Louis has been the horse to cause me the most worry in the past few months.
The Event season was off to a great start, Louis was feeling fit and raring to go for Aston le Walls Intermediate Under21 Event, and he didn't disappoint. We posted a leading dressage score of 25.9 followed by a great clear show jumping round. We went onto the Cross Country in pole position.
There was a hold on course before I went out the start box while the groundsmen repaired the landing of the water jump at fence five.
Louis jumped a fantastic round tackling all the tricky combinations and both water elements with no problem. However the ecstatic feeling of crossing the finish line with a double clear quickly faded when I looked down at my shirt to see it covered in blood. Louis' knee was gaping open and there was blood everywhere. His knee had split from impact with one of the fences.
Luckily at affiliated events there is a vet on site, this was the fourth phase of our event that day. Louis had a lot of stitches and was condemned to box rest, not a good outcome for a fit eventer.
After some intense care I am happy to say Louis is back on the road! He went out to Milton Keynes to do a Novice Event and jumped double clear 27 dressage. What a remarkable recovery. We are now looking forward to getting back on track!
This September I have two horses going forward to the National Dressage Championships, Bing who qualified at Addington Manor on 70.9% in 2nd place to Gareth Hughes in the Medium Open and Show-Off who qualified at Keysoe on 70.86% in the Novice Open.
I have also attended a test riding day with Excel Talent Programme in front of David Trott. I was lucky enough to take three horses who were all brilliant. Daya and Bing practiced medium 75 and Merri and I performed the PSG test.
It has take me a while to post this blog update however you can keep up with me on Twitter Daisy Coakley
I am saving for an i-pad to make the whole process a lot more fluent. It is still raining ...thank you for reading and time now to feed the horses.
Daisy.x
