I arrived in Dortmund on Wednesday, as did Andy and Alf. I went via my grandmother's in Germany as she is not well. Dad stayed with her so that meant I was on my own for the next few days... well Klaus was going to be there so I wouldn't be completely footloose and fancy free! On Thursday I got to ride in the arena at 7am although it wasn't set up at that time. Alf was fine but he coughed a bit at the end. I thought that was normal after his journey and didn't think too much of it. Andy worked well which was good as he was supposed to be doing the National GP on the Thursday.

However, on Friday morning I worked Alf in the main arena at 6am (ouch!) and although he was good and did everything well, I could feel he was not his exuberant self, especially considering it was the start of a show. At the end when I let him go deep he started coughing again and when I got off him he had a load of snot coming out of his nose and alarm bells started to ring! I didn't want to call Dad as I knew he would worry so I called Dr Genn our vet and he came to the rescue! Alf’s lungs felt good and there was no real issue but his windpipe was pretty clogged up with mucus and we decided that, with the indoor arena being pretty stuffy, it was not fair to push him so I withdrew him from the competition. I then managed to pull Andy out of the National class and put him in the international Cup Final, which I had hoped to win on Alf! Shit happens hey... I was now thinking that this would be fine as Andy was going really well, and a GP Special would do him good, although I hadn't practised it with him, as he was supposed to be doing the Freestyle. So I ended up riding Alf outside in the muck with the show jumpers to give him fresh air while Andy stepped up to the task!

The Grand Prix was this morning and Andy was on great form. I was really happy with how he went, he was so much better in the contact and his piaffe/passage work was really active and rhythmical. He was a bit spooky as we had not yet seen the arena in its full glory and it even took me by surprise! Everytime we were at A he objected slightly to the flower arrangements (not sure that he likes purple) and so we always did a little jump onto the centre line, which was a shame as he then did the movements really well! We got 70.2% and came 9th in what was a very strong class, so with our little spooky blips taken into consideration, I am happy. Most important was that his way of going and contact felt really secure.

Of course I am really gutted that Alf and I didn't get to do some damage, as he was on such cracking form. Also it will mean that the gap between his competitions will be quite long by the time he next competes! But better now than later, and better a cough than something worse. And Andy thinks he won anyway!