Paddy Muir

Highs and Lows for Paddy Muir

Since I last wrote, our carefully planned program leading up to Blair CCI*** was pretty much wrecked due to the cancellation of many events through the summer. Ironically where Auchinleck was cancelled due to the wet conditions, when I ran Stanley at Knaptoft the following week the ground was like rock. A nice run in the AI left him in third place. The following week, a nasty fall at a little wall on the cross country at Gatcombe left me arriving at Blair feeling very unprepared.

Blair was sodden. It rained and rained and the organisers did an amazing job to keep everything running. My Dressage in a bog was fairly good considering and left me in 10th place overall. Cross country day was glorious sunshine and the ground was amazingly good. A stiff cross country course caused heaps of trouble for everyone. Stan jumped a fantastic foot perfect round and was the only horse to finish clear within the time. This left us in 1st place overnight with one fence in hand over my good friend and traveling partner, Lucy Holliday and the lovely grey, High Times.

Rain on Saturday night left the show jumping ring very wet. We watched the first few jump and clear rounds were very few. I had my own problems with Stan preparing for the show jumping and couldn't get the good forward canter I needed as Stan felt very laboured and uninterested. Worst of all I heard Lucy go into the ring and moments later a loud gasp from the crowd. High Times, who is normally an amazing show jumper, had chipped in a stride going into the double at number three and had got a pole between her legs, stumbled and deposited Lucy in the mud resulting in instant elimination. When I eventually entered the ring I was a bag of nerves and it was a heartbreaking experience as Stan jumped his way round rolling every upright down. We accumulated 30 penalties which meant that we dropped down to 9th place.

I was gutted for Stan and all of my supporters as well as for Lucy who truly deserved to win. Although Stan in not the best of show jumpers at the best of times he definitely didn't feel right during his round and when I got off him he tried to roll so I suspected that he had a touch of colic. However, once untacked and after the walk back to the stables Stan seemed to settle again and by the time we were ready to travel home he was back to his usual self.

A fabulous holiday in Formentera followed and Stan had a week in the field with his favourite pony. On my return my mum said she didn't think he was himself, so I had my physio look at him and this revealed a very sore back caused by whiplash, which I assume was from the fall at Gatcombe. After manipulation he was back to his old self within hours, ears pricked and cheeky again which was all quite dramatic!

Looking on the bright side of things I feel that Stan is a contender for Badminton next spring. Winter show jumping will be the way forward and I look forward to reporting on our progress!