The Fork Dressage Days...

As always Jim and Bernadette as well as the rest of the countless Fork staff put on a top notch event. If you've never attended its a must for 2012!

Dressage went well for us over the past few days. Thursday was Simon and Beau's day to shine. This is Simon's second intermediate. Due to his bruised foot we were unable to do much at all for prep for the weekend. I was able to ride him Monday for the first time since before Southern Pines 2 weeks ago. Regardless he but in a test 6 pts better than Red Hills and 4 better than Pine Top. So were heading in the right direction.

I was a bit disappointed in Beau's test. He has a tongue fetish. We've been leaving the flash loose in warm-up then tightening it just before entering the ring. This has been working great, but I think I was late with it yesterday. He was unsteady and just a bit fussy throughout.

Tom was first to go today. He put in a characteristically solid performance. He finished up on a 31 in 4th. Not bad for his first go at the intermediate test.

Running Order was last me today.  He's been getting better and better. Mark Phillips has helped me tremendously with him. I did have one inadvertent flying change, but overall it just keeps improving. I'm sure your sick saying it, but he's going to be awesome some day soon!  He's sitting in 8th in the CIC***. A lot can and will change tomorrow.

Conor also had Beaner here today in the Intermediate. He had a very good test finishing on a 28 for the top spot heading into tomorrow.

As for XC...

We were lucky with the rain early in the week. It's made the footing on XC about as close to ideal as possible. Not to overlook the fact that the staff here is looking over the course 24/7/365. All of the courses very well presented. All should be challenging but very doable. Beau should be fine. Both I intermediate boys should have their eyes full, but I don't think overwhelmed. This course suits RO very well. Needless to say I'm very excited for tomorrow.

I've got one more course walk tonight with the Capt at 5 then off to the sponsors and owners party at the Cogdells house. Check the Twitter account for updates throughout the day tomorrow.

-D