Sam Griffiths - October 2011 Update

Well, the end of the 2011 season is in sight - we just have a couple of Novices to run this weekend at Larkhill and then we're done! It's been one hell of a busy year - definitely our busiest yet - but all in all it's been a very exciting one.

DRESSAGE TO MUSIC AT HOYS

In my last blog I was frantically trying to time flying changes to the beat of Robert Miles's 'Children' for our dressage to music at HOYS! This was a challenge to say the least but extended canters and crescendos sorted off we set for our HOYS debut... Having waved Paulank Brockagh off to Boekelo (Horse Trials in the Netherlands) at 2am that morning (she was being driven out by our head groom, Mouse) Lucy and I then left for the NEC at 4am in order to get there in time for 'arena familiarisation'. We had a good trip up and got settled in - all very strange being on concrete and in the middle of the Birmingham suburbs but Real Dancer (Albert) seemed less phased about this than we were and schooled well in the main arena that morning.

We then had nothing to do until 5pm that evening, so having spent about an hour walking around the NEC with my good friend, Harry Meade, we eventually found some breakfast, put the eventing world to rights and had a look around the trade stands - needless to say, we couldn't quite find what we were looking for on the Katy Price stand... not really me or Harry! The day passed, albeit slowly, and then it was time to get ready for the test. Lucy had got rather into the whole dressage at night, under lights, to music etc and had come up armed with some spray on glitter.... Not quite sure how I felt about riding a horse that resembled a Christmas decoration but for an easy life I went with it. Although Lucy did admit that in daylight it did look more like glittering bird poo but she assured me under lights it looked fabulous!! Hmmm... Anyway, sparkles aside, I was thrilled with Albert's test - he coped really well with the intense atmosphere, rose to the occasion and proved to be a true performer, particularly after what had been a difficult warm up to say the least - not mentioning any names but there was some very un-sportsmanlike behaviour coming from one of the other competitors who obviously saw myself and Albert as their main threat to the title and at one point deliberately rode into Albert's quarters giving him quite a fright and making an audible thud and a mark on Albert's side. It is a shame that people who are supposed to be professional sportsmen feel the need to behave like this when there is some big prize money at stake. Anyway, there's my rant over and I was pleased to be in the lead after the dressage and after all our hard work out in our field at home with the car cd player on full blast!!

Cross Country Phase

Onto the cross country phase - we were given just 15 minutes to learn the course as they were running late, so just remembering where we had to go was a challenge enough, but also I would say it was a proper two star track - very technical and of course time was a real issue. Going last, I managed to watch a few go before getting on Albert. Having practiced a few tight turns and angles in the warm up, it was time to go. Albert went very green on me over the first few jumps, which is probably where I lost my time, but when he got going he was excellent - so genuine and brave.

Show Jumping Phase

Despite, getting a couple of time faults, we held on to our lead so it was now all down to the show jumping... This is slightly Albert's Achilles Heel but we had a good warm up and I had been working hard on this phase at home so I was really hoping that Albert could leave the poles up! However, it was not to be, Albert promptly had the first two jumps down so it was all over. Ironically, he then went on to jump a super round so I was not too disappointed with him as he showed he can jump well on the big occasions and we still ended up 5th.

However, having been so close to victory, we are definitely keen to chase this title next year, so with a few tweaks to our music and some work on the jumping, Albert could be pretty hard to beat next year...

BOEKELO HORSE TRIALS, THE NETHERLANDS

Having not finished at HOYS until gone midnight, we then drove down to Albert's owner's house in Basingstoke, getting there at about 2am - completely exhausted! We grabbed a few hours sleep before heading to the airport the following morning to get out to Boekelo in time for trot up on Wednesday.

Team Competition

All went smoothly and Brocks flew through the trot up. At this event, they incorporate a team's competition - the 'Grolsch Nations Cup'. This certainly adds an extra dimension to it all and some good prize money is up for grabs. So that evening, all us Aussie riders sat down and decided on the team and who would go first, last etc. From the 6 Australian horses there, it was decided that myself, Lucinda Fredericks, Paul Tapner and Catherine Burrell would make up the team and Lucy would be Chef d'Equipe - a new role for Lucy but having been a bit apprehensive about it, I think she rather enjoyed it! It was decided that Brocks and I would go last of the team as Brocks could handle main arena atmosphere on the Friday afternoon the best of all the horses there and has a fabulous xc record. So this was perfect for me as it meant I had a lot of time to work Brocks having missed a couple of days working her with HOYS etc.

Dressage

Although my dressage wasn't until Friday, I did resist the temptation to get into the Boekelo spirit on that first night and hit the hay early, unlike the Chef d'Equipe who got stuck straight into the Dutch hospitality along with fellow 'WAG', George Tapner! They're a bad influence on each other! The next morning, I rather smugly woke up hangover free, unlike someone else, and got straight to work on Brocks. She felt great and by the time Friday afternoon came along I was confident that she was going as well as she could. She did indeed go very well and was even scoring 9's for some of her trot work, however, it slightly fell apart in the changes and her score went down but these are new to her and by next year, they'll be good, solid changes. So I was pleased with her as she showed us great potential in this phase for the future.

Cross Country

Cross country day dawned and, being so late in the draw, I had a long wait ahead of me until it was my turn. But with all my team mates going so well, they were able to report back on their rounds and I had been able to watch how everything was riding, so off we set. Once again, Brocks excelled herself on the xc and just ate it up - she's a definite 4 star horse, bold and scopey and incredibly brave. We pulled up a lot of places after that and the team was lying in second behind the Germans. All very exciting! Brocks is a very tough mare and trotted up as though she'd had a quiet stroll in the Dutch countryside the day before!

Show Jumping

The show jumping track walked really big, square and technical so I was a little apprehensive but I had confidence in Brocks as she normally jumps beautifully and true to form she reeled off a perfect clear round for me - that round and the round I had on Happy Times at Badminton were definitely my SJ rounds of the season. We pulled up more placings again and all the rest of the team jumped brilliantly as well. But unfortunately, we couldn't quite catch the Germans who had a huge lead. However, we were all thrilled with our horses and to come second as a team on such a green bunch of horses was very pleasing for us all. We then hit the road as soon as we could after the prize giving and drove like the wind (which isn't very fast when we're speed limited to 56mph!) to catch the 11.30pm Calais-Dover sailing. We did, by the skin of our teeth. That route is only an hour and a half so we were soon back in the UK but it is then another 4 hours back to Symphony Farm. Lucy and I shared the driving and we eventually got home at 4am that morning. As you can imagine, that Monday was a right off - we felt jet lagged. But by Tuesday we had to get back to work as we have Novices running this weekend at Larkhill.

After this weekend, we're all done. It's been a hectic year, but all in all a very good one. Happy Times is well in contention for London, Paulank Brockagh has gone from strength to strength and will be a very useful second string for London and I have some incredibly exciting horses coming up through the ranks. We're off to Australia in November, where Lucy and I will be attending Equitana and Adelaide CCI****, working alongside Horsequest and of course visiting my family. Then it's back to it in December when everyone starts to come back into work and off we all go again!

I'd like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported me and the Griffiths Eventing Team this year. We have some amazing owners, sponsors and followers and we appreciate the support from everyone enormously. We couldn't do it and get those results without all of you. Here's to 2012 and beyond!