Haldenby, Northants was the venue for Oscar’s final, final fling; post a very brief season ‘retirement’. This was to have been the 1st outing of Cloudy Bay Boy, Oscars stable mate, unfortunately Cloudy suffered a minor injury in his preparation, when cross country schooling at Ketton. Or, maybe Cloudy was just a little anxious about returning to the venue of his previous National Hunt trainer? Anyway, whatever the reason Oscar was very pleased to be back in training, as he had been getting a little bit jealous of all the attention that Cloudy had been receiving.

As ever the dressage test was first to be tackled and Oscar was being a bit of a handful prior to the start. Although Richard soon brought him under control and the pair really looked the part as the test progressed. A small ‘wobble’ down the centre-line at the end of the test left Richard feeling deflated and certain that this was a below par performance. The judge, however, had a more balanced view and scored the pair highly for all but the final part of the test, giving them their best ever test result (27.5). Again, Richard was scored ‘8’ for his riding and it was noted by the gathered supporters that he has improved markedly throughout the season. This brilliant score put them right amongst the leaders, in fact it launched them into 3rd place and only .5 points behind the joint leaders. There were still 6 riders left to compete, but there was an air of expectation today and Richard’s supporters had a warm feeling, or was it that they just polished off several very tasty bacon sandwiches?

Things were looking good, but a clear round in the Show Jumping phase was essential and Richard had a point to prove. He was keen to get on and they entered the ring ahead of schedule, even before the support/camera man was in place. The tactic paid off, as the pair sailed around the course, although they sailed quite closely to a couple of the early fences, but they got away with it. The penultimate fence was at the bottom of an incline and Richard was taking no chances as he slowed Oscar down to a trot, again a good decision, as Oscar had plenty of time to gather himself before launching well clear of the obstacle. That left just the final fence to jump, hearts were pounding, or was it the noise of the last pole being ‘clipped’? Who knows, or cares? The pole stayed firmly in it’s cups, the pair had jumped a clear round and put themselves right into contention.

The scoreboard was now the centre of attention and the team were keen to know how the other contenders were fairing. News was good, for Richard and Oscar, with one of the top scoring riders having incurred 4 penalty points during the SJ. That meant that the pair were now in 2nd spot, but there were still 7 riders without any scores…

The XC course beckoned, the 16 fences and 1830m posed no threat to this accomplished pair. Oscar flew out of the start and cleared the first 2 fences with ease as he galloped up the hill towards fence 3 and out of sight of the supporters. The tannoy suddenly sprang into life and the words ‘refusal’ were clearly heard, it couldn't’t be, surely? Yes it was, but not for Oscar and Richard, there was another competitor out on the course, phew! The optimum time for this course was just over 4mins and it seemed like only seconds before the pair reappeared at the 13th, this wasn't’t to be unlucky for some though, as the dynamic duo easily cleared the obstacle. That just left the final three fences to dispatch and they were dispatched with speed and style. A clear round and it seemed very unlikely that the pair would be over the allowed time… Again the tannoy struck up and this time with the memorable; ‘Section B has a new leader, Spotless Vision and Richard Skelt have just finished the course on their dressage test score, which was a super 27.5, putting them into 1st place and 4 points ahead of the rest of their Section’. Fantastic. Second place was now almost certain, but could it be 1st?

The score board was again the place to be and it was looking good, as the other rider with the high dressage test score had picked up 8 SJ penalties. There were now only a few scores left to come in and they would have to be something special to take the lead. The waiting was soon over; the remaining riders 'average' dressage test scores meant that they could not take the lead, even with 'double clear' rounds – Oscar and Richard had won their 1st event, only their 8th in total and their 1st season of competition. Outstanding.