Eventing 2025

TheMule said:
And one of them is Anglo Arab, not full TB (and its name even tells you it is AA!)
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I don't have skin in this game but I do love seeing ex-racehorses doing well. The class seems contradictory, calling itself a 'RACEHORSE TO EVENTER CHALLENGE CUP' but letting any registered TB enter.

The rules on the BE site say any entrant has to be registered with Wetherby's or the 'appropriate thoroughbred studbook of their country of origin' - I know the French TB studbook has non-full TBs in it so I wonder if the AA is registered there? Otherwise it seems to be even more bonkers!
 
It is excellent to see all the sponsorship, etc but agree that it shouldn’t be racehorse to event horse challenge if they don’t have to have raced. The BD associates used to have and may still have RoR and a separate thoroughbred one although there were generally very few entries in the thoroughbred one because people were doing the ROR ones and they were all on the same day.

There was a thoroughbred horse who was on the sports horse register and evented for a few seasons before racing once to become ROR eligible. It might find some a new jump racing star if they all have to go and race once. Sorry, slightly tongue in cheek.
 
quizzie said:
When they announced the class, they included that horses should not have competed at 4* or above in the last two years….but that seems to be missing in the current schedule?!
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Yes that was in some original wording but disappeared at some point - shame for me as it would have meant my 3* horse was among the most experienced running - but I imagine some pros kicked off.

I also think it's got an identity issue - either it's a class for just thoroughbreds or it's an ex racehorse class - as it currently stands it's been labeled as an ex racehorse class, but with criteria that doesn't match up to that.

Still, can't complain - nice to get to ride at big venues for substantial prize money on my nice little £800 horse ;)
 
RachelFerd said:
Yes that was in some original wording but disappeared at some point - shame for me as it would have meant my 3* horse was among the most experienced running - but I imagine some pros kicked off.

I also think it's got an identity issue - either it's a class for just thoroughbreds or it's an ex racehorse class - as it currently stands it's been labeled as an ex racehorse class, but with criteria that doesn't match up to that.

Still, can't complain - nice to get to ride at big venues for substantial prize money on my nice little £800 horse ;)
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Is that the flipper d elle horse rachel. ?

If you still have him
 
I think they need as many entries as possible this year to make it a competition so I am not surprised it's a bit lax in its requirements. They also want it to be an elite class long term at 3* which I think is pretty ambitious.

If they had gone for 1.05 ex racehorses round the YH 5yo track I still think it could have been prestigious and been a destination class but perhaps not so palatable for the sponsor who wants a bit more specialist.
 
Probably the best £25 ever…..but I have to decide between fence judging at an event or watching Burghley live…
Probably fence judge don’t like letting them down, but ask for an embargo on any mention of Burghley, it worked for Lions tour hopefully it will work again!
 
iknowmyvalue said:
Yes, I’ve entered Chillington, just need to work on steps into water before we get there! (or maybe I’ll just need to superglue myself to the saddle)

I’m lucky enough to have 3x regional tickets for this year now, but Little Downham is a long way so will probably save that ticket for next seaso
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I have three tickets as well, didn’t know you could save for next season. How does that work please? Thanks
 
Wellington BE105 Report

Wellington is a bit of a trek for us but luckily my sister lives relatively near so we stayed up there for a few days. It is easily the biggest atmosphere Nova has seen as it's a proper International event with plenty going on and unfortunately the tension crept back in for the dressage for a test with lots of a mistakes and a deserved 40.3. He has done 2 really good tests this season and 3 with tension and it just depends on how busy the warm up and test arena is- he finds it hard to keep his brain from bubbling over when there’s a lot going on. I think he just needs more mileage and we will have a play around with different warm up strategies.
He was super hot in the SJ warm up too and the ring was pretty buzzy. It was a decent track, made good use of the undulations and was a good step up from what he has been jumping this year. He was strong and a bit wayward, I made a mistake at fence 3 to have it down but he otherwise jumped super.
Xc was not big but it was technical- I was worried about the jump in the first water as he has never had to do anything more than just run through water and he is cautious about even that. But he was just a total dream- he absolutely cruised around to finish 4 seconds inside the time without me even trying (I didnt wear a watch, just wanted to go at the pace that felt right). He was careful at the water but he was always going. What a star, I enjoyed every moment!

Lots to work on- we need to crack this dressage issue and I need to get a bit more rideability in the SJ, but I am SO delighted with how his xc has developed this year, it is unrecognizable from last season when we really struggled to get anywhere near even 90 time.

There is a vlog for anyone interested in a more detailed account of our day!

 
SEL said:
Well done! I saw your Instagram posts and it looked great - will watch the vlog when I get a chance.

Rain incoming so fingers crossed for softer ground.
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It has just arrived here- the first proper rain for months! 🥳 I don’t know how any events have managed to run this Summer, but everywhere I have been has tried so hard with the ground. Luckily Nova does prefer it good to firm, but I really feel for anyone with a soft ground horse
 
Had a good day at Chard, despite the wind!

Slightly disappointed with a 33.5 dressage, I thought it was actually quite a nice test. The bits I thought we’d lose marks on we didn’t, and the bits I thought were good were marked down. Odd scoring, but that’s dressage for you!

SJ left all the fences up by some miracle. I misjudged the turn to a short 2 strided double so we were on completely the wrong distance. Otherwise a super rideable and consistent round. I’m actually quite excited about the prospect of hopefully doing some bigger BS tracks on him over the winter now!

XC I was very nervous for, but he was well up for it! he was just looking for the next fence to jump, super confident and happy.

Jockey needs to give herself a good talking to for 1) not trusting the brakes and adding strides (but after recent brake failure, didn’t fancy a repeat performance!) 2) enjoying galloping along so much I bowled straight past fence 11 before realising I was actually supposed to jump it 🤦🏼‍♀️ Thankfully FJs clearly saw it was sat nav error, so circled back round the other side and jumped it. Somehow still managed to finish 8 seconds inside the time with barely a drop of sweat on him, so maybe the circle was a blessing in disguise?! Clearly don’t need to worry about his fitness for Bicton 3DE…

IMG_2292.jpeg

ETA. Think I have @TheMule / @LEC to thank for getting some lovely footage of us when they were FJing!
 
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I did my second (and last!) event of the season at Epworth in the GOBE80.
I hate moaning about dressage judges. I am friends with a couple, and I have also attended a fair bit of BD judge training and know the guidelines and how hard they (are supposed to) try to find reasons to give good marks. My judge however gave me almost straight 6s with unencouraging comments throughout. I have watched my test back with a critical eye and agree that some of the trot work deserved 6s, but the canter and walk deserved better. I would like to have seen some variation shown and some recognition of the better bits. The whole picture is pretty decent with lots of positive bits, and the matks and comments made me feel like she was watching someone else.
I particularly liked "6 - halt not square' for this:

Screenshot_20250831_170133_Video Player.jpg

(I'm aware that the movement contains the centre line too, but just thought the comment was funny, and the centreline really was quite decent!).

Anyway moaning done, and this judge really was the exception. I usually find the judging very good these days.

The fun bits were fun. The SJ was more Cheltenham than Hickstead, but I didn't fall off - something I have a habit of doing at Epworth. And XC was a lovely flowing foot perfect clear, round a course which was (thankfully!) a couple of notches down from Frickley.

And apparently the dressage judge was not massively thrilled by anyone, and XC clears were a valuable commodity so we amazingly ended up with our first BE placing since I 'retired' from eventing 12 or 13 years ago!!!

I absolutely love this horse. He will never be a world beater, but he is a real trier and such a lovely chap. He stood next to my trailer with nobody holding him between the dressage and SJ. Parked right next to the SJ warm up and in sight of the XC - eyes closed, having a snooze in the sun. These high octane racehorses, eh?
 
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We went to cornbury for the new £50,000 prize money thoroughbred to eventer class. Arrived in heavy rain and to be towed into a mud filled lorry park - eek!

Our dressage was our usual very unexciting and unflamboyant 65% test - he's not an impressive mover, he doesn't have much trot and he doesn't understand how to show off in the arena - the best he can offer is being obedient :) we were an unimpressive 33rd of 44 after dressage - but that wasn't unexpected!

Next day was XC - just an open novice track, but with a few interesting questions including a big drop with a curving line to a very angled brush a few strides away on landing, downhill. Ground was slightly tacky but nothing bad at all. I set off on course having a lovely ride, but as I headed to fence 7 (the tricky three part drop combo) I noticed a dog travelling towards me at very high speed from my left. We jumped through the difficult combination with the dog on our heels... And then the dog kept coming with us - it cut me up on the way into the next fence, a big open parallel, and then it jumped into the water jump in front of me, ran around me in the water, and then kept running with me along the next galloping stretch - and jumped with me through the coffin combination and the second water complex... In total, the dog ran with me, under my horses legs and in and out of the fences for 15 flagged jumping efforts. I was finally flagged down at fence 16 at which point the dog ran all the way back to the day lorry park to rejoin it's very well known semi retired 14-time 5* winning owner...!!! After a few minutes hold we were restarted and finished the final 4 jumping efforts on the track. I have to say that my horse was INCREDIBLE to completely ignored the dog throughout and just keep jumping as if nothing was happening. Several people told me that they couldn't believe that we managed to jump through the 5-part water complex at the top of the course with the chaos that was going on, but he was amazing. I kept thinking we'd managed to get past the dog and we were free of it, then it would randomly overtake me again... Anyway, the TD reviewed my time and adjusted it to account for the continued disruption that I had - and the several minutes hold - to give me a clear within the time. But quite frankly he should've been given a bloomin medal for how good he was.

Anyway - on to today, said owner of dog did apologize to me in the SJ warm-up... It had escaped from within a horsebox.... The SJ course was on slightly tacky ground but was actually jumping surprisingly well. Simon went in, clocked that lots of people were watching and proceeded to jump a lovely, very relaxed, clear round. So we finished on our dressage score, but that was still only good enough for 17th place - lots of fabulous very experienced 3* and 4* horses filling in the top 20 (many ridden by the best riders in the sport too) - but I am SO proud of how good my horse was in both jumping phases, and of course, he was the only horse that also managed to jump the XC beautifully despite the most ridiculous distracting circumstances.

Anyway - here's a video, but my other half was filing from the start area so didn't catch any of the dog chase section! I've ordered the equireel video, so hopefully in a few days I'll have a video that shows how incredible my horse really is...

 
RachelFerd said:
We went to cornbury for the new £50,000 prize money thoroughbred to eventer class. Arrived in heavy rain and to be towed into a mud filled lorry park - eek!

Our dressage was our usual very unexciting and unflamboyant 65% test - he's not an impressive mover, he doesn't have much trot and he doesn't understand how to show off in the arena - the best he can offer is being obedient :) we were an unimpressive 33rd of 44 after dressage - but that wasn't unexpected!

Next day was XC - just an open novice track, but with a few interesting questions including a big drop with a curving line to a very angled brush a few strides away on landing, downhill. Ground was slightly tacky but nothing bad at all. I set off on course having a lovely ride, but as I headed to fence 7 (the tricky three part drop combo) I noticed a dog travelling towards me at very high speed from my left. We jumped through the difficult combination with the dog on our heels... And then the dog kept coming with us - it cut me up on the way into the next fence, a big open parallel, and then it jumped into the water jump in front of me, ran around me in the water, and then kept running with me along the next galloping stretch - and jumped with me through the coffin combination and the second water complex... In total, the dog ran with me, under my horses legs and in and out of the fences for 15 flagged jumping efforts. I was finally flagged down at fence 16 at which point the dog ran all the way back to the day lorry park to rejoin it's very well known semi retired 14-time 5* winning owner...!!! After a few minutes hold we were restarted and finished the final 4 jumping efforts on the track. I have to say that my horse was INCREDIBLE to completely ignored the dog throughout and just keep jumping as if nothing was happening. Several people told me that they couldn't believe that we managed to jump through the 5-part water complex at the top of the course with the chaos that was going on, but he was amazing. I kept thinking we'd managed to get past the dog and we were free of it, then it would randomly overtake me again... Anyway, the TD reviewed my time and adjusted it to account for the continued disruption that I had - and the several minutes hold - to give me a clear within the time. But quite frankly he should've been given a bloomin medal for how good he was.

Anyway - on to today, said owner of dog did apologize to me in the SJ warm-up... It had escaped from within a horsebox.... The SJ course was on slightly tacky ground but was actually jumping surprisingly well. Simon went in, clocked that lots of people were watching and proceeded to jump a lovely, very relaxed, clear round. So we finished on our dressage score, but that was still only good enough for 17th place - lots of fabulous very experienced 3* and 4* horses filling in the top 20 (many ridden by the best riders in the sport too) - but I am SO proud of how good my horse was in both jumping phases, and of course, he was the only horse that also managed to jump the XC beautifully despite the most ridiculous distracting circumstances.

Anyway - here's a video, but my other half was filing from the start area so didn't catch any of the dog chase section! I've ordered the equireel video, so hopefully in a few days I'll have a video that shows how incredible my horse really is...

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Three cheers for your horse and you…I cannot write what I want to re that dog and its owners….
Took far too long for you to be stopped and the dog removed….
At least it was handled correctly by TD…..
As you say your horse deserves a medal although no doubt he would prefer something tasty….
 
RachelFerd said:
We went to cornbury for the new £50,000 prize money thoroughbred to eventer class. Arrived in heavy rain and to be towed into a mud filled lorry park - eek!

Our dressage was our usual very unexciting and unflamboyant 65% test - he's not an impressive mover, he doesn't have much trot and he doesn't understand how to show off in the arena - the best he can offer is being obedient :) we were an unimpressive 33rd of 44 after dressage - but that wasn't unexpected!

Next day was XC - just an open novice track, but with a few interesting questions including a big drop with a curving line to a very angled brush a few strides away on landing, downhill. Ground was slightly tacky but nothing bad at all. I set off on course having a lovely ride, but as I headed to fence 7 (the tricky three part drop combo) I noticed a dog travelling towards me at very high speed from my left. We jumped through the difficult combination with the dog on our heels... And then the dog kept coming with us - it cut me up on the way into the next fence, a big open parallel, and then it jumped into the water jump in front of me, ran around me in the water, and then kept running with me along the next galloping stretch - and jumped with me through the coffin combination and the second water complex... In total, the dog ran with me, under my horses legs and in and out of the fences for 15 flagged jumping efforts. I was finally flagged down at fence 16 at which point the dog ran all the way back to the day lorry park to rejoin it's very well known semi retired 14-time 5* winning owner...!!! After a few minutes hold we were restarted and finished the final 4 jumping efforts on the track. I have to say that my horse was INCREDIBLE to completely ignored the dog throughout and just keep jumping as if nothing was happening. Several people told me that they couldn't believe that we managed to jump through the 5-part water complex at the top of the course with the chaos that was going on, but he was amazing. I kept thinking we'd managed to get past the dog and we were free of it, then it would randomly overtake me again... Anyway, the TD reviewed my time and adjusted it to account for the continued disruption that I had - and the several minutes hold - to give me a clear within the time. But quite frankly he should've been given a bloomin medal for how good he was.

Anyway - on to today, said owner of dog did apologize to me in the SJ warm-up... It had escaped from within a horsebox.... The SJ course was on slightly tacky ground but was actually jumping surprisingly well. Simon went in, clocked that lots of people were watching and proceeded to jump a lovely, very relaxed, clear round. So we finished on our dressage score, but that was still only good enough for 17th place - lots of fabulous very experienced 3* and 4* horses filling in the top 20 (many ridden by the best riders in the sport too) - but I am SO proud of how good my horse was in both jumping phases, and of course, he was the only horse that also managed to jump the XC beautifully despite the most ridiculous distracting circumstances.

Anyway - here's a video, but my other half was filing from the start area so didn't catch any of the dog chase section! I've ordered the equireel video, so hopefully in a few days I'll have a video that shows how incredible my horse really is...

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Wow. Thats unbelievable. What a superstar horse! I find it bonkers how dogs are allowed at these events
 
Congratulations what a star. Amazed how muddy. That’s poor you weren’t stopped earlier. Can you as a rider stop and say it’s unsafe to continue or would that just get you eliminated or lots of time penalties.
 
Brilliant round and result. My friend on a very experienced racehorse was eliminated XC.
I bet the tallest one was mortified and great that GJ gave you time back.
 
Oh RF what an absolute superstar your boy is/was you must be so very proud of him.
I’m furious on your behalf re the dog, I hope it’s *insert rude word of your choice* owner got fined heavily, just like Joe blogs would have. Not like they can’t afford it eh 😉

I’m surprised you weren’t pulled up sooner, 15 jumping efforts is a lot of hampering!

Would be interested to see the equireel when you have it.
 
Very well done, RF.

Please make a formal written complaint to BE that it took 15 jumping efforts before you were flagged down when the dog chased your horse, that is disgraceful. Presumably each FJ radioed it in re the loose dog on course? What were control playing at?

It’s long overdue for dogs to be completely banned from eventing venues, lorry parks included.

I hope that the semi retired 5* eventer offered more than a verbal apology, a decent bottle of something expensive at the least.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Very well done, RF.

Please make a formal written complaint to BE that it took 15 jumping efforts before you were flagged down when the dog chased your horse, that is disgraceful. Presumably each FJ radioed it in re the loose dog on course? What were control playing at?

It’s long overdue for dogs to be completely banned from eventing venues, lorry parks included.

I hope that the semi retired 5* eventer offered more than a verbal apology, a decent bottle of something expensive at the least.
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I think you are on a beaten docket re banning dogs, if people would behave correctly with their dogs, no reason to ban them….what is wrong is those dog owners who for some reason believe rules ie leads at all times and pick up after them does not apply to them….
One of the most annoying things for me as a stable manager was watching people, in the early mornings with loose dogs, the loose dogs would urinate and worse on other peoples hay etc outside stables…ruining it….when asked by me or assistant stable managers to replace hay, keep dog/s on a lead we were either told to get lost or ignored….
I now fence judge and alongside the majority of fence judges my dog comes with me, he is inside car or on a lead…I can and do leave him at home if it’s to hot etc…but he likes to come with me and I like his company
 
Nice to see that a nice mix of raced horses took the spoils at Cornbury not unraced TBs. 1st and 3rd ex flat horses. 2nd a point to pointer. Just realised that sounds a bit mean to unraced TBs which it isn’t supposed to be. It’s that it’s promoted as a retrained racehorse class so glad retrained racehorses prevailed.
 
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humblepie said:
Nice to see that a nice mix of raced horses took the spoils at Cornbury not unraced TBs. 1st and 3rd ex flat horses. 2nd a point to pointer. Just realised that sounds a bit mean to unraced TBs which it isn’t supposed to be. It’s that it’s promoted as a retrained racehorse class so glad retrained racehorses prevailed.
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A most deserving winner - good racehorse, excellent event horse, 5* qualified... Proper athlete and clearly very trainable.

Overall there were a stack of horses in that class that many people should've wanted to take home!
 
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