Success for Julius!!

What an amazing week for Julius and I! Two PSG competitions five days apart, dominating with 1st and 2nd with 65.5% and 67.2% and an interview for Horse and Hound magazine!

Last Saturday was only Julius's second PSG ever, and my third. My trainer Sue and I have been working really hard on improving him since his first PSG where he scored 64%. Since Sue is a highly respected judge as well, her tips and advice prove to be extremely valuable when preparing for a competition as what she sees is literally "through the judge's eye".

So, with only a week to prepare after arriving back from Australia, we took a soft approach to priming Julius since we knew he could do the movement with ease. He just had to be made soft and supple to do them to the best of his ability. I worked a lot on hills for the first few days to get him using his whole body, combined with suppling and engaging exercises in the school.

When Saturday came around Julius felt great and he warmed up really well. He is always so consistent when he goes out, always the same temperment and attitude, but has a better ability each time. With Julius's newly built topline, good condition (thanks to Gary's thorough feeding regime!) and correct way of going (thanks to Sue's good training!), we didn't feel out of place at all in the warmup. This was to be proved with a win in the PSG with 65%, 1% higher than last time.

When I was at the cafe getting Sue and I a celebratory piece of cake, the journalist from Horse and Hound called me over and I did a cheeky little interview which was then published in the next week's H&H! I felt so proud to be talking about Julius and his journey, I feel like he deserves the attention more than anyone after everything he's been through with his flight from Australia to the UK, his illness/liver problems, and nearly-fatal colic.

Sue and I had 3 days to prepare for the next PSG, where I wanted to get at least 66%. That way I knew that we were still on an upward climb percentage by percentage. Sue and I worked on all the movements he lost marks on last time, and improved on the movements he is okay at. I was very excited for the second competition as I had what I had to do clear in my mind and was so ready!

The three day's work and mental preparation pushed my percentage up by 2% to 67.2%, which is an amazing score for Julius's third PSG. So many people havn't believed in him, he has always been branded as 'ordinary' but my god he is correct and he absolutely loves every second of his work. These days, I have never come across a happier horse and I am the proudest mum/rider/owner in the world!!!