Another 'celebrity display' at an equine event....

SpottedCat

SpottedCat

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It seems even eventing is not immune from the draw of having 'celebrities' performing for the crowd's entertainment....Jodie Kidd and Tara Palmer-Tompkinson will be doing a celebrity jumpoff at Express Eventing apparently...hmmmm.
 
but at least they're both interested in and ridden horses for years. But i hate the culture of 'celebrity status'.................. sign of the times
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No idea about Tara, but I do know that Jodie at one point had to make a decision as to whether to continue riding as a professional career or full time modelling. She is an excellent horsewoman.

I don't think it hurts at all to have celebrities, after all, just because someone becomes famous doesn't mean they are not allowed to follow other pursuits as well. (Also as long as they are good riders and not a risk to the horses they ride!)
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Jodi Kidd's father (Johnny) was an international SJ'er and played Polo for his country I believe, and Jodi herself may have jumped on Junior teams too I think. Her sister Jemma was a top dressage rider and her brother Jack a top Polo player. That was part of the reason she was chosen as a judge on Only Fools On Horses....the other being she was the only one anyone outside the horse world would have heard of
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I think it is quite surreal - you'd have thought that a lot of the world's top eventers, plus slightly randomly Andrew Lloyd Webber and some lady whose name eludes me being part of the panel judging the dressage would be draw enough. Ah well, I am sure it will be entertaining!

Are they really jumping 1.30?

I suppose the idea is to get more people to watch eventing, I don't really have an opinion either way, just thought it was interesting that another event is jumping on the 'celebrity' bandwagon.
 
I think its great to have more horses on tv whatever the format, but I don't understand all this excitement about celebrity involvement highlighting the ' profile'. I read an interview with Katie Price in a womans' mag and she didn't once mention horses as a great hobby, family fun, rewarding, etc.

Only fools on horses was the biggest showcase for jumping for years but has it bought any new owners into the fray, has it introduced people to riding for more than just one 'try'.

I'm not saying its a bad thing but all future horse industry progress / success seems to hinder in ' celebrity involvement' So many commentators seem to think all that's needed is a celebrity to mention horses somewhere and all is well.

They can certainly attract media interest, and spotlight initially but an awful lot more is needed to keep the interest going.
 
Andrew Lloyd Webber's missus is Madeleine Gurdon (as was) who was a Junior European event rider, and has been round Badminton back in the eighties.....so he probably knows a bit more than your 'average' theatre impresario
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Andrew Lloyd Webber's missus is Madeleine Gurdon (as was) who was a Junior European event rider, and has been round Badminton back in the eighties.....so he probably knows a bit more than your 'average' theatre impresario
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You learn something new every day! That makes rather more sense - how do you know this stuff?!
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Andrew Lloyd Webber's missus is Madeleine Gurdon (as was) who was a Junior European event rider, and has been round Badminton back in the eighties.....so he probably knows a bit more than your 'average' theatre impresario
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You learn something new every day! That makes rather more sense - how do you know this stuff?!
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Because i'm old lol!

I also remember at the time the wedding was announced wondering why someone like Madeleine would go and marry someone like ALW.

She actually lost a horse - Master Monarch - at Badminton...it broke it's leg at the water jump as I have just found out
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Mrs Merton once asked Debbie McGee "what was it that attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?"

I wondered if the same could be asked of Madeleine until I saw more of Andrew LW recently (only on Nancy, not in person!) and thought what a nice man he comes across as
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I think it's good. Not long ago the only celebrities you could get involved with anything horsey was the guy from the Police and the singer from the Monkeys.
 
Andrew Llloyd Webber IS a lovely man. They used to be my neighbours when I lived in Hampshire; his "house" is stunning
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. He's very down to earth and used to go to our local and play the piano for us all
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and im sure that they will dress properly without a "diamond encrusted jacket" (with nothing on underneath)

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is your distaste of this due to who was wearing it? I for one would not complain about this in the slightest were the person wearing it George Clooney
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I understood it to be for charity so not really another celebrity display!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Why does that make it not a celebrity display? If KP had done the HOYS thing for charity, would that have made it not a celebrity display?

It is an eventing competition, neither of them are eventers (though both ride well), and they are having a celebrity jumpoff against each other which has nothing to do with the main competition, ergo it is a celebrity display.

As I've said, I have no real opinion either way beyond thinking it was interesting that yet another event has decided to bring in people who are not particularly related to the sport and are primarily known for doing other things in order to entertain the masses.
 
Jodie Kidd is definitely not 'just another celebrity rider' who has taken it up because it is fashionable. She is definitely a very skilled horsewoman who also happens to be a celebrity and I think it will do no harm for someone such as herself to be able to use her status to genuinely make a positive impact on the sport.
No matter the dangers of the sport, especially where they concern her career in the modelling industry, she has continued to play polo competitively and always has been and still is a regular competitor both here in the UK and back in my home country of Barbados. In fact, she plays out there rather a lot as her familty has a house out there for years as her mum also judges dressage out there.
 
Who said she was 'just another celebrity rider who's taken it up because it is fashionable'?? I would be amazed if people didn't know she was already a good rider, especially horsey people. By the same token, KP has not 'just taken up riding because it is fashionable' - she has ridden for many years too, however she comes from a rather different background to JK and has not honed her skills to quite the same point.

Regardless of how well or how long any of them have been riding for, I think it is very interesting that a lot of people slammed KP for what she did at HOYS but feel this is different.

I think what KP did was brilliant, I don't particularly have an opinion on this as yet - maybe once I've seen it - beyond thinking that Express Eventing was billed as doing for eventing what 20:20 did for cricket.....but I don't recall 20:20 inviting anyone who was famous for doing something else (however good a cricketer they were) and asking them to do a 'celebrity bowl off' or whatever. Mind you, I am happy to be corrected - 20:20 didn't have the desired effect on me and I still don't watch/follow cricket!
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I didn't say the 'just another celebrity..' statement was said in this particular posts but there have been other posts in the past that have hinted that, hence my statement.

I think that what KP is doing for the sport is very good, and has got a lot of new people involved in the sport. I genuinely believe that the reason she was slammed pre-HOYS, etc is the way in which her promotion has been gone about...i.e. in a very OTT fashion, what with the past few years encompassing the increasing numbers of horsey books, the clothing ranges, the riding (especially the fact that she is able to go out and perform an unafiliated Prelim dressage test and have it appear as front page news in the national newspapers....with a sideline of them very seriously asking for her to be considered for Zara's Hong Kong team space....).

Don't get me wrong...I am NOT dissing Katie in any way shape or form. I applaud her in fact and one of my horse's appears in one of her pony books and so I am not about to criticize WHAT she is doing, it is just that, as I have already said, it has been done in a very OTT manner that seems to have leaped out of the blue in the past couple of years (yes I know she has ridden for years and in fact used to keep her horses where I now live). That said - she is clearly a publicity machine and has an excellent PR team working for her who obviously know what they are doing in her best interest.

Jodie Kidd on the other hand has, throughout her career as a model, still had a very public role in the equine industry which has been very much public knowledge in the mags such as the UK's, Hello's, etc. without being rammed down your throat quite as much as the KP stuff has. I think there is rarely a magazine or newspaper that doesn't regularly run and article on KP's equestrian activities with her new horses, clothing, etc., including a couple of teh equestrian magazine's which are now running regular front cover editions of her....

Thus I do not that it is really comparable to equate KP and JK in the same scenario other than of course the obvious publicity that both will undoubtedly bring to the sport; publicity which the equestrian sports badly need at the moment, what with eventing especially being on the potential Olympic chopping block. The Express Eventing is I guess similar in a way to 20:20 however I would imagine people said the same of the Indoor Eventers Challenge (and poss the Hickstead Eventer's GP) when they were first launched, and look how popular these are today. Of course everyone is entitled to and will have their own opinion - although I have to say that I am with you Spotted Cat on your opinion on cricket.....having grown up with cricket being shoved down my throat in the Caribbean I still have no desire to now or at any point in the future watch it as I would rather waitch paint dry!
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I do not mind who the "celebrity" is that they bring in but as this is for charity there are going to be a huge number of other famous people, who know these two, who would otherwise have never heard of the eventing challenge and therefore would never have put their money towards it. Surely if it means more money for the charity, that is a good thing.

I don't think there is any risk of them taking over eventing as a whole, so let's see this in the spirit it is intended, some fun and to raise money.
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ps this is not in response to anyone in particular, I just did quick reply
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Can I ask where people have got the 'charity' angle from? I can't spot anything on the website about this being for charity - the competition isn't as a whole, and the celebrity jump off is presumably the 'arena entertainment' in the lunch break. www.eeicup.com

My 20:20 analogy was lifted from the website - they have been billing it all along as 'doing for eventing what 20:20 did for cricket'.
 
I was wondering about the charity side...

I don't have strong views about the display, seems to me they've asked people to pay a lot for their tickets so are trying to pack as much entertainment into the day as poss - the right attitude. Also, if EE is trying to do for eventing what 20:20 has done for cricket, their aim is to bring eventing to a far wider audience than previously. Hence the 80,000 capacity Millenium Stadium etc rather than Addington or somewhere equivalent. If you have many thousands of spectators who are new to eventing and maybe even equestrianism (the EE was being advertised on the big screens at the Millenium Stadium at the international rugby match last Friday night so they are def. trying to attract new spectators), it makes total sense to me to have a diplay by celebrities these new fans may have heard of.

HOWEVER, imo the big question mark is the price of the tickets. £30 with no child concessions is a huge amount for people to pay if they are not sure whether it is their sort of thing or not (its a lot for any of us even those who really want to go!) I will be fascinated to see how full or otherwise the stadium is. FWIW the rugby match the other night (Wales v Canada so not top notch but interesting enough in a rugby-obsessed nation) was £15 adults, £10 children so my OH and I took our two children for total £50 - less than the cost of two EE tickets
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There were 60,000 people at the match, mostly families doing exactly the same as us (it was my 5yo son's first match, we are not spending £50 on a ticket for a top match for him) My personal view is that EE have got their pricing badly wrong: they won't sell that many tickets and would have been far better off selling two or three times as many tickets at half the price. They are recording a package for TV and to show to potential sponsors for the future - it won't look good if the stadium is 2/3 empty, would be far more impressive to show packed grandstands even if the ticket sales hadn't generated that much income. I would even have been giving tickets away to local schools etc... I will be proved wrong if the place is packed out on the 30th and will be happy if that's the case as I support the idea and think every other aspect has been really well executed eg PR etc.
 
B***er! Am taking 3 12 year old for a birthday treat and didn't get discount: I used 2 of the "Get a free ticket cos you won a BE section" forms and they didn't mention children being 1/2 price anywhere!!! But then, I guess I am getting two free tickets, all the same should really have saved myself £30!
 
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