Putting the horse first is always so important, and today wasn’t quite our day!   

Albie just wasn’t feeling it out there, he wasn’t excited for it and we both lacked the adrenaline we needed.  On the run up he’s been feeling really fresh and excited but even in the warm-up he just wasn’t feeling like he was enjoying it.  Badminton is a big ask on perfect ground and after all the rain yesterday and now the hot weather it just really didn’t suit him.  He’s a big horse to go through sticky ground as it takes more energy out of them and calling it a day early was 100% the right decision for him. He’d jumped well enough, up until that point but I could feel his heart wasn’t in it.  

I was pretty glad to be doing dressage on day one and avoid the rain on Saturday.  He did a nice enough test, but I’d maybe done a few minutes too long in the warm-up so just lacked a little extra sparkle.  There was lots to like but still lots to work on.  

He’s now just chillin back in his stable with Crisy telling him how wonderful he is!  He’ll go out for a graze on the lawn this evening and then we’ll start making our way home.  Being so fit we’ll look at some other options for him over the coming weeks and months and make an updated plan.  

A HUGE thank you to everyone who has supported me this week, everyone’s been so nice!  The star of the show today though must be Austin (O’Connor) he was simply incredible and Salty was just epic! We’ll be rooting for them tomorrow.