Blewbury. Why??? Why?? Why??

We live 20 minutes from Blewbury - but never go there any more as the surfaces are so bad with so little space - prefer to drive an hour and a half to Summerhouse - fabulous arenas, laods of space, lovely courses - just a much better experience for the horses....
 
mbequest said:
is it allowed to hold BSJA qualifiers. It's such a dirty little place. It is dark and dingy in the indoor, and was told that they couldnt put all the lights on as they couldnt afford it.

The warm up outdoors was underwater, the cow shed that is the indoor warm up is just diabolical, very small and you've got 3 strides before and after fence before hitting the walls, that is if people arent riding at you!!

The car park is just a joke, tiny muddy and disorganised.

Hot food was stopped before the 3rd last class had finished.

Courses really leave nothing to the imagination.

Surface indoors is rock hard in the middle and then loose and very slippy on either short end.

No where to sit, ok you can sit in the cafe but there are only 4 or so tables, and you cant see anything......

Why does the BSJA allow this place to hold qualifiers......... Ok I only ever go there if there is one, but FFS, there are plenty of better venues.......


But, the people seem nice on the up side?

Maybe someone with money should build a centre in oxfrodshire, they certainly seem to be lacking!!!!
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I agree that blewbury is pretty gross BUT i'm sure all oxfordshire people will agree with me, you have seen nothing NOTHING until you have been to the Malthouse Centre. It is tiny. The surface is hard a clumpy. It's dark. Jumps not been painted for centuries. Outdoor "warm up arena" has been flooded for years. The one warm up jump is never moved or looked after and consequently falling apart. The car park is full of massive holes (when they're full of water it's mayhem). And there are no lights in the car park. I have to go there for PC sj rallies and I (and everyone else) hates it with a passion!
 
LOL MerryMal - we went to the Malthouse a couple of weeks ago having not been there for a good 4 years or so. It had rained a lot that week and was horrendous there - warm up was a boggy, muddy mess so we ended up riding in a field behind the car park to warm up - luckily it was dressage not jumping! The car park was just puddles and there were no refreshments as the cafe doesn't open for dressage!!! Couldn't even get a drink! Miserable day and won't be going back in a hurry.
 
May I just encourage people not to complain to BS about it. We have nothing else in the Oxon area at all and I really don't think the worlds greatest idea is to get rid of it. Vote with your feet in this case!
 
I'm very local to B'Bury, however will usually opt for W Wilts or Addington if poss. However it is dead handy for a last minute round of 1m fences, would not like to go bigger in there. It does definitely need a spruce up, although I heard they had had financial issues with the tackshop not paying rent etc. and the warm up is pitiful, but it is still handy for smaller courses.
 
ORANGEHORSE said:
Unicorn Trust - feel as though you have died and gone to indoor school heaven. It is such a pity it can't be used more, but as I understand it was built for personal and charity use and a local didn't like all the horseboxes going past his house, looked up the planning permission regulations and kicked up a fuss so it has to strictly comply with the regulations. I am not sure what it is used for now as I haven't seen anything advertised there for a time, but I am a bit out of things now.

I took my horse for a clinic there once and looked with horror at the pristine stables (NOT a speck of anything anywhere) and thought "how am I going to leave the stable as clean as this?" I wasn't the only one who thought that!
We weren't allowed to take the horses out of the front of the stables into the yard in case they got a shaving on the yard. Everyone was lovely and we found out that they power washed the stables after we had gone, hence the immaculate appearance.
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It is generally used for Training mainly by the British Squads and charities such as ROR - Blue Cross etc . Also Our Riding club gets to use it as its a training facility .

S x
 
Wow, just read all the responses to this thread, I thought it was just me. I used to compete BD there and hated it. What I could never understand was why there were so few places to compete in what is a 'horsey' county (affiliated that is), I used to go to Blewbury (hated it), Hunters (mmm) or Addington. I was based near Witney. I now live in Newmarket and have a number of affilliated (nice) venues all within an hour or hour and half of the yard. I miss Oxfordshire a lot but I do think if I ever had the chance to live anywhere in the country, competing wise I would stay around here.

The car park at Blewbury is a disgrace and the warm up always was ropey. But I did have to LOL at the comments on Malthouse, funnily enough my old lad used to love jumping round there! Not that we risked it too often.
 
mbequest said:
is it allowed to hold BSJA qualifiers. It's such a dirty little place. It is dark and dingy in the indoor, and was told that they couldnt put all the lights on as they couldnt afford it.

The warm up outdoors was underwater, the cow shed that is the indoor warm up is just diabolical, very small and you've got 3 strides before and after fence before hitting the walls, that is if people arent riding at you!!

The car park is just a joke, tiny muddy and disorganised.

Hot food was stopped before the 3rd last class had finished.

Courses really leave nothing to the imagination.

Surface indoors is rock hard in the middle and then loose and very slippy on either short end.

No where to sit, ok you can sit in the cafe but there are only 4 or so tables, and you cant see anything......

Why does the BSJA allow this place to hold qualifiers......... Ok I only ever go there if there is one, but FFS, there are plenty of better venues.......


But, the people seem nice on the up side?

Maybe someone with money should build a centre in oxfrodshire, they certainly seem to be lacking!!!!
Click to expand...

the warm up is ALWAYS UNDERWATER!!!! :(
 
I hired the indoor at Blewbury last week for a lesson with my coach, wanted to jump indoors for the first time with Fleur. I thought the people there were very friendly & helpful, the jumps were all ok & didn't notice anything awful with the surface. But it was all a bit tatty & the indoor was so dark!! I asked Paul if I should go there for our first indoor show as maybe would feel more confident having jumped there already, he discouraged me because of the size of the warmup. Shame, it could be nice if it was tidied up a bit so we ended up going to Sparsholt instead, Addington I feel is a bit too posh at the moment!
 
Try living in West Wales, my nearest indoor BSJA venue is Moor Farm and it's 70 miles away over the Preseli Mountains, to jump at somewhere where the arena surface was last harrowed in 1977.
The whole place is just a damp little pit and always has been under what ever management.
 
wow when i was at uni i had some lessons at blewbury so this is a blast from the past for me :)
its mental that oxfordshire has so few places to go...given that its such a horsey area of the country :confused:
 
glosgirl said:
Blewbury is a disappointment. Tbh I don't care if it isn't brand new squeeky clean etc, but when we went last (seems the same as when you went op) the indoor was v dark, with extremely bright slashes of light from the low sun across the school. 90% of horses didn't go clear in oh's class (it was a second round) and refused at fences into the bright stripes. Blewbury wouldn't put the lights on. Warm up was super stressful as it was a drawn order, so with everyones round being so much quicker than normal, instead of being able to estimate your warmup from the number still to go, and planning it, people were rushed in very quickly. There were people in floods in the warm up and it was just lethal. V badly run I thought to allow the class to continue in that way. We left after the one class instead of oh continuing on to do another class as planned as it was so bloody poor.
Interestingly a BS person did turn up, also had the opportunity to bend said BS person's ear at another BS event a few weeks later and was shocked (well, disgusted really!) to be told that there are no minimum standards for a BS show center!! Had hoped that there would be a minimul h&s level to make the affiliation costs worth it really! There isn't even a minimum size of arena!
Though, tbh if you think Blewbury is bad, you should see Rockhampton (and yes, they also run BS second rounds) - arghhhh!!!
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I have never been to Blewbury. After reading this thread I am very glad I decided against going to the 2nd round there. Surely it can't be as bad as Rockhampton aka "The Pit of Doom" though- or at least I hope it can't:eek: You can only warm up all on the same rein, and have to dodge the telegraph poles in the warm up, and the arena itself is tiny! Although I have to say, the people are also very friendly. Why do the nice places seem to have miserable people and the grotty places nice people???
 
There is a distinct lack of centres along the whole of the M4 corridor. Which when you think of all the money based along it is quite strange.

I like Rockhampton.
 
I like Rockhampton. Arena is small but courses are always well built, surface is good. Warm up is bizarre, but ok if there aren't too many people. Parking is small but again fine if not too busy. I always think it's very educational & really friendly people, definitely need support.
 
You guys on the M4 need to move further south to Hampshire. We are well resourced here with Crofton Manor, Quob and Pinkmead within a stones throw.
 
LHS said:
You guys on the M4 need to move further south to Hampshire. We are well resourced here with Crofton Manor, Quob and Pinkmead within a stones throw.
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Having lived in both Hampshire and now on the Oxon/Berks boarder I agree that Hants is far superior for comp centres - especially if you are BS orientated. Where I am now, very little decent sj venues. BD isn't too bad as there are some smaller venues that fill the gap well.

However Oxon far superior for access to the better BE stuff :)

Swings and roundabouts I suppose

PS - I agree about Blewbury, on the odd occassion I go there I am rapidly reminded why I vowed not to go back the time before!
 
I have to say I love oxfordshire as a county, but reading this makes me very greatful I don't live there! I think, from reading this we are very lucky with the centres we have around here....!!
 
All the oxfordshire people only need move one county accross! I'm in bucks but only 12 mlles from Henley (oxon). Within about an hour of me I have patchetts addington bca and merrist wood, all for bsja. And more for bd (classic dressage, windmill, checkendon, widmer). For those slightly further north in oxon surely addington is closest?
Agree tho malthouse is dire!!
 
I must admit to reading this thread and chuckling. I haven't had anything to do with showjumping since my brother stopped in about 2002 (I'd stopped in 1997 to go to Uni), but by the sounds of it Blewbury, Rockhampton and the Malthouse haven't changed.
I can remember everyone being really positive when we heard Rock had got an indoor warm-up - surely anything had to be better than the quagmire that was there before.... and then we saw it :eek: couldn't take my 148's there after nearly killing myself and others in the warm up as one was so long strided he just couldn't cope with it (and don't even mention the seating arrangements :eek: stinky).
Blewbury I have fond memories of but it has always been scruffy, grubby and cold with lovely folks, I think there were mutterings years ago about joining the two warm-ups together so I'm surprised it's still not been done. We used to jump Paul Fabs there... not sure I'd want to do that now given the comments on the going.
As for the Malthouse well.... I first went there for lessons with Phillip Tuckwell back in the 80's (god that makes me feel old :o) and I don't think I competed there later than the early 90's, by the sounds of it things have just deteriorated since then - and it wasn't pleasant at the time!
Sometimes I really DON'T miss BS....
 
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