight (cross country). He is such a character and one day, at 5 star, he will surprise everyone with a huge win. For now he did the sort of expected 36 in the OI before jumping a lovely double clear and finally chilling at the truck.

The Kincooley Ceil ( William) is the polar opposite of Louis. He simply oozes confidence and never gets excited about dressage which he views as a necessary evil prior to getting to the fun bit. A nice test for a 29, several unnecessary hand stands over the showjumping just because he is a show off and a steady and uneventful cross country run was par for the course for this talented young man.

Friday saw Kincooley Read My Mind ( Indie) on good form for a 31, a single rail and just 3.6 time on the cross country. Indie is really getting the hang of novice and is starting to find it all pretty easy. Her companion for the day was Calcourt Verona ( Ringo) who is super smart on the flat and strutted her stuff for a 22. It was a shame she also tipped a rail as that cost her the win but with a clear in time cross country she still ended up in 3rd.

Big kudos to the team at Aston Le Walls for the great tracks and all the work involved setting ups an event that had over 1800 entries before ballot. And spare a thought for the backroom boys and girls, the scorers, and event secretary Tissie Reason who was overwhelmed with e mails and requests from riders baffled by the uselessness of the BE entry system and a huge thank you to EventingScores designer Miranda Collett because without Miranda there simply would be no eventing with BE right now.