The Equestrian Blog

BSJA Launch New Series

The BSJA has launched a new £60,000 competition series at UK County Shows.

The series will run at Devon County, Royal Highland, South of England, Great Yorkshire, Royal Norfolk, New Forest, Pembroke and Royal Berkshire.

It will carry a total of £60,000 in prize-money and will be funded by the British Show Jumping Association Business Partnership and their county show venues.

The 1.50m eight class series will be run on a league table points system and will conclude at Royal Berkshire in September.

The league table will carry a bonus of £45,000 worth of rider ranking points with £10,000 of those going to the winner. Ranking points will be awarded in a sliding scale down to 8th place alongside the competition cash prizes.

"It's superb we have been able to introduce a series at this level that meet our objectives for assessing horse and rider, and is a great stepping stone for those capable of progressing to four and five star Nation's cup competitions," said newly appointed chairman of the international committee Clare Whitaker.

"This is a fantastic series made possible by the BSJA Business Partnership, which was formed with a view to bring like-minded businesses together through the sport to assist in delivery of medals for Great Britain" said the BSJA spokesman Maria Clayton.

Full Details on the BSJA website

Eventing isn’t exciting enough…

So now we have Express Eventing and... Best of all, competitors will be judged by "celebrities" who appear to know little or nothing about riding - Andrew Lloyd Webber and Arlene (Who) Phillips. .

Express Eventing is a radical new compact version of the sport of eventing, designed for arenas and stadiums around the world. It condenses all the drama and excitement of traditional eventing into just half a day, with all the action visible from one seat.

Sounds exciting and it may just be exciting, but is it eventing?

Or is it just a, made for television, minor celebrity filled, get your money out of your pockets, overpriced, under delivering, waste of time.

The runners and riders list looks impressive with Nicolas Touzaint, William Fox-Pitt, Clayton Fredericks, Bettina Hoy, Mary King, Andrew Nicholson and a variety of other top eventers all qualifying to compete for the £100,000 first prize at the International Cup in 2009. The express eventing website splashes liberal links to the qualifying riders list page, just to make sure you don't miss them.

So, How did the riders qualify?

We have used the FEI rider rankings and past rider performances to determine who should be invited to the inaugural competition.

Hmmm, so based on your current, crowd pulling, popularity then.

There appears to have been a lot of effort put into express eventing and the website is certainly pushing the excitement part. But, an event appears to only last for a morning, the cross-country course is a paltry 1500 metres long and cross-country and showjumping are combined with a quick change routine.

All we need now is the clown make-up and you can see the blooper re-runs for years to come.

I remember getting excited about indoor cross-country jumping after watching a youtube video of it in a Canadian competition, but after paying extra for the best seats at Olympia or some other big event, I was very disappointed to see it was just showjumping over small cross country obstacles.

No... I love eventing and I really, really respect and admire event riders and event horses. I really appreciate the effort riders and horses put in and I love those big three day events.

I don't like the sound of this. I don't see where Tara Palmer thingy and Jodie (get me on any show you can) Kidd, fit in. There's nothing about their participation on the website.

Or where being judged by celebrity judges adds any credibility to professional riders like Nicolas Touzaint, William Fox-Pitt, Clayton Fredericks and the rest of the riders featured on the website. If they ever actually compete.

But then, I checked the ticket prices.... Upper Tier £35.00 and Middle Tier £45.00

Looks like a hope to get it on television,  get your money out of your pockets, overpriced, under delivering, minor celebrity filled... GET ME OUT Of HERE.

VOTE – to spend your money

The public are being urged to vote for their favourite equestrian project in the Lottery Fund's - The People's £50 million Lottery Giveaway.

Four projects — three of which have an equestrian element — have been chosen to go forward to a public  vote to win the £50 million.

1. The Eden Project - with plans for a new iconic building (aka. money generating tourist attraction)

2. Sustrans Connect 2 - which includes bridging a gap to connect bridle paths.

3. Sherwood: the Living Legend - which plans to create 95km of new routes for riders in the ancient forest.

4. Black Country as an Urban Park  with a plan for a new 12-mile cycle and bridle path, connecting Walsall and Sandwell town centres.

Telephone and internet voting closes at noon on the 10th December.

I know which one's already got my vote (Sherwood). Definitely not the Eden Project which has turned into a multi-million pound tourist attraction. Who wants to give £50 million to increase their profits?

Win a Horse Competition

The Hand Equestrian Centre in Clevedon, Somerset is offering a horse, a two-year-old show jumping and dressage prospect, as first prize in a New Year's Eve draw.

To take part in the draw you pay £25 for a ticket and then answer some horse-related questions.

The prize has been condemned by some horse-lovers who say the young horse could end up in the wrong hands. But the owner, Nick Davis believes there is more danger of this happening at a horse auction or sale.

"This is a perfectly legitimate offer to inject a bit of fun into show jumping and dressage for someone who cannot afford the £12,000 to buy a horse like this," he said.

So, if you want the chance to win a decent youngster or you just want to make sure a horse doesn't end up in the wrong hands...... Buy a Ticket !! (Ring Jo Davies on 01275 874856 for details)

Horse details: 2 year old BAY MARE rising 3. Can be seen during the New Year show 28th – 31st.

Competition questions :
1. On what part of a horses body is a ‘twitch’ applied ?
2. What do the initials BEF stand for?
3. Where would you find your horses frog?
4. What is the maximum height of a pony?
5. What colour is a ‘Camargue’ horse?

So....... Worth a try a bit of fun or just a diabolical stunt unworthy of a good equestrian centre ??