May 23, 2014
This last week went to a 2* show called Opglabbeek in Belgium. This was our first show back since Spain so I wanted a nice easy show for the horses. The first day was the best for us. I started with Wender (Jack) in the 1.30m which was a two phase class. Emile Hendrix told me when I went in the ring to just make short turns when the jump off started and that I did not need to go so fast since Jack is naturally a fast horse. So we went in and had a very nice smooth round, which to me did not feel so fast. Emile was right though and we pulled off a good solid win to start the show off.
I jumped Warinde (Ella) in the 1.35m which was a speed class. She gets a little excited so I didn’t want to go fast at all on her since she was going to do the grand prix. We had a nice confident clear round round.
Finally Athena had the 1.40m two-phase class – all the pressure was on her since her brother and sister were already clear. This was also the qualifier for the grand prix so we had to go clear and not too slow in the second phase. Athena pulled off a clear round as well and qualified us for the grand prix.
Athena and Warinde performed well the rest of the week but no placings. Jack, however, was an absolute superstar. The second day I showed him in the 1.35m speed class and he was 2nd. The final day he did the 1.35m final and he was clear in the first round. We came back for the jump off and I knew it had to be a fast one after watching the first of a rather large jump off go. He pulled off a super fast jump off and jumped amazing. Sadly one of the last horses to go was less than half a second faster than us. so we ended up 2nd. I was very happy with him though. All together it was a fantastic weekend and we are looking forward to CSI 3* Eindhoven in the Netherlands starting on May 29th. At Eindhoven I will be taking Abigail in her first derby, Warinde for the big class, and Jack.