Darragh Kenny's First Devon Blue

The speaker talks about transitioning from Rome to the current venue. They mention the time change and flights being a challenge. They express their excitement about being at the show and supporting American shows. They discuss the great atmosphere and crowd at the current show. They mention their horses, Serena and Cartello, and their plans for each. They emphasize Serena's competitiveness and success in previous classes. They mention considering participating in the speed derby with Serena. So it's a bit of a transition, isn't it Dad, coming from the grass field of Rome to come here? Yeah, it was, okay, yeah, more the time change and the flights, the transition. I got in at midnight last night, so at least I got to sleep in a little bit this morning. But yeah, you know, like Rome was amazing last week, it's an unbelievable venue and I've never actually jumped here. I worked for Missy and John about 12 years ago was the last time I was here and I've never been here since. So it was very nice to come here and jump my first time and win the first class. Why did you come? I think it's a great show and I think supporting it is really important. You know, like I'm mostly based here in America now and supporting good American shows is very important to me. I think they do a super job and the crowd was amazing. Can you talk a little bit about the atmosphere here in comparison to some of the other shows you've been to recently? Yeah, like I must say today was fantastic, you know, for the first day of a show and it was a brilliant crowd and it was really fun and it's really cool, you know, everybody's always told me how great the show is, but it was fun to see it for myself. And then tell me a little about your plan with each of your horses coming in. Was it the same for each or different? Very different. Serena is a nine-year-old mare that I've produced since she was six. She's very, very competitive. She's new to the 145-150 level, but she's super competitive and I thought she had a very good chance in this class coming in, so I wanted to have a bit of a go with her. My other horse, Cartello, he jumps the Grand Prix on Thursday. So it was more just a schooling round, get him into the ring, get him to see the whole venue. He counted down to the first jump, looking sideways out of the ring, which with a horse of 17 years old and he's been everywhere, it's interesting, but I was very happy with how both of them performed. What did you think of the mare doing what she did? I mean, it was amazing when you talked about how you brought her up and everything. Were you surprised that you could be in a class like this? She's very, very competitive. When she was seven, I won three days in a row the seven-year-old classes at a show in Europe and she won the seven-year-old final there. She's a very competitive mare. She's stepping up into this level really well. I had her in Old Salem. She was third in a really good 145 class. I felt like she was getting there every time, every round she jumped and today was really fun. Do you think she understands the game? Absolutely. She is one that definitely understands the game. She's so talented. She's really, really careful. She's super, super fun to ride. She's really game, really competitive. She's just a really cool horse. What else is she going to do at the show? She'll do the 145 tomorrow and then I'll decide. I've never seen the speed derby here and she's quite sensitive, so I'll just walk the course and decide if I'm going to do that with her or not. See? Thanks so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Congratulations and best of luck for the rest of the week.