This weekend saw us competing in beautiful Eggenwill, Switzerland. Although I am not a Swiss national and ineligible to win the championship, the Swiss kindly invited me to compete with both my horses over the weekend. I lept at the opportunity as I felt it the perfect way to wrap up my Kentucky campaign without having to travel a huge distance. Both horses faired well. Ferra had a big improvement since Aachen and scored 65.23% in the GP placing 6th and Reli (who was a little fresh after his little break) scored a safe 66.47% and 5th place.  
 
Day 2 was Kur day and the debut of Ferra's very Australian 'Man from Snowy River' Freestyle. I was very pleased with her and loved the music. Just greeness stands in her way now but it will all come in time. 68% and 7th place. Reli was a little pro as per usual with his Brasilian samba and scored 70.7% and 4th place.
 
So now we wait for the Kentucky announcements and until then, fingers, toes, arms and legs crossed for a bit of luck!
 
XXX

It was so exciting to be part of Team Australia this year and the first mention must be of a HUGE congratulations to my team mates Brett and Lyndal. Brett performed like a true champion coming all the way through to the kur and Lyndal was great also wracking a great performance that has to put her into serious WEG contention now.

I was satisfied with Reli, although not our best display this year, he did a solid performance and with the heavy schedule and some 10,000km covered in the past few months I can only be happy with my little man! A great big thank you to all our Aussie supporters, owners, family, grooms and friends who made us all feel like champions!!!!

First up for the competition was Ferra in the CDI 4*. I was perhaps a little too ambitious to start  and I did not expect the mini typhoon that hit Aachen just 20 minutes before our start time. Ferra became super frightened and it was all I had to navigate her through. Oh well, my famous mentor always told me that we have to have these experiences in order to learn how to deal with them. Positive thinking anyways!

The sun came up the next day an there was a real Aussie, Aussie, Aussie in the air! This time Relis turn. He feels tired and missed a bit of his 'Tarzan' personality that was shining in Pompadour. I had a few little gliches throughout the test but it was a good feeling to know that the quality of our work must be improving as the score does not drop too low despite the mistakes.

As a team Australia made a super effort with all 3 of us over 65% which just shows how much we are improving as the last time I competed in the team the top score was just 65%. In a couple of years who knows how much we will have all improved again!

So enough from me for now and I will let the photos do the talking. Cheers, HB

Recently we advertised for a working student position to help me to manage my growing team of competition horses. The overwhelming response from all over the world, but particularly Australia, has got us thinking about what we can give back to my home country. Whilst the position of a longer term assistant is not yet filled, we open our doors to the upcoming talent of Australia and will be offering short term training/working experiences within our team.

The first student Team Beresford warmly welcomes is 19 year Steph Barrell. Steph hails from Victoria, Australia, is a past member of the Victorian Young Riders Squad and trains with Benn Conn of Queensland. Steph will accompany me to Pompadour, Aachen CHIO and Verden.

Young riders from home who would like to experience a short window into my world are invited to contact me. You must have an extremely high competition presentation standard, be competant in barn maintence and horse handling, be prepared to work sometimes very, very long hours and be completely motivated to learn about the sport at this end of the scale. In return I will provide training and of course the experience.

WOW, what a beautiful, family, friendly competition, and one that I look forward to attending again in the future. Thankyou to Team Max-Theurer for opening your doors and organising such a lovely event.

Although my competition weekend didn't exactly go according to my plan we did secure fourth place in the GP Kur with Relampago and our second MES qualification for WEG with Ferra. Both horses performed under their ability in the Grand Prix, perhaps due to the 40 degree temperature and humid conditions or simply perhaps the jockey kept getting in the way leaving valuable points laying in the sand..... despite silly mistakes in the Grand Prix, Relampago has never felt better in form and returned to the arena in the Kur to perform what I believe to be our best performance to date with scores for technical hovering around 69-70% and artistic around 75-76%.

Ferra did a top job. Perhaps suffering a little too much in the conditions as well and still being a little overwhelmed with this whole idea of hours of travelling, camping in tent stables and then of course her new rider and all her crazy ideas. She started the test strong with many 8s however her rider couldn't count and messed up both the zigzag and the one tempis costing valuable points. We did do enough however for Kentucky qualification, and I am growing by the day in how much I believe in this horse.

To complete my weekend of things not going to plan, I had a little accident while unloading the lorry, resulting in a broken foot and crutches. I am not exactly sure how long this will slow me down. It is not so painful but, inconveniently it is the size of an elephants foot at the moment so putting my riding boots on is going to be a challenge. We have made an alteration to my show schedule and will be missing the next tournament in Fritzens and starting instead the following weekend in Pompadour, France. Hopefully this buys me a little additional recovery time.