Eventing 2025

My thought about the class is they certainly got the entries, but it depends if they want to go more elite with upping to 3* which they have expressed as their ambition and have maybe 10-15 entries or keep it as a popular class like this... I thought it worked well at 2* and certainly because of weather wasn't a guaranteed outcome though winner was a cut above.

I also thought it a bit crap that its winner takes all. 1st £45k, 2nd £2k and 3rd £1k! I appreciate that's more than most but still a big drop.
 
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LEC said:
My thought about the class is they certainly got the entries, but it depends if they want to go more elite with upping to 3* which they have expressed as their ambition and have maybe 10-15 entries or keep it as a popular class like this... I thought it worked well at 2* and certainly because of weather wasn't a guaranteed outcome though winner was a cut above.

I also thought it a bit crap that its winner takes all. 1st £45k, 2nd £2k and 3rd £1k! I appreciate that's more than most but still a big drop.
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Yes I think I'd go 10k to the winner and then spread money further down the line (to 17th hahahaha)


.. I think you'd have still got a field of 20 or 25 at intermediate level though
 
Yes I though the prize money was a weird distribution.

Could probably keep it as a 2* class and maybe redistribute the prize pot slightly down to 6/8/ 10th whatever.

Could also offer a bit of £ to the best performing true RoR across the 3* sections!
 
From his rant I do wonder if there is a bit more of a personal gripe he is subtly airing!

Dressage judging always has been, and until we are judged by AI from video, always will be a bone of contention. As a competitor (well an average one anyway, discount the Harry Meades of this world from that!) you do have to take the rough with the smooth.

Having gone through judge training I felt so disillusioned with the disparity of what I was hearing and seeing from the variety of judges I was shadowing that I decided not to persue it further. That said, it is in general a rather thankless task, especially at the lower level when horses/riders are far less experienced

As for BE - yes there is variation. But is becomes easier to chalk up to experience when you have that experience in the first place and understand how you ideally want your horses to go. I’ve had horses this season do similar tests (different events/judges) and score 6/7/8% different. Generally I’ve had the horse in the 30-32 bracket in my mind, and the judge has scored them higher or lower. Swings both ways 😉
 
On the whole I am pretty accurate at predicting. I also find they are on the whole so much better at using the full range of marks now. I used to get so despondent when stuck on 6/6.5 and even good stuff was still stuck and actually it should have been a 7. I think judges are a bit more confident now with 7.5 one movement, 6 the next.

Random story but I ended up dressage writing at regionals yesterday for 6 horses because writer hadn't turned up and I thought they were pretty generous with marking but also some did get 5/6s for stuff that wasn't good, but on the whole the marking was fair.

I had a 9% disparity between two judges this year and that's the only one I thought was a bit off. One loved the test and the other hammered me on accuracy. Fair enough. The other two judge test at FEI was identical in marks!
 
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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What a little legend your amazing horse is, and what a great advert for thoroughbreds that he just stuck to his task with that going on ⭐️
 
That is just totally incredible, that is a saint of a horse, the way he ignored that dog, particularly as it was barking at him as well…..
how you and he kept going particularly along side the, I think second water complex when the dog was literally under his
front feet…Wow and more wow…..
 
How proud must you be of your boy what a superstar. I'm amazed you were pulled up sooner the dog cut in front of you so much in front of the fences 🫣 could have caused a nasty accident
 
Cloball said:
How proud must you be of your boy what a superstar. I'm amazed you were pulled up sooner the dog cut in front of you so much in front of the fences 🫣 could have caused a nasty accident
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Yes, I should definitely have been pulled up before fence 8 when the dog had kept up with me on a long gaoping stretch. I kept looking for FJs with red flags but they didn't materialize for a long time...
 
RachelFerd said:
Yes, I should definitely have been pulled up before fence 8 when the dog had kept up with me on a long gaoping stretch. I kept looking for FJs with red flags but they didn't materialize for a long time...
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He, your horse wasn’t looking for red flags, well not stopping ones! Far too locked onto fences, he never looked sideways at all….
 
Gosh, he really is super. What a good boy. I’m not one for complaining, but I hope you are going to put in an official complaint because that’s so dangerous. I can’t believe you werent stopped before. I know the fence judges are volunteers and a lot of people on here volunteer and you don’t want to put people off volunteering but the system needs looking at perhaps as to when it was first reported and how long it took the red flag instruction to be given.
 
OMG, I'm shocked they didn't pull you up sooner! 😱
Your horse is an absolute saint, what a legend, he didn't bat an eyelid! That jump after the water where the dog literally leapt out under him!!!
Imagine the insurance/liability implications if the dog had caused an accident, which could easily have been the case, doesn't bear thinking about.
 
That’s appalling that they let you carry on. It could have been really nasty. I guess if you pulled yourself up the dog might have been more likely to go for your horse? Anyway, you said the dog belonged to a name, they should really be ashamed
 
humblepie said:
Gosh, he really is super. What a good boy. I’m not one for complaining, but I hope you are going to put in an official complaint because that’s so dangerous. I can’t believe you werent stopped before. I know the fence judges are volunteers and a lot of people on here volunteer and you don’t want to put people off volunteering but the system needs looking at perhaps as to when it was first reported and how long it took the red flag instruction to be given.
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I am sure fence judges were calling in to control, but as a fence judge, you can NOT stop a horse without being told to, and the rider had to wait until officially stopped, as she may have been penalised as daft as that sounds…..
 
Marshpiper said:
I am sure fence judges were calling in to control, but as a fence judge, you can NOT stop a horse without being told to, and the rider had to wait until officially stopped, as she may have been penalised as daft as that sounds…..
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Yes indeed that is partly what I meant is that the system between a report from an FJ and response on that probably needs to be looked at so the event’s own communications rather than anything. It is daft that you can’t stop if you think there is a health and safety hazard.
 
OMG your horse is simply incredible, as were you!
If you had pulled up yourself surely you wouldn’t have been penalised, or would you?
I’m not sure what it’s going to take to ban dogs from these events, and I say that as a dog person 😬 looks like dog was a whippet and very fast found it easy to keep up 😖
 
I've just watched that on a bigger screen & even knowing you both came home safely it made me queasy. I have a pony here who isn't great with dogs charging around and I don't think there would have been the same outcome (leaving aside we don't jump fences that big!)

I'd be interested to hear where BE think liability would lie in the event of an accident. Your horse was a saint but that could really have ended very differently.
 
Bl**dy hell - that could have been very nasty. What a super horse to stay focused, and a massive well done to you for your focus too.

I watched with my OH and he was so impressed by the dog that he failed to appreciate the danger to you...typical non-horsey male!
 
KEK said:
OMG your horse is simply incredible, as were you!
If you had pulled up yourself surely you wouldn’t have been penalised, or would you?
I’m not sure what it’s going to take to ban dogs from these events, and I say that as a dog person 😬 looks like dog was a whippet and very fast found it easy to keep up 😖
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Sadly, I think as far as the rules go...she would have been penalised....I asked the question after a dog incident some years ago, and was told that if I had pulled up I would have been deemed to have retired, or if I had circled, I would have been given a refusal....Either course of action would only have been fault free if the officials had directed me to do so.

I think that the decision should be allowed to be made by the rider, and fully backed by the officials with adjustments to score/time as required.

I also think that a mandatory fine of £500 to get your dog back might concentrate the mind slightly?

Many congratulations to both horse and rider for this incident....retaining your focus and riding very professionally!
 
quizzie said:
Sadly, I think as far as the rules go...she would have been penalised....I asked the question after a dog incident some years ago, and was told that if I had pulled up I would have been deemed to have retired, or if I had circled, I would have been given a refusal....Either course of action would only have been fault free if the officials had directed me to do so.

I think that the decision should be allowed to be made by the rider, and fully backed by the officials with adjustments to score/time as required.

I also think that a mandatory fine of £500 to get your dog back might concentrate the mind slightly?

Many congratulations to both horse and rider for this incident....retaining your focus and riding very professionally!
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I agree on all counts.

I think the rules need looking at. Dogs, Spectators, other competing horses not getting out the way. Any obvious safety hazard, the rider should be able to pull up without penalty imo. How that gets stewarded time wise could be complicated though.

Agree. Proper fines mandated.

Eta the lorry park is a real issue. So many dogs owned by competitors loose around the lorries. 99.9% of the time not an issue. But that 0.1% …… especially if it’s a lurcher with a high chase or escaping vibe 😉
 
ihatework said:
I agree on all counts.

I think the rules need looking at. Dogs, Spectators, other competing horses not getting out the way. Any obvious safety hazard, the rider should be able to pull up without penalty imo. How that gets stewarded time wise could be complicated though.

Agree. Proper fines mandated.

Eta the lorry park is a real issue. So many dogs owned by competitors loose around the lorries. 99.9% of the time not an issue. But that 0.1% …… especially if it’s a lurcher with a high chase or escaping vibe 😉
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Time adjustments should be perfectly feasible, as the time of each horse is taken at each fence.....so just chop out the stopped part, and substitute the average speed between those two fences.

Agree re the lorry park....lurchers can be very agile escape artists...... and selectively deaf....

I was lucky that a short legged terrier ran out of puff quite quickly on the XC, and a labrador mooching across the SJ just as I turned into the treble wasn't actually interested in me and continued on its path, clearing the jump just in time!!!....but neither were experiences I would wish to repeat.
 
Fantastic round, RF.

As a FJ , if not pre alerted you wouldn’t have time to both the spot the dog and to safely stop the horse before they all passed you. As a FJ I would just stuff the orders at briefing and always pull a horse up if something clearly dangerous was ongoing, I wouldn’t sit watching like a lemon, but there really wouldn’t have been time, I think.

Disgraceful from control that it took that long to flag you down. Please do make a formal complaint to BE and give a link to the video.

As a rider you should be able to stop on course without penalty even if not flagged down if something like that happens.

Have you heard any more from the dog’s owner?
 
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