Belton today, the 'word on the street' is...

kerilli said:
their horses flew out earlier in the week, fortunately.
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Knowing OT quite well he would have been paddling a canoe with the Rolex prize money at stake,and charging WFP for a tow.

Thistle I think the main problem will be the single farm payment status of the park as under some of the environmental schemes you are very limited as to how the land is managed.
I was fence judging on Friday and the ground was a lot better than 12 months previous.However when we went in I could not believe the dressage arenas that the novices were doing their tests on ,They were extremely rough (infact I have never seen any like it in many years around eventing) there was long grass and molehills all over them.I believe Stuart was embarrassed by them but has no say at such a late stage as ultimately it is down to the NT who can be inflexible at times.
 
Stockland Lovell use their surface sometimes and Mount Ballan will be having the SJ on their main arena this year. West Wilts will jump indoors in atrocious conditions but as K says, most are on grass...
 
Unfortunately I saw the horse go at Belton, terrible, poor poor thing! My vet had to deal, not pleasant, i must admit, i made a rapid exit, unlike some onlooker.....wtf!!!

I thought it was OT that had the strop and w/d???
 
popsdosh, i did say that with the Grand Slam at stake, Ollie would be swimming there if necessary!
one of the dr judges on friday was really embarrassed about the state of her arena, she said that it was ridge and furrow with a big dip at G which horses were falling into. the usual part that's used for the arenas was fenced off, for some reason, maybe for NT parking. :( :(
are they not allowed even to roll the arenas or track if it is NT owned?
 
Very sad for Rodney Powell and connections. Pontispool use an arena for SJ, as do Moreton. I expect Bicton might as well.
 
popsdosh said:
Knowing OT quite well he would have been paddling a canoe with the Rolex prize money at stake,and charging WFP for a tow.
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Have just spluttered my cup of tea all over the keyboard imagining this!

Sympathies to Rodney Powell and all connections.

Such a shame about the ground, can understand riders and owners being up set especially with dressage arenas being as described
 
kerilli said:
popsdosh, that's used for the arenas was fenced off, for some
are they not allowed even to roll the arenas or track if it is NT owned?
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It will possibly not be caused by the national trust but by the Government bureaucrats that control the single farm payments as they are very strict as to what operations can be carried out Which all depends on what eviromental scheme the parkland is in.I dont know if you can remember back about 5yrs they originally tried to stop this type of land being used for events full stop.Having said that the NT dont seem to want to turn a blind eye to a slight bending of the rules to allow the use of the roller.Last year there were parts of the course that could not be Aerovated for the same reason.To my mind if this is the case Belton becomes untenable as a venue at this level.Badminton and Burghley and I think some other Stately home courses get around this by keeping the actual course out of their SFP claims.
 
While the ground may be National Trust and therefore restricted as to how much treatment it can have, an advanced/CIC 3* event needs to be of a certain standard. Rough ground is the most dangerous to horses legs. It may be sandy and the top crumble a bit but if it is uneven then the riders have every right to complain/withdraw. Entries and start fees are expensive and we are told this is to provide good courses and ground so this should happen. Riders have also deisel and possibly stabling costs and probably other expenses as well so if you are going to run a top level event you have a responsibility to make it acceptable.
Belton has done itself no favours as it had already alienated several top riders over the issue of substitutions. These are normally allowed up until the last minute but at Belton they have to be about 10 days before. A lot can change in this time and the riders are not happy about it.
The horses flew to Kentucky last Monday. I love the thought of the journey to Barcelona with conversation flowing like glue! Even a convoy would be too close!! Maybe adjacent seats on the plane too. You wouldn't need the volcano.
 
langside said:
Stupid question alert!!!
could they not get a helicopter as i thought it was a problem to the jet engines on planes?
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a heli, from here to Kentucky... (or Barca)? Good luck with that...!

I don't know tbh, from what i've heard the volcanic ash has a lot of glass and v abrasive particles in it that wreck engines, wouldn't do rotors or heli engine much good either i guess (still got air intake, no?) helis are less stable than fixed-wing so would prob be v dangerous in such circs. (friend has her prof heli licence, so i know a little about them)
 
only-me have jumped on a surface at Richmond,Northallerton,Houghall and Bishop Burton , all northern events not sure if thats relevant


condolences to RP and all concerned RIP
 
such a shame about belton, usually such a lovley event.
there are only three people i can see who had 'mass' withdrawl....hmm

poor rodney though, such a lovley horse and such a shame for him he is a very talented man indeed.
 
I also heard that both PF and OT were overheard throwing a tantrum at Stuart B before loading up and stropping off on Saturday morning.
 
I don't know about what may have happened over the weekend, but we had one running in the novice and the dressage arenas were dreadful......horse tripped twice and this is a horse with great big plates for feet, who never normally struggles like that.

sj seemed fine as far a I could see, but I didn't walk it with jockey, so can't comment.

Xc was pretty much perfect, but almost heading towards the hard side of perfect.
 
The ground on Friday was good to firm but I think the warm sun on Friday and Saturday would have made it even firmer. I don't think I've seen so many molehills in one place! Good job they weren't on the course!

Agree that the (non-ring) dressage arenas were really poor. Really not good for such a prestigious event.

Very sorry to hear about RP's horse - a sad loss.
 
Re Helicopters and ash.

My OH is a Helo pilot. He has been out flying this weekend, making the most of the fact that all the restricted airspace is open. Lots of light planes are out too.

The ash is very high, at a level that the jets fly (33 000ft), light planes and helos can fly much lower, (usually around 1 000 - 3 000 ft) the air at this level is considered ok.

Air traffic controllers are still working, he was chatting to the Stansted ones on sat whilst flying along the stansted runway, he said it was surreal, empty runway and all the planes parked up. Like something from the TV prog, survivors.

Perhaps he should have offered OT and WFT a lift?
 
OMG, poor RP. He took Darcy to the europeans in 2007. He was such a lovely horse.

As for PF and OT, i was there friday and saturday. i saw OT competing on friday, but he withdrew all horses from the other classes.
I saw piggy doing her advanced dressage on some day soon on saturday, so don't think she withdraw all her horses.
 
sorry, just seen that apparently pigy withdrew some day soon, however in my programme it said she was ridin some day soon saturday morning, and i saw someone with what i thought was the same number doing dressage, maybe not!!!!!!!!
 
I don't know how relevant it is (not to the strop subject, but to the withdrawls) but if you look at the results for The Fork, which is the last CIC before Rolex in the US, there are also a lot of WDs both before and after dressage. In many cases the horses are double entered for Rolex and the decision to go one way or the other was left until the last minute and/or the horses were there for a "prep" with no intention of going xc.

Best of luck to OT and WFP as I bet they're having a pretty wild journey - hope they've got tickets!
 
TarrSteps said:
I don't know how relevant it is (not to the strop subject, but to the withdrawls) but if you look at the results for The Fork, which is the last CIC before Rolex in the US, there are also a lot of WDs both before and after dressage. In many cases the horses are double entered for Rolex and the decision to go one way or the other was left until the last minute and/or the horses were there for a "prep" with no intention of going xc.

Best of luck to OT and WFP as I bet they're having a pretty wild journey - hope they've got tickets!
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Yes, i think your right. i always expected lots of people in the CIC*** to withdraw because it two weeks before badders and lots of the horses at Belton are goin to Badminton. I loooked at who withdraw, and most of them are going to badminton.
 
TarrSteps said:
Best of luck to OT and WFP as I bet they're having a pretty wild journey - hope they've got tickets!
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Quoting from the BE website OT has managed eurostar to paris and then taxi to madrid and then flight to florida.WFP has gone on a private jet supplied by a contact ,now why couldnt he offer Ollie a lift .They both have to make connecting flights once they land in Florida.
 
Love the fact the WFP is lording over OT, who is slumming it :p

Now, could you imagine OT and WFP together, alone, in the private jet?! :p
 
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