BE - Unfair or Impossible Job?

[icestationzebra]

This year has been pretty chaotic - we all know that but as members, or Day Ticket holders - we are customers or potential customers of BE and sometimes it doesn't feel that way

. I know that everyone is trying their best but there must be some better way of dealing with section allocation, waitlists, ballots etc. The vast majority of us work full time to afford our horses and our competing and sometimes I feel at a distinct disadvantage to those that can be flexible about which days they run, attending mid-week events and training days.... We are already at a disadvantage to the pros (forget the talent bit for a minute

) with regard to funding and time but it seems they also get their pick of events. I hate whingers - so hope I am not turning into one of them - but there do seem to be a lot of unfair decisions made which cost us money - referring to the thread on Aston....

Thoughts?

 

[gracemacrae]

Agree that BE don't look after "amateurs" very well

. In Scotland we don't have such a problem with which days to run etc as most events run on the weekend. However it really annoys me when "big" names get accomodated at events and basically please themselves when they jump, when they x-country etc and we the "amateurs" have to just accomodate them and muddle along! and also they appear to be slotted in much more easily than the rest of us once entries have closed! Also unless you are "in the know" you seem to miss out of quite a lot of useful information. BE is most certainly geared towards the professionals and I suspect up here in Scotland we are better of than our southern counterparts as we don't have that many "professionals". H & H contacted me last year about amateur/professionals and I did suggest a special prize (i.e training voucher) for highest placed "amateur" at some of the bigger events to reward those who work full time but apparently it is too difficult to define "amateur"!!!

 

[sillygillyhorse]

Unfortunately I feel there will always be a "them" and "us" situation when professionals and amateurs compete on a level playing field.

I am not sure how you would ever eliminate this situation but agree that the working rider is disadvantaged. The working rider has a much more limited calender of events to choose from.

I have always said that if BE operated in an more commercial environment they would not retain too many customers. Their customer service department would let them down too often. Sometimes think BE forget we are actually customers, guess they can afford to have the attitude of "like it or lump it" as they have no business competitors.

 

[icestationzebra]

Totally agree Mrs T - if they worked in a commercial environment they would be abandoned by their customers in droves. They would probably also be referred to the Competition Commission to investigate their monopoly position

 

[icestationzebra]

I agree!

I'll define amateur for them: "someone who does not make any living from competing, producing and riding horses - either under their ownership or others..."

Sound fair?

 

[Hattikins]

I understand and agree with everything you say IZC and Mrs T and i think they should sort out the problem of landing working riders with weekday sections especially when there are plenty of pros who can do weekdays - i think putting a working rider in a weekday section when they have asked to be at the weekend is inexcusable

However i have come to realise and appreciate just what a hard job these secretaries etc. have now that my Mum has been fairly heavily involved in the running of the Pony Club area horse trials for our area this year. Its a HUGE task and often throws up big conundrums. So although i think a huge amount could be done to improve BE i do respect the fact the secretaries etc. do a phenomenal job each time they run an event

I for one though hope that they never split the amateurs from the pros completely as i love competing against the pros, on the odd occasion beating them and otherwise watching them ride their dressage SJ and XC and learning so much

It would be nice if they could define what an amateur was though and as Mrs T suggested giving out a prize for the best amateur in each section

 

[smerls]

I love comepting against the pros ( and once in a very blue moon beating them). However I think there need to be more weekend Intro / PN runs, and when events get rescheduled due to rain ( unavoidable), why drop off the intro / PN classes on the new date- it sends a message out that some competitors are more valuable than others- and BE certainly dont want to lose their grass roots riders as they are the ones who keep BE financially viable.

 

[KatB]

Can see it from both sides. At the moment, with the season having been how it is, everyone wants/needs the runs. Unfortuantely in a way BE is a victim of its own success at the moment, especially as more and more people are joing the "grassroots" level, there is going to become a shortage of events than can run at appropiate dates to accomodate all these people wanting to compete.

Yes I agree pro's should be encouraged to run on week days where possible, as that is their "work" day, and to be honest most are more than willing, however, the prob with trying to run week day sections so more people can run at the weekend, is the fact that to run these events, alot of volunteers are needed to steward, write etc, and that again creates the problem as alot of the helpers would also be full time workers with event stewarding etc a "weekend" activity.

I think that overall the people that run these events do a great job, BUT I agree in alot of cases they would benefit from more people power, this isnt a criticism of the people that already do the job, just acknowledgement that sometimes a few extra hands wouldnt go amiss!!

This would then improve the service "paying customers" are getting and make them more willing to part with their cash in the following season

 

[banafunzi]

I agree I have had enough of BE I have 2 horses registered adv and Int and obviously a member myself!! very very expensive. I am totally disallusioned (sp)with the whole thing and am NOT being a member next year....had enough keeping horses fit for nothing, I just feel the whole thing has become far too expensive.
I personally go and help at 2 events a year as a thankyou to the rest of the volunteers!