Monthly diary — September 2014
Lucinda Green
Read all about what legendary eventer Lucinda Green has been up to this month.
Burghley was incredible - no-one made the time. But most remarkable were Andrew Nicholson and Avebury winning for the third consecutive time - to keep one horse that fit and sound is an amazing feat. The course was terrific although the Malting’s Bounce raised the question of whether having a bounce followed by right-angle corner of identical material is sensible - several horses seemed to misread it. Neil Spratt and Upleadon suffered a particularly horrible fall - fortunately both are recovering well. At Blenheim, the importance of not counting strides at every combination but riding by feel was exemplified by winner, Francis Whittington. His style - like Harry Meade's - personifies what I’m always going on about. It’s great he’s hitting the top of the tree.
In between, I’ve been exercising Lissa’s horses, which many parts of me are complaining about, having not ridden since May. Unfortunately Lissa turned upside down with her new Advanced horse during their first outing. She still doesn’t know what happened - one moment they were taking off at a small novice house; the next, the horse put down again, possibly due to the sun’s glare. Lissa has a smashed jaw, broken collar bone and ribs, while the saddle looks like it’s been run over by a truck - nasty but much better than what could have been. However, it has also meant Lissa has suffered the additional pain of losing a new Intermediate ride she’d taken on only the day before.
