Broadway or Arley Hall Novice...ballot qu

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kcourtil

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I'm plannig my first novice for May
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but now have a bit of a dilema due to all this balloting!
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i walked broadway N last october when i was doing the PN and thought it looked quite nice so really want to do this as my first one, so tempted to use sticker. however, i've heard arley is much more popular so more likely to get balloted. does anybody have any ideas what i should do/which ones most likely to ballot?
also is ON the same as N but for horses with more points? on the bdwp website there's hardly any entires for ON compared with N so think i'm morel likely to get an entry (i konw there will be better horses competing but getting a run is more important to me than getting placed!
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thanksx
 
Can't answer on what you should do, but yes, open novice (ON) is novice standard but for horses who are out of novice points. But you shouldn't enter the open novice - normally if there are spaces in the ON but they are balloting the novice they'll put some into the ON automatically. You could always write on your entry that you'd be happy to be put in the ON rather than be balloted - that's what I'd do.
 
Would not recommend Broadway Novice it really does not ride how it should on xc. The distances are very odd and it does not encourage or reward the horse. The intro and PN are fine but not the novice.
 
ok thanks. it just looked smaller than a lot of novices i've seen, and also shared some PN fences, but would prefer a bigger, flowing track with good distances.
does anybody know what arley hall N is like?
 
I havnt done the N at Arley though will be this year but have done the PN. It is quite decent as the fences are solidly built but the PN jumped well. You go through the water twice and it can be quite spooky as with being right next to the country fair, alot of people sit around and watch. Can't comment on any techie fences as didnt walk. Nobody made the N time.
Have a look at the results as that usually gives some indication on how it jumps...

http://www.britisheventing.com/asp-net/Events/Results.aspx?MeetingId=1662&section=000100010002
 
We have entered Broadway novice with a sticker, there don't seem to be that many internet entries, have a look of the web page.
 
Sorry I was at work before so can put more explanation into my answer. I ride a bold xc horse but fence three the tyres was a bit odd I then took the long route at the angled palisades and then galloped up the hill and for the next four fences had horrible jumps where it just did not flow. Then you wind down the hill and it still does not flow.
The week before or so I had been round Charlton Park and had the most incredible ride round a big course but it flowed and the ride you had was smooth. I just felt Broadway was such a struggle to keep momentum and watching back at the videos it looks horrid. I also prefer standard courses not courses where you have a big pheasant feeder with ditch and then a really small fence as it does not achieve anything.
 
I wouldn't recommend Arley as a first Novice. I walked it last year when my sister was competing and we both agreed it was the biggest Novice we'd seen for a long time. I can't remember it being overly technical but it was quite twisty and there were some very big jumps. Last year it was really wet too but the ground held up well. I was planning on doing Arley PN as my last run before moving up to Novice but I'm away now.
 
Broadway is not bad, but can see what has been said about the novice - i have ridden all three course's - nearly all round the n - got elim at water as horse ran out of energy - my fault, but i do think its quite a good first novice. I havent been novice since as did about 2 odes after that last year and 1 so far this year, but am going to broadway this year as it is local to get a run before chepstow (were doing 3 day fingers crossed). it is not the best following course and is more like a pony club course but i did enjoy it last year. Overall i mean to say all 3 courses are very straight forward and ideal for stepping up a level.
 
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