His dressage performance was good for him, scoring 38.8 - his changes are definitely improving. The dressage arenas and warm-up areas are quite electric at Belton so he did well to hold it all together to get this score. He was only 9 marks away from the leader at the end of Saturday.
He show jumped on Sunday at the very uncivilised hour of 8.45 am !! He completed a very nice clear round and is jumping better than ever. Gone are the taps he used to like to give at least a third of all the fences and he looks much more co-ordinated. Proof yet again (if you still need it) of Mark's world-beating skills.
Mark and Milo went out cross-country very early in the section. I think they were about 3rd to start. Mark made it all look very easy once more. It was a testing track with lots of questions and not much time between fences. The water jump in particular proved to be very influential, a big drop in and then a big brush arrow-head on a curving line out.
They went round clear and in a lovely rhythm. Mark reported that Milo felt great and gave him a lovely ride. He did just take a bit of a hold over the last 3 or 4 fences but Mark was quick to remind him who was in charge and they finished in fine style.
There was never any intention to go quick across the country as this is definitely a Badminton warm-up run for Milo, however he only clocked up 14.4 time faults and so finished on 53.2 and ended up a very credible 10th.
Here are a couple of photos from the weekend.
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