Dusting off the Flags

21 April 2015

With a couple of successful warm up competitions under our belt last month,  Rhaps and I travelled to Kent  over Easter for some intensive training Andrew J Murphy  before our trip to Belgium. Rhapsody felt fantastic and I had so many compliments on how well he is looking - his coat is gleaming and he is full of energy - just the way I like him! Andrew hadn’t seen Rhaps for a little while - being busy  with his usual round of clinics across the country and Europe not to mention getting married! I was thrilled that Andrew was so complimentary about Rhapsody’s way of going and his ever improving outline and muscle development confirming that my progress with Rhaps over the winter had not just been a figment of my imagination! There is no doubt that his Simple System diet has contributed greatly - not to mention cantering up the hills! 

We have also been working on a new floorpan for our freestyle to music routine… I was never that happy with what we had last year and have changed it totally. A couple of run throughs and I think it is all good… but have left all the transitions between paces in ‘open’ areas so that there is room to improvise if needs  be. I am now driving my car with the music CD blaring everywhere I go… only way to have the music’s timing totally second nature! 

And now we are on the eve of departing for Belgium - nearly all packed - this will be our first international of the year and the start our Rio 2016 campaign. All very exciting… just the usual last minute packing, paperwork and organising to deal with… and then off we go. Andrew is in the states teaching, Regine will be in Switzerland at the FEI Sports Forum and so it will just be me,  Debbie Winchester and Rhapsody flying the flags at Waregem, Belgium.