Eventing in the heat...

[Ample Prosecco]

Conditions at Eland were actually pretty good today. Felt very dry and with a fair breeze so it felt alright. I'll do a proper report but just re the heat - my plan was to let her just bowl along at her own pace. Forgetting I was sitting on LOTTIE.. So actually I spent the round trying to slow her down! And took about 100m to pull up at the end. She had a ball! DC, well within the time.

 

[Michen]

Conditions at Eland were actually pretty good today. Felt very dry and with a fair breeze so it felt alright. I'll do a proper report but just re the heat - my plan was to let her just bowl along at her own pace. Forgetting I was sitting on LOTTIE.. So actually I spent the round trying to slow her down! And took about 100m to pull up at the end. She had a ball! DC, well within the time.

Yep we had the breeze yesterday. It was absolutely fine. But I was glad Bog had a stable!

Congrats on the DC!

 

[stevieg]

We withdrew from Eland today, as did half the other competitors looking at the results. Our initial plan was to just do the dressage & the showjumping, as the ground was far too hard for my liking, but when we saw the times we decided we'd rather lose our money.

 

[Michen]

We withdrew from Eland today, as did half the other competitors looking at the results. Our initial plan was to just do the dressage & the showjumping, as the ground was far too hard for my liking, but when we saw the times we decided we'd rather lose our money.

Should have gone to aston there was actual MUD. I was annoyed I hadn’t bought my stud girth to stud in front! Amazing going.

 

[Ample Prosecco]

My section was full. I was done by 10:30 am before it got too hot. Later sections were more depleted but actually conditions were fine. There was a good breeze and it felt comfortable. Ground was fairly hard but no more so than any other year.

 

[Michen]

I think hard ground is such a personal thing. A lovely girl messaged me in FB to say the ground was hard at Aston to give me a heads up, she had walked the course the night before (cue me firing a quick message to IHW as her horse had been running) and for me it was muddy and not remotely hard- though they may have extensively watered overnight.

In other countries people crack on and run whatever. I would not run on hard ground personally but I have a medically complicated horse.

However what’s right or wrong for him is not the same for someone else’s horses!

 

[Ample Prosecco]

I agree. Lottie barely broke a sweat - literally. She is super fit and never seems bothered by heat. She was stood in the shade after the event in a water soaked fly rug. She always drinks well, had recovery mash afterwards. She never looked stressed or even uncomfortable at any point during the day. And conditions were fine - a combo of low humidity and a breeze meant easy evaporation of sweat.

I totally understand why people make different choices but those who did turn up today had a good run.

 

[Michen]

I agree. Lottie barely broke a sweat - literally. She is super fit and never seems bothered by heat. She was stood in the shade after the event in a water soaked fly rug. She always drinks well, had recovery mash afterwards. She never looked stressed or even uncomfortable at any point during the day. And conditions were fine - a combo of low humidity and a breeze meant easy evaporation of sweat.

I totally understand why people make different choices but those who did turn up today had a good run.

All the horses I saw SJing looked very perky!

 

[Ample Prosecco]

The SJ arena was far hotter than the XC. But luckily we weren’t in there long!

 

[RachelFerd]

The clue with Eland is that it is by Dracott in the Clay.

 

[Ample Prosecco]

This might sound like a daft question but how do you assess impact of different kinds of ground? How hard is too hard and how do you even tell? I worry about tendon injuries in mud. Or slipping injuries on wet grass. I prefer it firm and dry. I walked the course the week before and the day before. It felt fine to me and pony club camp were there so they obviously thought it was ok too. But are there specific markers I should be looking at for - like the ‘if your fork prongs hit the stable floor you don’t have enough straw down - marker. Or the don’t tow in winds over 40 mph marker?

 

[Red-1]

This might sound like a daft question but how do you assess impact of different kinds of ground? How hard is too hard and how do you even tell? I worry about tendon injuries in mud. Or slipping injuries on wet grass. I prefer it firm and dry. I walked the course the week before and the day before. It felt fine to me and pony club camp were there so they obviously thought it was ok too. But are there specific markers I should be looking at for - like the ‘if your fork prongs hit the stable floor you don’t have enough straw down - marker. Or the don’t tow in winds over 40 mph marker?

If the ground has a ring to it, it is too hard for me, when on the horse. There has to be some give underfoot when I walk the course initially, like walking on a carpet as opposed to tiles.

I prefer soft courses to hard. I do think it is also relevant as to what surface you train on though. I don't trot on the roads, but will on prepared (compressed hard core) tracks that are too hard to canter (as they have a ring to them). I only canter on those with a dull thud.

 

[Ample Prosecco]

Thanks - there was no ring to the ground. If I understand what you mean by that. And yes it felt like carpet not tiles. Well it felt like grass not tiles! But I can't imagine grass not feling like grass so it all seems a bit vague. When I jumped down from tne trailer the ground felt springy. I have knackered ankles so get jarred easily. It did not feel like jumping down onto a hard surface.

 

[Red-1]

Thanks - there was no ring to the ground. If I understand what you mean by that. And yes it felt like carpet not tiles. Well it felt like grass not tiles! But I can't imagine grass not feling like grass so it all seems a bit vague. When I jumped down from tne trailer the ground felt springy. I have knackered ankles so get jarred easily. It did not feel like jumping down onto a hard surface.

I withdrew (mentally) from one event (in Lincolnshire) by just doing that, jumping down from the wagon. It was rock hard. I did walk over to the dressage and SJ areas to see if it were better. The actual SJ arena had been slit, but the warm ups for both and the dressage had not been treated.

I withdrew and then did walk the XC course to inform myself for future years. It was heart breaking to see horses set off looking happy and confident and lose that happy look as they went round. The take offs and landings had been prepared, but just with old hard core that was compressed. It was still rock hard and stony. There were many stops at the end of the course. I was amazed that so many people ran.

We went home.

As I said though, I am fussy. I was at Somerford in April where, the week before, the ground had been perfect. The weather had suddenly changed and the ground was rock hard. The photographer said that, even 3 days previously, the ground had been great. When I was there though, it was rock hard. A definite ring to it on the large schooling area. The prepared take offs and landings were baked hard, like concrete. It was like the elephant in the room, people jumping daily. I did a little on the first day and decided to simply hack round at walk with my group the 2nd, popping just a ditch and splashing through the water. Camp was still a fabulous experience, but it was worrying how much jumping was done on that ground, to me anyways.

 

[Ample Prosecco]

I think much of the furore over this weekend was fueled by a FB post by David Marlin. He described the fact that thermal stress (ie impact of hot conditions on the horse) is not just about air temp but about other variables like humidity. Which gives you a measure called the WBGT. Which is useful to know and makes sense. But then came up with some hypothetical numbers for those variables and concluded WBGT temps were likely to be near the limit for safey across the whole country. Cue a gazillion calls to organisers and BE plus social medial piles ons to any event not cancelling. Forcing BE and FEI to publically post that the conclusions of his post were 'totally inaccurate' and giving accurate WBGT measurements on courses of about 22 degrees. Ie they took ACTUAL measuresment of ACTUAL numbers and WBGT was way lower than air temperature. This made no difference of course because once people get a head of steam up about something on social media it just accelerates and everyone joins the party. Under Marlin's comments there were loads of replies along the lines of 'of course it's too hot to ride, just go outside, it's boiling'. Ie people agreeing with him by saying the precise opposite of what his post was about (which was air temps are not the way to assess thermal stress).

Last year at Berriewood for one of the BEU18s qualifiers, it was 28 degrees. Dolly struggled a bit, came home with 15 time pens and it took us a while to cool her down afterwards. (By contrast yesterday Lottie strolled back to the box like she'd been to the beach). I didn't know about WBGT then but it makes perfect sense because it was muggy and still that day so thermal stress was far higher. There was precisely zero commentary about the conditions on social media about whether events should run or not. And all sections seemed to be running as full as usual.

 

[Ample Prosecco]

Red-1 thanks, the 'jump from the trailer test' can be my new hard ground assessment!

 

[Tiddlypom]

Tbf to David Marlin, who is not my favourite person , his comments re the correct way to read the WBGT were backed up by a number of others who are familiar with the technique.

This was posted by BE on the British Eventing Official FB page

????????????? ?? ??????? ??????????? ??? ???? ???????? ???? ??????? ?? ????? ?????

Further to a high volume of calls being received by BE asking if the WBGT (Wet Bulb Globe Temperature) reading is the same as the weather temperature, we would like to confirm that THIS IS NOT the case.

An example of this is, where the temperature a few hours ago in the UK was recorded at 30.6℃. A WBGT reading taken at the same time recorded a number of 22.9℃ which is far below the acceptable level the FEI suggest which is of up to a reading of 32℃.

We understand that the calls to the office questioning why British Eventing are running this weekend have been driven by a recent post issued online. The post reportedly states that the weather temperatures expected this weekend would run close to the higher level of WBGT suggested acceptability. It is the opinion of both British Eventing and the FEI that this is incorrect and we would like to reassure members that equine welfare is at the forefront of everything we do.

WBGT tests will take place over the weekend, as will extra measures to ensure that cooling stations and fresh water are made available at all events affiliated to British Eventing.

The Amber Warning that is in place across specific areas of the country does not require sport to cease. It does however ask us to be mindful of the heat and to take extra measures to ensure our horses are well hydrated and kept as cool as possible.

But below is one of the many comments querying whether the WBGT had been measured correctly, by someone who knows the technique. Nearly 400 comments overall re competition going ahead at the w/e.

As someone who worked on the heat mitigation team for the Tokyo Olympics and Tokyo pretest, I should suggest that the person who suggested the WBGT was 22.9 today, may well not know how to operate an extech and read the data correctly. Were you in a cool closet at the time because that’s certainly not the reading I have been taking today !

 

[Ample Prosecco]

His comments were accurate re WBGT but it was irresponsible I think to theorise about what WBGTs would be on all courses based on hypothetical data. I was at Eland - very dry, good breeze which all lower WBGT. No idea where the poster making the comment was taking his measurements but that’s the point isn’t it - you can’t just generalise. Just because his measurements were high where he was does not mean they were high everywhere. Or that other peoples measurements are wrong.

 

[RachelFerd]

This might sound like a daft question but how do you assess impact of different kinds of ground? How hard is too hard and how do you even tell? I worry about tendon injuries in mud. Or slipping injuries on wet grass. I prefer it firm and dry. I walked the course the week before and the day before. It felt fine to me and pony club camp were there so they obviously thought it was ok too. But are there specific markers I should be looking at for - like the ‘if your fork prongs hit the stable floor you don’t have enough straw down - marker. Or the don’t tow in winds over 40 mph marker?

Soft or wet ground is always safer than hard so long as it isn't sticky drying mud. Ground "feel" to us is hard to judge as horses will feel the lower layers much more than we do. Ground is not too firm if horses leave a clear indent as they gallop over it. At Gatcombe last weekend although it was on the firmer side of good, I was happy because horses were leaving clear footprints and the ground was just cutting up a little.

I think issue with Clay is that the lower layers of ground also get very compressed, meaning that firmness runs all the way through. No sandy give in the layers.

 

[Ample Prosecco]

Soft or wet ground is always safer than hard so long as it isn't sticky drying mud. Ground "feel" to us is hard to judge as horses will feel the lower layers much more than we do. Ground is not too firm if horses leave a clear indent as they gallop over it. At Gatcombe last weekend although it was on the firmer side of good, I was happy because horses were leaving clear footprints and the ground was just cutting up a little.

I think issue with Clay is that the lower layers of ground also get very compressed, meaning that firmness runs all the way through. No sandy give in the layers.

Thanks that's helpful x

 

[ihatework]

I’d love to see where David Marlin rates on the ego scale. In fact, is there even a scale long enough??

 

[Red-1]

Red-1 thanks, the 'jump from the trailer test' can be my new hard ground assessment!

LOL.

I did go check it out as, at some events, the ground conditions in the working areas can be very different from the lorry park. ALW would be somewhere that would be possible. Other areas may have the course on old turf, but the car parking on cultivated ground, so less forgiving. All weather SJ/warmup would also play a part.

I don't rely on footprints, for example I was at a camp the other week where the ground was dry and we left no footprints. However, the grass cover was springy due to being dense so I did XC school on it 2 days running. It sounded right, so I felt comfortable. The ground had also been slit, which I think helps.

 

[scats]

I’d love to see where David Marlin rates on the ego scale. In fact, is there even a scale long enough??

He has a very high opinion of himself, that’s for sure! ?

 

[Fieldlife]

This might sound like a daft question but how do you assess impact of different kinds of ground? How hard is too hard and how do you even tell? I worry about tendon injuries in mud. Or slipping injuries on wet grass. I prefer it firm and dry. I walked the course the week before and the day before. It felt fine to me and pony club camp were there so they obviously thought it was ok too. But are there specific markers I should be looking at for - like the ‘if your fork prongs hit the stable floor you don’t have enough straw down - marker. Or the don’t tow in winds over 40 mph marker?

I listen to the hoof beat sound of whatever horse I am riding can tell if there is jar or not. I will trot on roads, but some ground actually has more jar than our roads. Cantering I can tell where the cushion is / isn't and pull up immediately. There is a bit more margin on firm ground on a barefoot horse with boots and pads. You can feel the jar and hear it IMO.

I guage ground by a mix of what I can hear and how I feel walking and running on it. This works for frozen or deep school surfaces too.

 

[teapot]

I think much of the furore over this weekend was fueled by a FB post by David Marlin. He described the fact that thermal stress (ie impact of hot conditions on the horse) is not just about air temp but about other variables like humidity. Which gives you a measure called the WBGT. Which is useful to know and makes sense. But then came up with some hypothetical numbers for those variables and concluded WBGT temps were likely to be near the limit for safey across the whole country. Cue a gazillion calls to organisers and BE plus social medial piles ons to any event not cancelling. Forcing BE and FEI to publically post that the conclusions of his post were 'totally inaccurate' and giving accurate WBGT measurements on courses of about 22 degrees. Ie they took ACTUAL measuresment of ACTUAL numbers and WBGT was way lower than air temperature. This made no difference of course because once people get a head of steam up about something on social media it just accelerates and everyone joins the party. Under Marlin's comments there were loads of replies along the lines of 'of course it's too hot to ride, just go outside, it's boiling'. Ie people agreeing with him by saying the precise opposite of what his post was about (which was air temps are not the way to assess thermal stress).

Last year at Berriewood for one of the BEU18s qualifiers, it was 28 degrees. Dolly struggled a bit, came home with 15 time pens and it took us a while to cool her down afterwards. (By contrast yesterday Lottie strolled back to the box like she'd been to the beach). I didn't know about WBGT then but it makes perfect sense because it was muggy and still that day so thermal stress was far higher. There was precisely zero commentary about the conditions on social media about whether events should run or not. And all sections seemed to be running as full as usual.

BE themselves fuelled it though by posting figures that meant Marlin wasn’t the only one to question them.

If you’re going to post stats, you’ve got to be bloody sure they’re correct, or state specific to x location, nor post in a manner that comes across as money first, horses second (which a lot of people commented on).