15/01/2018
Latest blog from event groom, Crisy Salmon :
I am thrilled to tell you that every horse in Team Bullimore has ended their season on a high note, which makes me love my job even more because I know they’ve all earned carrots and a holiday.
NOVICE HORSES:
Starbucks (Gary) finished his season with a win in the BE100 at Oasby, following on from a win at Burnham Market. Gary began life as a dressage horse and only jumped his first fence at the start of the 2017 season. What a positive start to his eventing career!
Meanwhile, Quimira (Kim), who has been with us for a year, has gone from strength to strength and really deserved her victory at Novice level over a tricky Gatcombe course.
Homebred Corouet (Elfie) has produced fantastic results all season. His highlight was representing Great Britain in the
6-year old championships at Mondial Du Lion (France). With only three horses picked per country, his selection was a fantastic achievement. This was Elfie’s first CCI1*, but completing a CIC1* (shorter courses with fewer obstacles than CCI) and 4 Intermediates earlier this season paid dividends. He found his time in France much easier - perhaps too easy - a loss of concentration in the showjumping led to a fence down, which is very uncharacteristic for him. His enthusiasm grows with the fence size, but he still finished in 6th place and did us proud.
ADVANCED HORSES:
Conpierre (Toby) pulled it out the bag, finishing 10th in the CCI3* at Military Boekelo (Holland).
In my previous blog I described my first Badminton experience where Reve Du Rouet performed brilliantly . I said then, ‘Roll on Burghley!’ Well I’m actually going to ‘roll over’ Burghley and talk about Les Etoiles De Pau instead because Burghley didn’t go quite to plan so we re-routed to the last 4* of the year, down in the south of France. Given Pau is the week after Lion where we had four horses, we were very busy. We travelled directly to Pau from Lion with Reve Du Rouet, Lilly Corrinne and Valentino V. Thank you to JP Sheffield who had with space in his lorry to bring Elfie back from Lion so he could begin his well-deserved holiday.
Having three horses at a 4*event requires supreme organisation. Thankfully, Alex V-T came to help us - one of the most experienced and well-known grooms on the circuit. As Sarah was the only rider in the class with three horses, she went first and couldn’t have been on a better horse to do so.
Valentino V (Vally) is so genuine and produced a fantastic dressage test despite tripping up in his extended trot through over trying. Sarah said he was aiming for 11 out of 10, but this sadly resulted in him scoring 4.
Reve Du Rouet (Blou) kept his nerve to produce a personal best in his dressage at this level with still more room for improvement. Lilly Corrinne (Lilly) performed a clean test but the fact she is an adrenaline-fuelled chestnut mare got the better of her and she became quite feisty.
As pathfinders, Sarah and Vally set the bar high with their performance across country and made the track look so easy, picking up only a few time penalties. Other riders in the field didn’t find it so straight forward with several run outs, retirements, eliminations and falls. The leader board changed quite drastically over the day. Given her three amazing clear rounds, Sarah climbed the leader board and finished the day with all three horses in the top 10!
Show jumping, and Vally was first to go again. As usual, he tried his heart out but was unlucky to roll two poles. Still, he proved he’s Mr. Reliable, finishing 11th.
Lilly also jumped a lovely round and although she had fences down, she completed in an acceptable 13th position. In her first 4*, earlier in 2017 at Lumuhlen (Germany), she finished 6th, so we are very excited about her future.
Blou went into the show jumping arena lying in 3rd place. We all held our breath as we knew Sarah had a tricky round to ride to keep his focus given he struggles to keep his nerves under control. I couldn’t look, I was so nervous! I stood by the arena with my eyes closed but having not heard any poles hit the ground, I plucked up the courage to watch the last two fences. A clear round! I leapt around with excitement. Blou is such a scopy horse that providing the crowds don’t distract him, he can so easily jump a clear round All the hard work was worth it!
The overnight leader had three fences down so Blou moved up in the rankings to finish 2nd just 0.1 penalties behind the winner.
Out of 63 starters, only 39 completed, so to come home with a 2nd, 11th, and 13th is an incredible result.
I realise I’ve been largely praising the horses, but the rider deserves recognition too. A talented and hardworking jockey, Sarah ended the season ranked 7th in the world in the FEI listing.
WINTER BREAK:
The horses are now relaxing out in the fields enjoying a well-deserved break. Meanwhile, we have to survive the wind, rain, frost, mud and snow to get to the next exciting season.
MY PROGRESS:
Before I go, here is an update on my own horse, Coco, who I introduced in my previous blog. After a few weeks off, she is coming back into work and is feeling somewhat fresh, but given she is a 5-year old chestnut thoroughbred mare, that’s no surprise. I’ve had her for almost a year now and I’m so excited to see what we can achieve together. She can throw a decent tantrum, and although I have eaten dirt a few times, I pat myself on the back for the times I have stayed on!
Fortunately, she has a loveable personality and is otherwise very easy to handle and ride so I will keep having fun, training and learning from her.
Author: Crisy Salmon Editor: Kathryn White
