My Burghley Blog part 2

I'm David Burton, a  BGA member and freelance groom based in Lincolnshire. This week I'm grooming for Kirsty Short who rides Cossan Lad - no'43!

After the trot up on Wednesday (see my blog part 1), it’s time to focus on the next phase, the dressage.

On Thursday morning, Kirsty had another dressage lesson in the morning, Bouncer then had his final bath and a nice long graze to keep him chilled and let him dry off. They both then went for a little hack. With him being an older boy he just needs a bit more loosening off than some, so this helps him out as poor Bouncer isn’t at all made for the dressage - as you can see if you managed to watch his test.

It was then time for me to plait and finish getting him ready before tacking him up. The sun was shining which was nice, and we came out the stables, hoof oil on, I legged Kirsty up and off she went.

At Burghley, it takes a good 15-20 minutes to hack down to the main arena past the Pony Club show jumping and past a few XC fences which can then wake them up a little. He got a bit tense but we worked in down near the lake before going up the final warm up arena where we take bandages off and which them good luck!

He did what he did in the test, Kirsty rode really well and he behaved and did what he could, but for us it’s all about riding round that XC course.

After this and the Cocktail reception in the beautiful gardens of Burghley House we went and enjoyed a lovely supper at The George in Stamford.

Friday

Friday is just a chill day. Bouncer went for a little hack and enjoyed a long graze in-hand in the afternoon. I got to walk around the course and have a little look around the shops, where I got my Burghley polo shirt from Joules before they sell out. I managed to catch up with some friends ahead of a busy day tomorrow.

I always like to walk the course at these big events, as it’s nice for our riders to have someone to talk through their plans with and you can remind them about fences if they unsure of something.

I also do a bit of course building myself so it’s nice to see what other people do to get some new ideas although on a smaller scale.

Saturday – XC Day

This years’ track was a serious one and certainly a 4*! Even having one horse at three day event you still find yourself quite busy.

Kirsty got up early for a last course walk then came back and took Bouncer for a quiet hack and a pre warm up while I got everything ready to take down to XC with us.

By this time, the atmosphere had started to build as everyone began to arrive including extra officials, vets, doctors and of course then more rider connections who come on Saturday to watch all the action.

We then let Bouncer have half an hour to himself while we watched the first few go XC from the riders tent. I then started to stud up and get him ready. Once Kirsty had got on and gone for her final warm up I followed with the wheelbarrow full of buckets, sponges, spare kit and grease! After they had jumped a few fences and had a bit of a pipe opener, we greased up and walked through to the start where she was counted down and off she went.

After being held at the third for 10 minutes they had a super round with just adding a technical 20 penalties at the trout hatchery for crossing her tracks but it was amazing to finish  around the course that causing so many problems. 

After coming through the finish, we caught them quickly, untacked and kept him walking while cooling him down with lots of water. The vets take a temperature and heart rate just after they finish and once they are happy the horse has cooled down enough and the heart is back to normal we walk back to the stables.

This is where most of the after care happens, we ice their legs two or three times, make sure they drink and are happy and then let them have some rest before we get them out and trot them up to see how they are.

Unfortunately Bouncer was a little sore, but this is expected with an older horse galloping round a track like that and the ground was on the firmer side. So I had some more icing to do. Later in the evening we had couple of drinks to celebrate Kirsty and Bouncer completing and it was also my birthday on Sunday, so we celebrated that too in between icing sessions.

We then let him sleep and started again early on Sunday morning.

 
Sunday

On Sunday Bouncer was on top form, feeling nice and fresh and he sailed through the trot up. 

As we were down the running order we were one of the first to show jump, so we had a quick trip back to the stables to get ready for show jumping. Then back round to the main arena to warm up for jumping, they jumped really well with a couple down to finish another super 4* completion.

We then got packed up and finished off, had a cup of tea and birthday cake, then left for home after watching a great show jumping final and was great to see Tim Price take the win! 

I hope you have enjoyed an insight to a 4* event from behind the scenes and look forward to the next one! This week I am house and dog sitting in Derbyshire before I head to Gatcombe on Friday!

A huge thank you to David for his blog from the BGA team.   

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