All weather eventing tracks...

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Rambo

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So, in view of the current problems with the going, and the chances that things will gradually get worse in the coming years...

What is the likelihood / feasibility of going down the SJ,ing route and producing all weather eventing tracks at key venues ?

It's not impossible so what do you all think
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Good idea but may be too expensive.

Having said that I had heard that one of the Irish 3DE had a wide track around the XC where the soil had been replaced but I think that this was because it was normally wet. If you went off of the line then the horse almost sunk in the bog !

There has been some comments recently about using a surface for the dressage & SJ. At the top events the dressage is becoming more difficult (flying changes etc) and the pure dressage riders wouldn't consider riding at this level on grass.
 
well, interesting point....

Firstly if you look at all the prestigious horse events, all are on grass - Cowdray, Hickstead (albeing all weather warm up now!), Grand National, Cheltenham, Burghley, Badminton etc... that in itself is an interesting observation!

Secondly, I htink I read recently that there was a XC course in Ireland that decided to take weather seriously and under the route of the event, changed the build up of earth, drainage materials, etc... and then re-applied the grass. this was to enable it to be kept at the optimum 'going'....

horses are less able these days to cope with hard ground, and in some ways, i feel it's because they live on 'false' surfaces - most eventers will SJ and dressage through the winter...

Interesting debate Rambo!
 
That was my first thought, but they would have to run a number of events throughout the year to get the costs back, then would they get entries/spectators to cover the costs?
Now if the Olympics were there, Showjumping at Great Leighs and Dressage at Hickstead/addington they would get funding and people would use them after the Olympics and create a legacy.
 
Ive seen a course on You Tube which had basically a sand track round the whole course. Totally brilliant idea.

Horses seem to be getting more and more expensive and thus more valuable. A lot more riders are pulling horses out of the XC due to the ground. I think this is the only way for many XC's to go. Especially the high end ones. There's certainly no harm in it and it would make it safer and better on the horses legs. Of course it is expensive but Im sure places like badminton etc. could afford it surely?

All I want is there to be a requirement to put sand or something on the take off and landings of all fences. Would make such a big difference IMO.
 
To jump at speed you need an expensive, specialist surface. I know eventing isnt as fast as racing, but I think the more technical side of it almost makes up for that.
I dont think any eventing venue (do most only have 1/2 comps a year) would have the funds to even consider it, correct me if im wrong.
Do the eventers not sometimes jump off artificial take offs/landings? I can think of nothing worse for a horse than cantering on one surface and jumping off another, but there you go.
Also cant quite believe this 'topsoil' business at Badminton, its what the ground is like 6 inches down in that makes the difference. They would have been better off ploughing the place start of the week, and rolling and harrowing like hell since.
 
Hmmmm...interesting point about ploughing and harrowing, and a course of action that a local SJ venue to us took last year. Problem with that being that if it does then rain, and it doesn't need much, it becomes a sticky, slimey mess instead
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In terms of cost, I think if you viewed it over say 10 years, it wouldn't look too bad
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I think Hickstead spent about 500k on their warm-up. If a 4 mile track cost say 5 million, even that isn't astronomical over a longer period.

Whoever it was who said that all the prestigious events run on grass, that statement is mainly applicable only to the uk and northern europe. How many Olympic SJ'ing comps run on grass....less than run on a surface. A lot of valuable horse races run on surfaces too...the us and hong kong come to mind.

One would have thought that over the course of a few years, tonnes of sand could be ploughed into the top soil at somewhere like badminton. This would allow for an improved track, still on grass, and wouldn't cost a fortune.

How many top golf courses ever run on ground that is anything less than perfect ? The distances involved aren,t vastly different and they achieve that with managed watering and good drainage...all man made.

Just a thought...
 
The all-weather race tracks are still in a minority and all the top quality races are still on turf. Many trainers don't like the all-weather surface, much prefering well tended turf tracks. Horses seem to act better on grass also...

Plus if you're thinking of a racing all-weather surface e.g fibre sand then I can't ever see it being allowed from an aesthetic point of view. Many of our events are held in the grounds of stately homes - the surrounding parkland with an all-weather track cut into them would be a bit of an eye sore, especially if only used once or twice a year.

I think what someone else said about our horses being too used to working on artificial surfaces and therefore being less used to harder ground is interesting.

I think it's also valid to point out that horses have their own shock absorbing system inbuilt which we totally negate by sticking metal shoes on. Maybe we need to think more about going barefoot so our horses are better able to cope with hard going. It's certainly easier to maintain a healthy barefoot in a dry climate so that could be one big benefit of where our climate is heading.
 
There's talk of Hartpury creating a course entirely on a surface. At least with racing the ground is kept purely for that, plenty of horse trials run over land used by livestock the rest of the year which doesn't help.
 
All-weather tracks may not be the answer, there is no long term evidence that they are harmless to horses or riders. I have seen racehorses break down on fibresand, and slip and fall on corners on polytrack.

Fibresand will freeze, and requires constant harrowing (hourly!) overnight for winter racing. It becomes very dusty on dry days and needs watering between each race! Arenas need daily raking if they are in heavy use and "top-ups" regularly which are expensive.

There is fierce debate in racing about which surfaces are best, and over how deep they should be laid and on what sort of base. Even if everyone in racing could agree, the needs of eventers are obviously different.

We all want an easy solution, but perhaps we should all pay more attention to the basics, responsible breeding for correct conformation, and responsible riding on hard ground.
 
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