Entering BD area festivals - daft questions

[McFluff]

Apologies for the stupid questions but this is all new to me. I’m about to enter the PetPlan area festival, but have a couple of questions and can’t find info on the BD website.

1. I’ve definitely qualified, and I have upgraded my membership to full (it was club while I got my scores at prelim bronze), but I don’t have a qualification email. The website seems to suggest that they are sent automatically (I had the three scores in November). Do they get sent automatically or do I need to call the BD office?

2. The entry (I’m using horse monkey) is asking for a horse bio. My horse and I are very new to this competition malarkey - just completed our fifth affiliated competition (9th ever). So what do I put in a bio? I can’t find any guides on the BD website.

All pointers gratefully received. Thanks

 

[j1ffy]

Apologies for the stupid questions but this is all new to me. I’m about to enter the PetPlan area festival, but have a couple of questions and can’t find info on the BD website.

1. I’ve definitely qualified, and I have upgraded my membership to full (it was club while I got my scores at prelim bronze), but I don’t have a qualification email. The website seems to suggest that they are sent automatically (I had the three scores in November). Do they get sent automatically or do I need to call the BD office?

2. The entry (I’m using horse monkey) is asking for a horse bio. My horse and I are very new to this competition malarkey - just completed our fifth affiliated competition (9th ever). So what do I put in a bio? I can’t find any guides on the BD website.

All pointers gratefully received. Thanks

Well done on qualifying!!

BD are notoriously slow at getting qualification emails out, they tend to do them in a batch close to when the Festivals take place (if at all). You don’t need the email if you’ve got the scores so just go ahead and enter

For the bio, put anything you like! You can say exactly what you’ve written above about how new you are to affiliated, or you can put something fun or interesting about you and your horse. Entirely up to you!

 

[McFluff]

Thank you so much. It’s good to know that I can just go ahead and enter.
I’m the wrong side of 40 living out my childhood dream

 

[Notimetoride]

A couple of years ago, ivwas asked on the bio form, what my horse's greatest achievement was ? Eh ?? This was prelim bronze !! We had done nothing previous ! So I just put that that event (area festival) was my horse's greatest achievement as we were new to BD.

 

[milliepops]

Hehe
It's just a standard form that is used for a lot of major competitions.
All my horses have a slightly unusual back story so I tend to write something about that. You don't have to fill in every section, it's just so the commentary team have something to say as you enter the arena.

Good luck and enjoy it, McFluff

 

[pixie27]

Now i've got an even stupider question...

I've qualified (have six scores of 64% plus), so how do I enter in the first place?! Do I just pick the venue closest to me from the 'PetPlan Area Festivals' list?

Sorry for hijacking the thread, it's my first time too (if you can't tell )

 

[milliepops]

You can go to whichever you choose, pixie so if you want to go to a different venue then you can. When you find the event in the schedules, just enter as normal - hopefully you'll get your email soon but you can go ahead without it. As you have more than one qualification, you can go to more than one area festival... :wink3:

 

[Leaping]

Now i've got an even stupider question...

I've qualified (have six scores of 64% plus), so how do I enter in the first place?! Do I just pick the venue closest to me from the 'PetPlan Area Festivals' list?

Sorry for hijacking the thread, it's my first time too (if you can't tell )

Just choose the venues you want to go to, it sounds like you have enough sheets to do at least 2 area festival first round competitions. BD will send out qualification emails but you don't need to wait for them (and they won't come out till after Winter champs has finished and then can be slow). The venue have to send all entries to BD to check eligibility anyway.

The Bio form - some places do have an announcer who will read out stuff from your bio sheet before or after you do your test (not everywhere has an announcer, and sometimes even if they do have an announcer they might be busy doing scores or similar so not get a chance to read anything out). Keep it brief and interesting if possible, and something you would be happy to hear being read out. If its your first time put that, its also a nice way to do a quick thanks if you know someone who has been a key part in your journey will be there (I tend to always put that my mother bred my horse as I think its nice for her to get a name check). There isn't much time so a paragraph is more than enough.

 

[McFluff]

Thank you everyone.
Good luck pixie27. I'm lucky as my local venue are holding an area festival. I could technically do 2, but the other one would be about 2.5 hours away, so let's just hope that she is back to her usual form and doesn't take umbrage at perfectly innocent signs.
We've put flowers round the arena to get her used to that - she tried to eat them (which is better than spooking I suppose, but could be embarrassing if I don't pay enough attention!).

I'm quite excited to get the chance to take part in something like this.