ELF
Member
I don't come on here much, but just wanted to give another view on Eden Valley after some of the bad press it seems to have received on here. I am 'local' to the event (live about 20 miles away) and was very relieved when it stopped raining on Wednesday....and even more relieved when I received my times text on Thursday.
I had entered the BE80(T) with a very novice horse - I hadn't ridden a dressage test on him but he had been XC schooling and done some showjumping. I didn't walk the course before going on Sunday as I had a huge amount of time between my dressage and showjumping and thought it would be a good way to fill the time on the day.
So onto the dressage....yes the warm up area was tacky, and there were areas that were too tacky and yes it wasn't big enough to support the number of arenas there were.....BUT this is the events first running and I am sure that the organisers would be looking for helpful critisim to make improvements - I was there for the BE80(T) prizegiving on the Sunday night and it was mentioned heavily by the organisers then, so it certainly didn't go unnoticed. Anyone who has also competed at Hutton or Cumwhinton will surely know how good those events have become?? The arenas weren't great - but I did a BE90 at Richmond in 2009 where my lightfooted TB i had at the time was sliding around it was that wet.....and i'd still go back there too!
The showjumping surface was fantastic. I don't know whether it's because i'm used to training on a much less than perfect school that it heavy in most places, but I thought the sj arena rode beautifully, regardless of when it was put down. It was repeatedly harrowed, the course was fantastic, lovely to be jumping solid wooden rails and not plastic ones.
The XC....after a year off and riding a novice horse I have to admit to gulping at some of the fences to start with, it was up to height, and yes for the BE80 it was possibly overheight in places (it ran over a lot of the BE90 fences), but it was quite straightforward and it actually rode very nicely. Thornton Watlass is IMO much more twisty and technical. The ground was tacky, again very tacky in places, but there were clean lines there for the taking. It wasn't ideal, but it certainly wasn't horrendous by any stretch of the imagination (again IMO) I was lying in the lead going into the XC and I had no intentions of worrying about the time owing to the ground conditions - but when I set off, the ground was much better than I thought and although I didn't push it (mainly because my horse was a complete unknown quantity and I had some reservations about his fitness) it rode a lot better than I thought and he had plenty of petrol left in the tank when we finished.
I wouldn't criticise anyone for withdrawing because they didn't feel it was right for their horse, I have done it at affiliated and unaffiliated events, but I don't think that the event deserves bad publicity, it was well run, well organised, friendly atmosphere and although there are things to improve on, I am pretty sure that these will be taken into consideration. There were hundreds of competitors there who competed, surely we're not all wrong??
I will certainly be returning next year - and if my horse (that was going to be PTS 7 months ago by his previous owners due to unruly behaviour and doubts about his soundness) continues the way he's going hopefully he'll be doing the BE100!
Sorry for the long waffle - I finished 8th incase anyone is interested, very pleased!
I had entered the BE80(T) with a very novice horse - I hadn't ridden a dressage test on him but he had been XC schooling and done some showjumping. I didn't walk the course before going on Sunday as I had a huge amount of time between my dressage and showjumping and thought it would be a good way to fill the time on the day.
So onto the dressage....yes the warm up area was tacky, and there were areas that were too tacky and yes it wasn't big enough to support the number of arenas there were.....BUT this is the events first running and I am sure that the organisers would be looking for helpful critisim to make improvements - I was there for the BE80(T) prizegiving on the Sunday night and it was mentioned heavily by the organisers then, so it certainly didn't go unnoticed. Anyone who has also competed at Hutton or Cumwhinton will surely know how good those events have become?? The arenas weren't great - but I did a BE90 at Richmond in 2009 where my lightfooted TB i had at the time was sliding around it was that wet.....and i'd still go back there too!
The showjumping surface was fantastic. I don't know whether it's because i'm used to training on a much less than perfect school that it heavy in most places, but I thought the sj arena rode beautifully, regardless of when it was put down. It was repeatedly harrowed, the course was fantastic, lovely to be jumping solid wooden rails and not plastic ones.
The XC....after a year off and riding a novice horse I have to admit to gulping at some of the fences to start with, it was up to height, and yes for the BE80 it was possibly overheight in places (it ran over a lot of the BE90 fences), but it was quite straightforward and it actually rode very nicely. Thornton Watlass is IMO much more twisty and technical. The ground was tacky, again very tacky in places, but there were clean lines there for the taking. It wasn't ideal, but it certainly wasn't horrendous by any stretch of the imagination (again IMO) I was lying in the lead going into the XC and I had no intentions of worrying about the time owing to the ground conditions - but when I set off, the ground was much better than I thought and although I didn't push it (mainly because my horse was a complete unknown quantity and I had some reservations about his fitness) it rode a lot better than I thought and he had plenty of petrol left in the tank when we finished.
I wouldn't criticise anyone for withdrawing because they didn't feel it was right for their horse, I have done it at affiliated and unaffiliated events, but I don't think that the event deserves bad publicity, it was well run, well organised, friendly atmosphere and although there are things to improve on, I am pretty sure that these will be taken into consideration. There were hundreds of competitors there who competed, surely we're not all wrong??
I will certainly be returning next year - and if my horse (that was going to be PTS 7 months ago by his previous owners due to unruly behaviour and doubts about his soundness) continues the way he's going hopefully he'll be doing the BE100!
Sorry for the long waffle - I finished 8th incase anyone is interested, very pleased!
