Blenheim CANCELLED!

It's so depressing! There's talk of the whole end of the season being a washout, why can't it stop raining?! I keep getting balloted out of things too, it's driving me mad! I'm seriously considering taking up BSJA... cheaper entry fees, dry, warm environment...
 
No, no, no not BSJA. 100 in a class & waiting around for hours & hours & hours. Last time I went I waited for 3 hours to jump the 1m15 Open & at the last moment they brought in a rule that if you had 8 faults you were eliminated (basically to get through quicker). My lad went in & knocked the 1st 2 fences down!!
 
urgh, maybe not then! maybe we'll just stay at home where it's warm
smile.gif
actually, i must send that oasby entry off...
lol
 
Crazy stuff.

There'll be a lot of very annoyed people. But we cant help the weather, I think maybe they were over-ambitious to start the dressage really
 
Well I was wrong. And I know they won't have cancelled unless they really felt they had too.

Bitterly disappointed though, and I was only going as a spectator.

Blenheim had 6 mm/a quarter inch of rain this afternoon and into the evening, and it's only just stopped raining in that area.
 
Perhaps one thing worth noting is that Burghley had far more rain on the Friday before, around four times as much, and it rained for much of Saturday too (tomorrow is going to be warm, dry, and sunny). The difference is that Burghley have invested significantly in ground works to keep the course in good shape in poor weather.

Expensive, but so is losing a whole event.
 
I have been at Blenheim the last 2 days and I think the main concern is safety of horse and rider. The ground is very good there and drains well on the XC course but no more work could be done to the ground. The public carpark is a mud bath!
 
Yes I think it is more the fact that anyone in anything but a 4x4 would have had a serious problem driving in, or, worse, out (it was blooming bad enough today). I thought the ground was actually pretty good...but you only had to look at the lorry park to see that whilst the surface felt OK underfoot, put pressure on it, and it was a different story!
 
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....but you only had to look at the lorry park to see that whilst the surface felt OK underfoot, put pressure on it, and it was a different story!

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exactly.
 
Turns out Burghley and Blenheim both have the same soil type (a free draining limestone loam),

Point still stands that the Burghley organisers said that without their groundworks the course would not have been useable, and they did have an awful lot more rain there.

Parking lots of vehicles on grass at major events of any kind has always been a problem in the UK; if organisers want to protect themselves against the weather, they're going to have to invest in better drainage and hardstandings for access points etc.

(Fairford airshow was cancelled because the carparks were unuseable earlier this summer too.)
 
I think one of the main problems is that Oxford hasn't really ever dried out from last year's floods - forgetting the course etc for the moment, we saw huge puddles in the fields around the car park that just weren't draining as there is just nowhere for the water to drain.
 
Perhaps something that we over look when events are cancelled, the actual xc course maybe in perfect order, but emergency response vehiles have to be able to access every jump as quickly as possible, and this maybe why some events cant run
 
I think that was more to the point, people around the event were starting to say that the emergency vehicles for both people and horses were starting to need tractors to move them anywhere.

I didnt personally see that there, but i did see alot of horseboxes getting tows.
 
Just returned from Blenheim- very sad. The word on the street is that cancellation had very little to do with the course and Horse/Rider safety..... More to do with Public safety !!! Walk ways and public areas too perilous to continue. The course was in good shape, all concerned had worked tirelessly yesterday,and the riders were Very positive about riding today . Is there a case for ' shut the gates ' and let the riders compete.... especially with the current Qualification regime and the difficulty in re routing to another event...... Just goes to show the Riders and Horses are nt the most important factors in this Sport..... Health and Safety of 'on foot spectators' can ruin a years work for many. Your thoughts.............?????
 
According to the information received from the TD the emergency services were unable to get an ambulance and a vet to both sides of each jump and so the event was unable to proceed on health and safety grounds.
A lot of the riders were quite relieved that the decision whether to run or not was taken out of their hands and everyone has gone home with a sound horse.
 
Riders were told at 6 pm on Fri that an Emergency Vehicle run was done last night , and vehicles could get to BOTH sides of every Fence.... Would be repeated this morning before 9 am at which time the final decision would be made...... If they had tried this morning with the sun blazing they would have run. PS I walked most of the course this morning.........
 
Agree we were told last night that every fence could be reached but it was predicted that the situation would change by this morning - according to my conversation with PC who had been informed that a weather front was moving in. I walked the revised course last night and the ground was ok in my opinion but then my time would have been early on. I wouldn't have liked to be one of the late runners. I spoke to a couple of the NZ eventers last night who were going later on who were of the same opinion and they were considering withdrawing and re-routing to Kreuth seeing as Boekelo is full. I walked 2/3 of the course this morning and found it worse in some areas than last night especially around the dew pond but generally ok. When I spoke to a couple of the first-timers this morning they were glad not to be running.
 
We are all going to look at the course differently - dependant on who we are attached to . I am not suprised to hear that some first timers were concerned. The trouble is they are never allowed to ride on less than perfect going , so don t have the experience of adapting plans to suit soft, slippery going, with deeper water to jump into. The truth of the matter is that the course was very jumpable in the conditions, not neccesarilly inside the time - but safely and successfully by many riders there. In my opinion............ !!!!The Problem is ... many of our top riders now were trained before the nanny state, with long format too , so are used to being adaptable on jaded horses on changable going ,therefore have the skills to ride around a cross country course such as Blenheim today..... Many of the others don t yet know they can.....
 
The course may have been jumpable but I really don't think that was the sole reason the event was abandoned. If the emergency services could not be confident that they could get an ambulance (and horse ambulance) to EVERY fence then there is no way it could go ahead. The ground was very slippery and heaven forbid anyone should die because an ambulance couldn't get to them...
 
I agree .. I've been competing at 3* level since the mid-80's and 4* for about 8yrs so I've done quite a few long-formats. I wouldn't have had a problem running but a lot of the combinations were inexperienced at 3* level and the course wouldn't have done them any favours.
I had a very interesting conversation with the stable manager yesterday morning who told me that everyone was convinced that the event was going to be scrapped on Wednesday but apparently because of 'event politics' and insurance issues it was decided to at least start the event. Of course once started we don't get any entry fees back and neither do the tradestand holders. Financially the only winners are BE.
 
There is no way the work would have been carried out on the course yesterday if they knew they would cancel anyway... Not even BE is that perverted surely.!!! Definately an outside influence involved - council Health and Safety..... otherwise why are we part of such a corrupt organisation ???
 
and yodaii, i think its fair to say the sttable manager at blenheim is particularly well informed if he is the usual person. Anyway i know it is a long way ( i have been severl times) kreuth is a really good event generally where they do their absolute best to help you out so hopefully even with the running the Yr champs there, anyone going should have a good time tho it will be busy.
 
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