Irish group rider Susie Berry mirrored on the shocking positives of being compelled to take day without work after a fall final 12 months following her dressage check on the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Occasion on Thursday.

Susie sustained damaged ribs in an accident at Blair Fortress Horse Trials final August and missed the remainder of the season.

“I had a giant break and it was good in a means – I received off the hamster wheel,” she stated. “I went to the exhibits with my different half Max Warburton and I truly assume I realized extra from not using and simply taking a step again and taking all of it in a little bit bit.

“Generally you go from right here to Badminton to Bramham and wherever else, and also you by no means get an opportunity to take a step again and have a look at the place you’ve been and what you’ve achieved. I feel that actually compelled me to try this. So I feel, as destructive because it was on the time, I feel in the long term, it’s been a optimistic to have day without work.”

Kentucky Three-Day Occasion: Susie Berry on Intelligent Trick

Susie’s trip right here at Kentucky is the 12-year-old mare Intelligent Trick, owned by her rider, Anne Marling and Sue Wilkinson.

“She likes doing numerous work and she or he’s energetic daily,” stated Susie after the pair’s dressage check. “She’s the identical in my enviornment at house as she was within the check.”

Susie says it’s no secret that Intelligent Trick doesn’t love dressage and she or he was pretty happy along with her check, which scored 36.4.

She defined: “I’m sitting on a little bit of a Ferrari and it makes it a bit troublesome, a little bit bit of harm management. However I assumed her trot work was beautiful and she or he was actually attempting to maintain a lid on it. Simply typically a little bit bit extra vitality comes out than what’s required, however it’s solely by attempting that she turns into a little bit bit tense. I can’t actually anticipate any totally different, however that’s the reason she’s so wonderful on the cross-country, contact wooden.”

Susie Berry stated that she did a little bit flatwork and the world familiarisation on Wednesday afternoon, however except for that she has principally been cantering or hacking Intelligent Trick since she arrived on the Kentucky Three-Day Occasion.

“It’s such a tremendous place for that form of work so it actually suited her. The extra I do, the extra tense she turns into so in a means it’s simply accepting that it is a little bit of a difficult day and it’s not the be all and finish all for the remainder of the week,” she stated.

Waiting for the cross-country, Susie commented on Derek di Grazia’s monitor: “It’s large. I used to be anticipating it to be actually totally different to at house however it’s has fairly a UK really feel to it, which is sweet. It’s not one thing loopy and totally different however there’s lots of water – she typically is a little bit bit pokey on the first few water fences in order that’ll be attention-grabbing to see how she copes. It’s all there to be jumped and there’s nothing horrendously terrible, however there’s so much to do.”

Susie stated it’s a tremendous alternative having house owners who needed to convey their horse to Kentucky and her aim forward of “hopefully fairly an thrilling 12 months” – that means a shot on the Paris Olympics – is publicity and expertise.

The 28-year-old Northamptonshire-based rider has been chosen for the previous two senior championships, serving to the Irish group to Olympic qualification on the 2022 World Championships with Monbeg By Design and ending sixteenth finally 12 months’s Europeans on Intelligent Trick. She has a powerful string of horses in competition for Paris.

“I don’t actually say it out loud fairly often, however I’d like to get to the Olympics,” she stated. “Whether or not it’s with Intelligent Trick or one other horse I wouldn’t actually thoughts. But it surely’s an thrilling 12 months both means and there are many different exhibits to go to if the Olympics doesn’t occur.”

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H&H journal editor and eventing editor

Pippa is a real eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand expertise of competing as much as British Eventing intermediate and worldwide CCI2*-L degree, and has labored within the business on a high occasion yard. Pippa enjoys nothing greater than immersing herself within the sport on the highest degree, reporting from the five-stars and worldwide championships, together with the Olympics.