Saturday saw Halliday hand a UK-competition debut to Donovan in the Pre-Novice class at Munstead, Surrey, and, in horrendous conditions, the young horse belied his inexperience with a fine display.
“The weather was absolutely appalling, gale force winds, snow, everything,” Halliday explained. “He was a bit green and inexperienced in the dressage as he wasn’t used to the lay out used here in the UK, but he still did a good job. He jumped really well in the Show Jumping section, with just one rail down, and was clear in the cross country. When you consider that he’s a New Zealand-bred horse and has probably never competed in such conditions before, I think he performed very well!”
Tuesday saw Liz head to Somerley Park in Hampshire to compete with Oscar in the Intermediate category. Following his strong performance in the CCI** event in Barroca, Portugal, last month, Liz used the event as a warm-up for his next major 3-day event; at Compiegne, France, in two weeks time.
Again, Oscar produced a fine performance to net sixth in his section, and achieved the best dressage score of all three sections of Intermediate. “His dressage was superb,” admitted Halliday. “He had one rail down in the Show Jumping, but mostly jumped very well for the deep and muddy conditions. His Cross County was flawless. I was careful not to push him too hard on some parts of the course as the ground was heavy, but he tried hard and it was a great confidence run to have before our next event.”
Halliday’s next big event comes at Compiegne, France with Oscar in the CCI** on 9-13 April.
For more details on Liz Halliday visit www.lizhalliday.com.
2008-04-01