report_john_williams 4

Our readers will remember that John and his wife, Ellen, were in England, in the summer of 2003, stabled at Mark and Sandy Phillips' Aston Farm, Gloucestershire, England, preparing for the Masterfoods Burghley CCI****.

"Two weeks after Gatcombe (Please see John Williams Diary, Part 3, July-September, 2003.), the same weekend as Thirlestane (Scotland), there was a horse trial that was considerably closer to us called Brockenhufrst - two hours away, as opposed to Thirlestane, which was an eight hour drive. Kim (Severson) took her two horses and we planned on taking Carrick and Sloopy too. We felt it was unnecessary to put our horses through the stress of travel and competition associated with Thirlestane. After all, we went to England to do Burghley, not Thirlestane.

"I guess we were the lucky ones, we got scheduled as a one day. Kim's (section) got scheduled in as a two day. I took advantage of the first day, where I wasn't competing, and drove up just to kind of see where it was and have a look around, because the next day was going to be kind of busy. I decided that the Dressage rings and the warm up were not very good and the Cross Country was not of the nature that I really was looking for.The Show Jumping. I thought, was really all right - the footing wasn't very good; but, I could deal with the Show Jumping. Having seen it that day, we decided it wasn't worth putting the horses on the lorry for the day trip - long day that it would have been. Poor Kim was already there before she discovered all of these things. She went ahead and did Dressage - I didn't think she was particularly happy about the conditions. Then, even though she was already there, I believe, didn't bother jumping any jumps at all.

"We opted instead to take the horses to a gallop - to one of the hills that we use. They've got great gallops over there - a few of them we are privileged to use, or allowed to use - that day probably it was Nicky Henderson's. (His wife was once an eventer - they've got race horses and steeplechase horses.) So we shipped off to the gallops instead and prior to going off to the gallops we had a little jump school in the rings there at Mark and Sandy's. We had, I think, a productive day of not going to Brockenhurst.

"My job as Course Designer, and before that builder, has begun to pay off a bit in other ways. I've known Michael Tucker and Mike E-S (Ethrington-Smith). I don't know them well; but, I'vn had more opportunity than most riders to converse with them. The Tuckers live quite close to Mark and Sandy. I had put a call in to them to see if they could help with housing at all. Mike Tucker sent back a very shy e-mail saying that he had a bungalow that had been vacant for a couple of years and was slated for demolition and then to be re-built. We ended up going to stay there (for the nine weeks we were in England). Mike gave us a great deal on it. It was great housing as far as we were concerned. They were very helpful to us.

"Burghley ended up being five weeks after Gatcombe, which maybe was a bit of time too much, although I've never had an issue with not having a recent run - with most horses anyways - not having a recent run before a 3-Day. I know that Carrick doesn't care - maybe he'd like to go run and have fun; but, one year we went four months from Rolex to Burghley, no runs in between, and that didn't phase him any. Sloopy came out of Gatcombe well enough and I wasn't too worried about him either. (John and Sloopy are pictured at right at the First Veterinary Inspection, at Burghley.)

I remember, now, that Mark and Sandy were gone quite a bit of the time that we were there. They were was over in the US doing Pan Am Training Sessions. Our plan, two months - an eight or nine week trip in preparation for Burghley - we've had several people suggest to us that maybe it wasn't a very good idea, that history had shown that it didn't always work very well - that a great percentage of the horses that tried to do those extended periods of time of preparation in England, never made it to where they were meant to go. I knew abot this - I'd had one myself ten years ago; but, I thought that both horses looked to be in great shape. Neither one had any chronic soundness issues that we were dealing with day by day. You never know whether you're going to make it or not: but, we felt we had a far better than average chance - no foot or shoeing problems, no leg problems, no logistical or unanswered questions. We had covered all our bases. I didn't have any of those headaches to worry about and felt pretty good about it right from the beginning. We went over and we went along and made sure we didn't make the mistake of over training - trying too hard, doing too many jump schools, galloping too much, or any of that. When we shipped over, both horses were already quite fit. Even though Burghley was nine weeks away, fitnesswise we were maybe only two or three weeks away, so I was able to coast quite a bit of the time I was there and not feel the pressure of, 'They're not quite fit enough,' or 'Oh, I haven't jumped enough jumps," and it paid off!

"Two weeks after the Brockenhurst weekend, we loaded up, went to Burghley - we were lucky. I had a acquaintance - a guy that I met at New Jersey, at Jersey Fresh (the new CCI**, held in May, for which John is the course designer) who was the TD (Technical Delegate) at Jersey Fresh - Jonathan Clissold. I ran into him a couple of times over in England - I had gotten to know him a bit during the week of Jersey Fresh. We had mentioned that we had been searching for a two or three horse lorry that we might be able to rent, or borrow, or whatever. He called one day and said, "I've got a couple that I'd like to introduce you to. He's a Course Designer as well - he had just done a course for their very first competition at Salperton Horse Trials." (It transpired) that they had just bought a new six horse lorry; but, that they would let go of their two horse (with living quarters) for a week or ten days. That worked out very well - a very nice couple. So we drove up to where they were, which was only about an hour from Aston, and picked up the two horse lorry a couple of days before Burghley. (John and Sloopy are pictured in the Dressage, at Burghley.)

We drove ourselves and the horses (to Burghley) and parked the lorry there on the grounds and lived in it for the week and barely got off of the grounds all week, which was perfect as far as I was concerned. I guess some people need to get away, or want to get away, or want to go have dinner somewhere else; but, for me it was a bit of peace of mind to not have to worry about, 'All right, where are we going to go to dinner tonight, who are we going to meet, what time, got to go to the hotel first and get a shower - - - ' It takes several hours a day and a lot of brain power that is better spent thinking about competition or resting.That was a great help to us - to be able to stay on the grounds

"We left Aston on the Monday, relatively early, stopped along the way at one of the gallops, had a last little gallop and loaded back up and kept driving."

(John was asked if anyone other than Ellen normally were present when he galloped.) "Not this trip - we were more or less on our own. A few of the gallops we did with Kim, when her horses were still up and running. (Sadly, both of Kim's horses, Winsome Adante and Royal Venture coliced badly before Burghley and had to be operated on.) Amy (Tryon) had three horses over. We did several of the gallops together. Mark (Phillips) didn't go on this trip (to gallop) - it wasn't a team year. Last year, 2002, (during the preparation for the World Championships at Jerez, Spain) and the year before, 2001, for that matter, when there was an unofficial team competition at Burghley - Mark went to all those gallops. A selector or two was at at least one of the gallops in the team competition year."

"We got set up (at Burghley) Monday. Tuesday was a bit of an easy, relaxing day. Wednesday, it all starts up - the Briefing, the jog up and all of that. There was a Team Challenge that they created. Seven Americans were pitted against seven Brits, one on one. Due to that - the pairings between Americans and Brits - a few of the bridle numbers changed after the trot up and before Dressage started. Carrick was one of those. He had been 115 and changed to 119. (This was so that each pairing went back-to-back in the order of go.) (John and Carrick are oictured in Dressage, at Burghley, above right.)I was paired up with Mary King (a previous Burghley winner) on King Solomon III. It ended up that she didn't even run Cross Country on that particular horse. Mary had two horses there, as I did. One of the other Brits (Jeanette Brakewell, on the Short List for the European Championshipa, at Punchestown, in Ireland, two weeks later) had had a fall earlier on Cross Country day (and was injured). The horse that Carrick was paired with, was on the Alternate List (for the Europeans) so they (the British Selectors) asked Mary if she would consider not running, because they would likely needed her for (the Europeans) two weeks later. That was too bad. It broke up that pairing. The Americans won four or five of the seven pairs. (That is, they finished Burghley with higher placings than the Brits with whom they were paired.) With all the hype about Pippa's possibility of winning the Triple Crown, this international Team Challenge didn't get much "air time".

"There was a constant buzz in the air all week at Burghley - Pippa had won Rolex and Badminton and was now poised to win the Triple Crown of Eventing, if she could pull off another win at Burghley. No one had ever been in such a position before. Despite the announcer and the media keeping every one aware and on edge, Pippa stayed very quiet and private all week, trying her best to ignore it all. Not only did she have two horses to compete at Burghley, she also had a four year old in the Young Horse Competition also at Burghley. She was busier than most of us. As you all know, she did manage to win, and did so in style! The only person who could, or should, have beaten her was Bettina Hoy (GER), who, true to form, had won the Dressage; but, also, true to form, had had a stop at the smallest, easiest fence on course.

"Pippa got some serious, and possibly unexpected competition from Zara Phillips, Mark's daughter, who was doing her first four star. Pippa was a few seconds slow on Cross Country, causing her to land in an overnight tie for first with Zara, who obviously must have had a decent Dressage score. Then, as only a fairly young and inexperienced rider can do, Zara ran around the Cross Country ridiculously fast - 25 seconds under - and made it look easy. Zara went on to do a very good Show Jump round; but, one fence down allowed Pippa's near perfect clear round to break the tie.

"A lot of us will be happy the day that Pippa retires; but with more Brits like Zara coming along all the time, I think they'll remain one of the hardest countries to beat. They seem to have much more depth, both in number of good, up-coming riders and in the number of horses they can start, than any other country.

"Back to my own little world, Sloopy went eighth in Dressage (before Carrick and on the Thursday). He had been being very good all week - very relaxed. His Dressage is not quite up to par; but, he'd been being very good and relaxed. Even starting on the Tuesday, I hacked over to the Dressage area, which is in the same area as the trot up and the Show Jumping, which is a good - I'd say it's almost a mile from the stabling. I'd hack over there, find a nice patch of grass, near the warm up area and try to get him to just stop, stand still, and put his head down and eat a little bit. The first time I hacked over he wasn't very interested. He was a little bit up tight; but, finally, he took a bite or two of grass - then we'd go back to the barn and a few hours later, do it again. By the time Thursday morning came around for Dressage he thought this was a pretty good, relaxing place. You get to go for a little ride, eat a little grass and hang out.

"I almost had Sloopy too relaxed. We did our halt and he rested a hind leg, with his ears sort of out to the side, not ever quite realizing that he was in the Dressage Ring. He went on to do a decent test, a very steady test for him (58.8 for = 39th, from 80 starters). We couldn't complain - I was very happy with him. John and Sloopy are pictured on Cross Country, at left, at the Pig Stys, # 15abc, at Burghley.)

"I would have almost the opposite approach with Carrick. He always tends to be a little bit too relaxed and laid back anyways, so whenever I would hack over to that area to do a bit of riding, I wouldn't spend much time there - get there, do a bit of work, gallop around a little bit - try to keep him enthused and go back to the barn - not give him a chance to get used to the area, relax and go to sleep. Even though he scored a good bit better (49.0 for = 9th), I had done a better job preparing Sloopy. I can't complain - Carrick put in a very good test. I possibly over did the warm up a little bit. He's always a little tight in his back; but, he got a little tired. It was work for me to keep the trot work up to what he had been doing a month before. He'd been doing some of the best work we'd ever done, the previous month at Aston - I was quite consistently getting very good trot work out of him and the canter was slowly getting better. I lost quite a bit of that in the ring. That's the way it goes - - - .

"Saturday comes around. With Sloopy there wasn't any chance for me to watch anyone else. I think I was out on "A" before anyone was out on "D". He went around the Steeplechase very well and pulled up very well.

"Phase "C", these days, as everybody knows, has been slowed down to 160 metres per minutes as opposed to the 220 that it's always been. So we travel less distance at a slower speed, in about the same amount of time.(The change) has made a huge difference in the amount of conditioning needed. It has allowed horses, that maybe don't naturally have the same endurance as a few of the best horses, to fare much better at the 3-Days. I don't think it has put a disadvantage on the handful of horses that naturally have the endurance and stamina to do four stars of the old style. It certainly gives you a much better feeling trotting around "C", going a bit slower, having a bit of a walk and not feeling like you're pressing your horses to get into the box on time.

"The Cross Country - Sloopy started out very well. About 4 minutes into the course - it was a fairly long course this year - it was about 12 minutes 40 - a full minute longer than the course in Spain, in Jerez. About a third of the way into it, or less than a third of the way into it, actually, I had a little mishap with Sloopy, which was unfortunate, and in the end it only ended up costing us some time - a fair bit of time. We were jumping into a combination (The Brush Valley Crossing, # 10abc) at quite an angle, with several strides in between the first two elements. I think, as I look back on it, why it went a little wrong - Sloopy read the landing side of that first fence to have been the galloping lane, because I jumped it at quite an angle. He landed and veered to the right instead of holding his line to the ditch, (he thought) he was turning onto that galloping lane and that we had jumped our jump and we were on our way. The second element was the ditch; but, quite a small, insignificant ditch. I managed to get him to that; but, quite awkwardly and he lost his hind end in it, so we were on the landing side of the ditch at a stand still, and sideways to the third fence, not even pointed at it anymore. (John and Carrick ar pictured on Cross Country, above right, at the Lion Bridge, fence # 28, at Burghley.)

I stood there for a second to try to figure out what to do. In a matter of several seconds, a whole slew of thoughts ran through my head. I knew they would probably give me stop for it; but, I knew it was arguable and I could probably get it erased. I thought about, since Sloopy was Short Listed for the Pan Ams - and I thought about this weeks ahead of time - 'What happens if - - - if I have a fall early on course, do I pull up and go home and try and go to Fair Hill to the Pan Ams?' I had already pre-thought some things. So I stood there for a couple of seconds thinking about it again - 'Do I continue, knowing that I'll probably be given a 20; but, that I could probably argue it and get it erased, or just pull up and go home and do Fair Hill and get ready to ride Carrick later in the day?' It didn't take me long. I said, "Oh, what the hell!' I went around and did the long route (at the 3rd element) and went on my way. By the time I got it sorted out and trotted around and did the long route, and then looked at my watch at the four minute mark, which was just another hundred or so feet past that fence, I was nearly 30 seconds down on the clock, whereas I had been 5 to 10 seconds up on the clock. He'd been cruising around the early part of the course quite well. I hadn't figured that it had taken me that long; but, I looked at my watch, and there it was.

"Then I probably made a little bit of a mistake and tried to too hard for the next 3 or 4 minutes to make up that time. I made up a fair bit of it ; but, by the time I got to about 10 minutes around the course, just after the Cat's Whiskers (# 24ab), Sloopy was quite tired. Maybe it was at the Cat's Whiskers that I had to admit, 'All right, we've used up too much fuel in the tank.' We got to those just a little bit awkward. I pressed on, obviously, and got home in good shape. I had to sort of nurse him around the last three minutes. Every time I went to set up for the next fence, take a little tug and slow down a notch, he acted as though we'd gone through the finish line - he tried to break to the trot. 'No, nope, come on' and then he put his eye on the fences and everything was fine. We ended up with 8.4 time penalties - not too bad. I never even had to talk to the TD about whether or not I'd had a stop. They's given me a clean round.

"Sloopy recovered very well and the next day almost jumped a clean Show Jumping round. He had the last fence down - unfortunate. He went in and actually did a much better round than I did with Carrick.
(John and Sloopy are pictured at left, Show Jumping at Burghley.)

"We finished up his first four star in quite good shape - 18th out of 80 starters - a good respectable finish for him - I am quite happy with him. I was getting comments from people, after Cross Country, Ellen, my mother, a few other people that know Sloopy a bit - comments from people that didn't really expect him to go around - that really didn't think he was quite capable of going and jumping those big jumps. I wouldn't have been there if I didn't think he'd go 'round. Not only did he go around; but other than that one little mis-understanding we had, he went around very well.

"And then Carrick. (His start time) was maybe three or four hours after I rode Sloopy. I had quite a bit of time. I went out and walked a bit of the course again. I tried to go into the tent right near the Vet Box. At Burghley, they have a tent set up with eight televisions with wide coverage from four different cameras around the course. There are more than four cameras; but, only four different scenesare shown at any one time. I tried to go in there and watch; but, it was packed. Hot. To keep it dark enough so that you can see the television screens, they put all the flaps down. So it was hot and stuffy with all those people. Too many of the people smoke and you couldn't breathe, so that wasn't worth trying to sit in there and watch the footage. I'd had enough walking, so I went back to the lorry, our on grounds little house, and I lay down and shut my eyes - a nice relaxing way to spend a couple of hours in the afternoon.

"I headed out on Carrick. I remember two years earlier, being there, on Steeplechase, and really feeling as though I had to keep kicking and scrumpin' to get around in time. This time it was quite easy. Maybe it was a faster track this year. Of course, two years ago, that was only his second four star and maybe only his fourth or fifth 3-Day. Now he's done quite a few. He cantered around the Steeplechase and I never felt as though I had to push keep up on the clock. I just cruised around very easy. Hopefully, that means he's getting better at it.

"He pulled up well - went around "C", came into the Box (the Vet Box, 10 minute Box) and the weather was starting to turn. It had been a very nice day - sunny and a bit warm; but, a storm was blowing in. While I was in the Box, the wind really picked up. Just towards the end, it started to rain a bit.The wind, when it picked up, kind of came out of no where. They've got several small tents in that area. It picked up one of them and blew it over and blew it a ways across the yard. We were quite close to it at the time. Most horses would have been a bit upset about it. Carrick just sort of looked at it out of the corner of one eye. One of the people that was helping me was quite upset about it, and insisted that we hurry and get Carrick to the other side of the area. Carrick obviously couldn't be bothered to be worried about a wind blowing a tent across the yard - his typical way of dealing with things. (Carrick and John are pictured above right, Show Jumping at Burghley.)

"They gave me a two minute call so I had to get on and I said to Mark about the weather - by then it had really started to rain pretty hard, and the temperature had probably dropped 10 or 15 degrees, wind still blowing pretty hard. I said something a little bit negative about the weather. Mark has a good way of - without making it obvious - always putting a good spin on things - on whatever the situation is. I can't remember exactly what he said; but, the implication was that it was perfect. Well it was perfect! 10 or 15 degrees cooler, a breeze, a little rain to cool things off. Well, I guess he was right. It really didn't bother us much. I've ridden in much, much worse. Occasionally, you get some rain drops in your eyes and it's hard to keep your eye open in front of a fence.

"Carrick went around without - without really putting a foot wrong anywhere. He couldn't have been any better. At the Waterloo Flower Beds (#14ab), I didn't set up quite well enough, so I got to the first fence off a bit of a long, forward distance and went around the turn and up the next mogul, to a little arrow head in five strides instead of the six it really should have been. That made the first fence a huge drop and it was a good enough drop anyways, because I got to it kicking a little - I hadn't gotten him back on his feet well enough. It was well over an 8 foot drop. I don't normally take a hand off the reins over a drop. What do they call that? Hailing a taxi? It took a while to get to the ground. I saw on the video, afterwards, that I actually did take my right hand off and started to lean back a bit. Of course, it was a ninty degree turn to the right that you had to do. Luckily, I managed to get my hand back on the rein in time. We went around the turn on two wheels. It didn't phase him any. I think we probably saved five seconds.

"I've heard commentary on on footage - several different times now, with several different commentators, and one of them thought I was riding a bit backward. I thought it was just fine! I didn't think he put a foot wrong anywhere. He went around in great shape - much smoother than say Spain, for example. Pulled up very well at the end. I actually knew well before I got to the finish line, that I was quite a bit under the time, so went relatively slowly to the last fence. I had one more glance at my watch and started to pull up well before I got to the Finish Line. (Carrick stood 4th after Cross Country, on 49.0.)

"Carrick had pulled a shoe - the first time he's ever pulled a shoe. I don't know for certain; but, I'm pretty sure that he pulled that shoe about eight minutes into the course, at the Dairy Mounds (# 21ab). We had to do the last almost five minutes - four and a half plus minutes - without that shoe. I knew, every time I went to set up for a fence, or slow down a little bit that one front foot wasn't one hundred percent happy; but, I'd send him forward again after a fence and as soon as he'd click over and get into a nice gallop I couldn't feel a thing. He felt completely normal. So I thought, 'Well, we'll keep pressing on.' This is something that most of us riders have felt before, or if we haven't felt it then we probably haven't got much feeling.

"We came in and I discovered at the end of the course that he had pulled the shoe, and even so, both of the horses, for that matter were perfect late Saturday evening and Sunday, for the trot up, which doesn't happen very often. You've usually got at least some little nagging thing that you worry about and are doctoring up - a little grab or a bruise, or who knows what, a stifle or something. Both of them were in great shape. I was very lucky that way. (John who finished 4th, is pictured above left at the final Burghley Press Conference, with Andrew Nicholson (NZL), who finished 3rd and Pippa Funnell (GBR) who won.)

"Show Jumping - I've already talked about Sloopy's. Sloopy is a bit of a insecure horse. I'm afraid to jump very big jumps in the warm up because he'll scare himself. Whereas, I go in the ring and he gets going and then it doesn't matter so much how big the jumps are; but, in the warm up when you pick up a canter and go you jump a jump, you stop, you pick up a canter, go jump another jump without that build up of adrenalin you get in the ring. I jump relatively small jumps with him in the warm up and he tries so hard - even though they're small, he jumps way up over 'em. Whereas, with Carrick we try to put a few of them up at least as big as we legally can, to try to get him to wake up.

"On the warm up later in the day, Mark surprised us. He maybe had seen someone else walking to say a one foot fence. He may have gotten a few of the other Americans to do that - I don't know - I'm too busy with my own thing to see who else did what. I was quite willing to do that, the idea being to maybe not actually have them jump it the first few times because it's so small; but, to walk through it. It was just tall enough that it was hard to walk over without really hitting it and getting it wrapped around your legs a bit. Consequently, it made the horse that was doing it a lot more aware of the rails. After you'd walked through it a few times, then they'd walk up to it and a better effort.. Then you'd go back to jumping big jumps with them being a bit more aware of things. I suppose that would be one of the very many tricks that Show Jumpers use. Whether it helped us or not, I don't know; but, I think it probably did a little bit. So, in the future we've gotta to see if we can come up with a few more little tricks, for the warm up for the 3-Day Show Jumping.

"Sloopy went in and jumped a very good round and I didn't even ride too badly. (4 faults for 71.2 and 18th place) Carrick went in and jumped a good enough round. The third fence was meant to be a one stride - oxer to vertical - I got to it very well; but, somehow or other, in landing off of "A", I saw two strides to the vertical. I think it was a normal 24, maybe it was 25 feet; but, I just saw the two, so I did two. That got an "Uh-h!" from the crowd and some interesting comments from the British commentators, who weren't very kind to us Americans anyways. We left all those jumps up. I had a cheap rail at another combination - 6b, or something - but just the one down. He touched quite a few rails, which would be his style. We need to work on that. Luckily, he only touched one of them hard enough to make it fall down. We were fourth after Cross Country and stayed in our fourth position (on a score of 53.0).

"It's quite a relief, when you stick your neck out months ahead of time - when you suggest to a few people that you're going to go over to England for nine weeks with two horses - when you try to do a bit of fund raising. Even after you've done it, you still don't realize the cost. I don't even know if I should say how much it cost.

"We've been very fortunate, the last two years, in that we've acquired a new friend, Veronese Atkins, that's taken quite an interest, at first especially Carrick (of who she is a part owner) and now in both the horses, and has helped us make these trips. She had been dreaming about being able to go - she had tickets - to Spain. Then six weeks before Spain, in 2002, she got a bit sick and couldn't make the trip, which was really too bad.

"Mary Delton and Bob Boekman, Sloop's co-owners, along with me, helped us considerably with this last trip, as well.

"There are a lot of other people who helped in one way or another: Rachel Hanson, who lives on the same farm that we do, collects our mail and takes care of whatever needs to be taken care of; my parents take Bosco, the dog and give him a home away from home - he'd rather live with them anyway. (After Burghley, we stayed in England another 10 days to give the horses a rest before shipping. John's parents followed us back to Aston after Burghley, and we were able to spend a couple days visiting with them and touring the area - very relaxing after the stress of the competition); our landlords, in Virginia, Diane and PeterHalpin at Myrtle Hall, have been patient with us about being away so much; and Carrick's breeder, Doug Dean, in Canada, arranges for us to park our truck and trailer at his family's farm, near the Toronto Airport, while we're away, since we fly the horses out of Toronto..

"A trip like that, with the two horses is upwards of $60,000. The way the USET broke up the grants this year - I believe that each of the 14 horses got a $5,000 grant. Then with the rest of the pool of money, they did something that they've never done before - they divvied it up according to performance. They weren't sure how they were going to divide that up until the final results came through. There were two American horses with scores in the 50's - Carrick and Little Tricky (Bruce Davidson). Then there were three horses with scores in the 60's - (Ashdale David's Way, Cindy Rawson, 63.2; Tigger Too, David O'Connor, 66.2; and Poggio II, Amy Tryon, 69.0). The two horses with scores in the 50's each got a performance bonus of $10,000 and the three horses with scores in the 60's got a performance bonus of $5,000. Sloopy just missed with that rail down - he ended up with a 71 - that was a $5,000 rail! There was $25,000 in that fund, so if they'd had an extra horse to divvy it up - - -. (It would have been $3,750 for each hores that finished in the 60's.) Then there was prize money. Between the two of them they won L9,000 - maybe $15,000. Between the grants, the performance bonus and the prize money - it does help.

"To go over for nine weeks, pay for shipping to the gallops, pay a rental car and housing - it costs way too much!

"Within days of getting home, we were off to Southern Pines for the September Horse Trials. We stayed with Lefreda (Williams), who has kept Utah ( the little mare we called Eunice) in work for us. I ran her in the Training level and, thanks to Lefreda keeping her in tune, she did very well. We sold her to Carol Kozlowski, shortly after that. They should make a great pair. (Utah and John are pictured above right on Cross Country at Five Points Horse Trials.)

"This year, our first (USEF) winter training session, here in Southern Pines, is the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of February. There's one in Florida earlier than that. Mark and Sandy will both do the first one and George (Morris) will be at the second one, which is about the 16th-17th of February. There is a third one, which I think will just be Mark. Sandy is once again trying for the British Dressage Team, so her time is a little bit limited.

"Carrick and Sloopy are both meant to run the Intermediate at Pine Top (Feb 21st); and then the Advanced at Pine Top a couple of weeks later (March 5th - 7th); then Dressage and Show Jumping at Southern Pines (March 12th - 14th), and then, depending on the weather, we'll do Morven Park (March 26th - 28th.) Then to the Short Form, or whatever they're calling it at Rolex (April 22nd - 25th).

eventingetc.com is very grateful to John and to Ellen for all the work they have put in on this Diary and wish them both the best of luck in 2004, and beyond.