Golden Weekend

The weekend was spent at Tomisato competing in the 2014 Japan Cup. Louis missed out on the A3 Dressage gold by just 0.218% on Saturday, but claimed silver anyway with 59.238. On Sunday, 'Orion' was dead against going into the arena (on the opposite side to normal), and I was within a few seconds of calling it a day when some fresh grass distracted him enough to get through the gateway! After that, he was still pretty wild and spooky, but Louis put in the performance of his life to score 61.303, beating his rival from the day before - an experienced gentleman riding one of the best horses in the country - by almost 4%. Louis has certainly found his calling.

Sophie teamed up with 'Jaguar' to take gold in her dressage category, scoring a creditable 53.166. This was superb given a complete lack of practice and the condition of 'Jaguar' just before the event. He seems to get really stressed out at Tomisato, but Megumi worked some magic with a hose pipe and away he went like a trooper. On Sunday, he was far more up for it, and gave Sophie a blue ribbon (gold) in the Gymkhana Grand Prix, as well as another blue ribbon for myself, the missus and Sophie in the team event. It was a great shame that the Tachibana family couldn't take part with Momo-chan succumbing to a heavy fever, but it's something to look forward to next year, or in a Tokoro internal competition.

One other piece of news for the time being: War Chronicle has passed her checks and is ready to go to the Shikato Stables at Miho Training Centre.