Blenheim was a truly amazing experience. The competition was huge, there were 100 entries in the CCI. Although the end result was not as good as I had hoped for, I left feeling like I have a truly expectational horse for the future.

The past six weeks I have learned so much and now feel as though I have a definite plan for my development as a rider and trainer and the path I need to put Madeline "Baby" on to become the superstar. Lucinda really believes that Baby is at a great place in her development, she is only 9 years old, and hopefully has another 10 years left to perfect her talent. She believes that Baby has all the talent and just needs the strength to be at the top of the sport. All of the weaknesses and mistakes made at Blenheim were all a result of her lack of strength. This is great news because it is completely fixable with some hard work through the winter. Poor Baby doesn't get much of a holiday this winter, but in actuality she hates having time off and would rather be working.

When we arrived at Blenheim it was a bit surreal. The place was amazing and the main arena sits on the front lawn of Blenheim Palace. We arrived on wednesday afternoon and I was instructed by Lucinda to ride Baby three times that day and do the trot-up at 4 pm. It was really nice and warm and Baby was dead quiet for the trot-up. Clayton thought something was wrong with her, but I explained that she never was usually ridden twice before a trot-up. By the third ride that evening she was very rideable, but a little too tired. Since her canter is her weakest gait that is what deteriorates first when she gets tired. She was missing her changes, but everything else was very good. The next day was dressage day. Again, I was instructed to ride her 3 times before my test. I explained to "Cinda" that she was tired during her 3rd ride the day before and had missed her changes. We decided to keep all three rides to ensure she would be ridable and quiet risking that we may loose the changes. During the test Baby was brilliant in the trot work, she even got an 8 on her extended trot. The walk was also lovely only one small jig right at the end before the canter. Unfortunately, the canter work suffered because she was tired. She did everything and was very rideable but she missed her changes and just lacked jump. Two of the judges gave her good scores and the third judge was 20 points lower. He absolutely nailed her canter work. So the end score was a 61 which we all thought should have been better. Mark Phillips came to watch her warm-up and test and was pleased with most of it but agreed she needed a stronger canter. Right after my test we quick changed to go on the US course walk with Mark. Cinda asked him if she could come along, so she did. Allison and Will were my fellow Americans competing. They both had good tests. Allison was in first by a lot with a 36. She was at Burleigh the week before but was eliminated xc and got a lated entry into Blenheim. The course walk was good although Cinda and Mark disagreed on some things. Overall the course looked good, hard but fair. The optimum time was 10:20 and we knew it would be very hard to make. The first water jump you literally crossed a river and then again on the way back you had to jump in and cross it again. They had secure footing and railings so you wouldn't go off the path into the deep part of the river. When we walked the course it probably took 3 or 4 min. to walk across. If you weren't wearing your wellies you had to go all the way around and over a bridge. Cinda and Mark both made a point to tell us to really gallop fast through the water because we would loose a lot of time there on both crossings. Probably about half of the jumps had another foot and half of brush on top which made the course massive in size. Most of the jumps were well over Baby's head. Then on Friday baby and I had a day to rest before xc on sat. We went on a lovely hack around the grounds. They had marked out hacking trails through the woods. Oh and I forgot to mention Thursday night we all went to a cocktail party with the Duke in Blenheim Castle. Then came xc day. There was only one person to make the time before I went out and a few scattered problems. Allison, who was in first, had a run-out at the double brush corners one from home. She warned me to play it safe there. So I went out and Baby was going great, I was on all my minute markers for the first 5 min. I just slipped behind slightly after the second water crossing. She was jumping big and bold. Two of the combinations I had planned on adding strides in she left out easily. Then one jump from home at the double corners I tried to play it safe and add a stride on the bend but I just couldn't fit it in. She got way to close to the second corner and just missed it. She was on such a massive stride that I just didn't have the shortening power I needed. In hindsight, I should have just let her go and not tried to add up. I think she would have been fine. I was trying to play it safe, like Allison had suggested, but again her lack of strength in the canter did not allow me to shorten at that point in the course. Of course, I was pissed at myself and wish I had made a different choice. We finished the course with only 7 time faults, so without the stop I would have been just outside the time. Everyone was very excited for me and said she looked great. Mark Phillips watched her on the monitors in control and was very impressed. He didn't seem to mind about the corners. I have actually never seen Mark so excited and pleased. He thought she looked great and I just underestimated her length of stride. Cinda and Clayton were happy with how she went but they felt my pain on picking up 20 penalties. Clayton especially felt bad because that morning Cinda and Clayton were arguing in front of me about how to ride those corners. Cinda said to go straight and forward, Clayton said to add up. I should have listened to Cinda. We watched for the rest of the day and were amazed to see so many problems scattered all around the course. A lot of horses were eliminated or withdrew on course. In the end only 4 people made the time. Even with my stop we moved up several places. Saturday night we enjoyed happy hour at the team Fredericks both and then a big competitors party. Clayton had a horse in the CIC*** but he missed a jump in show jumping and was eliminated. This meant he was up for a serious party. It was a great night, Matt and my mom somehow got a lovely Blenheim carpet to bring home with them. Sunday morning everyone was hurting a little but rallied for the trot-up at 7:45 am. Baby was great and a bit more fresh then the first jog. Then it was time for show jumping. Baby did not warm-up very well. She was tired and so her canter once again was suffering. We tried to tune her in warm-up but she didn't seem to mind knocking them down. Cinda and Mark were arguing about how to warm my horse up but Cinda won, I think. I then went in and she woke up with the crowds and atmosphere. She jumped really well overall. She had two down, both times when I tried to shorten her stride and her canter died. If you all haven't realized the theme of this trip its about improving her canter. I have orders to work her hard all winter and strengthen her for next spring. The rails were falling for everyone so I was able to move up several more spots by the end. Mark again was impressed with baby's jumping and didn't mind the two rails. He knows its about strength and has told me to really work to improve her strength this winter. He then wanted to the team vet to evaluate her after show jumping. In the end, the experience here has been priceless. The training, the competing, and everything in between has been a crucial part of my development as an international competitor. I could not have asked for better people to have spent the last 6 weeks with. Not only are they amazing competitors and trainers, but they are the nicest people you'll ever meet. I now have an entire family in England that I will miss greatly. However they have planned to come visit and give a clinic in Aiken this Feb. So now I have a long cold winter to look forward to before coming out this spring a stronger combination. Our plan is now to run Kentucky CCI**** this April. I will let you all know when we are having a gathering to watch videos and see pictures.

Thank you to everyone for your support throughout this experience I couldn't have done it without all of you.

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