Steady Eddie is the Star of Windurra at Fair Hill

Pancho Villa

Cross-country day at the Fair Hill International provided plenty of entertainment and excitement, and some spectacular changes in the order of standing. Pancho Villa (pictured above) was my first out and he jumped well but was not quite on his game at a number of fences. There are moments where he loses his concentration and shies at things on course, so unfortunately we lost our dressage lead after a couple of run-outs.

Steady Eddie

Steady Eddie was brilliant today, Denise Lahey, Pierre Colin and the Wintersteen's Australian gelding rocked around the course and confirmed my suspicion that he's a future four-star horse. He danced around the two-star and pulled up well and should be ready for a great show jumping round tomorrow.

New Cadet

My third horse, New Cadet, was definitely the greenest of the group; he was jumping very well and showing good form and determination throughout the course but unfortunately misread the duck element of the final water complex and unfortunately that's where his Fair Hill ended. He's a talented horse and made a green mistake at the end of a very testing cross-country course, and I'm sure he will have many better endings in his future.

I thought Caitlin rode brilliantly with Remington. Unfortunately Windurra had a sad day when Caitlin came unstuck at the coffin about halfway around the course. My other students, Lillian Heard and Erin Sylvester, rode well.

Without doubt Fair Hill has once again shown a brilliant, testing two and three-star course. The competition was exciting and we're looking forward to a good show jumping tomorrow.

-Boyd

Note: Photos copyright Amber Heintzberger.