WINNER WINNER at Cholmondeley Castle!

MBF Dassett Legacy & Craig put their best feet forwards for a fantastic win at Cholmondley Castle this weekend in a hotly contested Intermediate section!

First off, a big thank you must go to the Musketeer Event Team for adding the extra days of competition to accommodate so many horses and riders – and what a quality field of entries it was – World Champions, team horses from across so many different nations and some lovely up and coming talent was competing this weekend too.

Craig rode MBF Dassett Legacy (Zam) to victory in an Intermediate section and it is nothing less than they deserve! We think so highly of this horse and he has several 2nd places to his name at Intermediate level, a win is just the ticket in his final run before upgrading to Advanced level in a few weeks. Sue has put so much effort into this horse’s flat work throughout lockdown, and it has really paid off – well done Sue! They were rewarded with a fist pump from the judge and an very fancy score of 24!!! Sadly, one uncharacteristic rail fell in the SJ, but the arena was one possibly not best suited to Zam and clear rounds were few and far between. But a speedy XC round, just adding a couple of time faults, was enough to keep them at the top of the leader board and victory was theirs!

Craig was also riding the absolute business woman, 6YO Dassett Curra Candy (Candy) in the Novice. She started off with a lovely test, but a few costly mistakes left them on 34 after the first phase. She jumped an immaculate clear round SJ, and cruised steadily clear around the XC. She wasn’t going to gain a top 5 spot, so we decided to give her a nice, steady run today.

I rode the seasoned pro, Call Me Dassett (Cas) in the Intermediate, and he also demonstrated a big post lockdown improvement in the first phase, scoring a very impressive 25!! Sadly he has a very cheap vertical down in the SJ, but sailed effortlessly around the XC track clear. I ran him slowly given his slightly delicate legs, and today was just a prep run for the CCIS4* at Burgham in a few weeks time.

My second ride was the 8yo HHS Dassett Class (Matt), also in the Intermediate. He did a really good test for a score of 30. Annoyingly, 2 rails fell in the SJ phase but he jumped a great round and there were only 3 SJ clears in this section, so we were not alone with some faults. Matt was absolutely epic XC! As he wasn’t going to gain a top placing and the ground was pretty undulating, I went steadily XC ahead of his upgrade to Advanced level in a few weeks time – he certainly feels ready.

Amelia was onboard the super cool Boleybawn Dassett Cruise (Joey), having his first run of the season in the Novice. They did a lovely test with a couple of mistakes for a score of 31. Hayley has really developed Joey’s dressage through lockdown and there is such a fancy test in there – I imagine Joey will really excel in this phase in not too long. Joey went on to jump a cracking SJ round, but very annoyingly the very last SJ fell – so frustrating when the last falls!! Both Amelia and Joey came back from the XC with huge grins on their faces having had a blast! Despite not chasing the clock, they only added a couple of time faults to finish just out of the top ten.

All in all, a great couple of days!