For those not yet completely bored of the EE debate...

TableDancer

TableDancer

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...There is a thread running on the BE Forum which has what I consider to be a superb post by someone called Andree Thomas (could be pseudonym
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). It's in General Discussion on the "Loss of Call Again Cavalier and Express Eventing" Topic. I'd be interested in your views and if you think she's right, it would be good to back her up on that forum. She's written to ME-S.

BTW I posted basically a copy and paste from a reply I made on a thread here so you can fast forward through that if you don't want to fall asleep!
 
Yes... I have just read the whole thread.
Andree makes complete sense. I agree with her/his comments completely. It sounds like it has been written by a vastly experienced person, with horse/rider and the sports best interests close to their heart.
I don't want to see EE again.
I hope the huge efforts that went into promoting it can be put to good use within BE itself.
 
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i dont see what happened.. dont know what happened.. eventing is dangerous.. horses die..

Lou x

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You are totally missing the point - EE was not a disaster because of Cavvy's death, it was a disaster long before that point!!
 
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You are totally missing the point - EE was not a disaster because of Cavvy's death, it was a disaster long before that point!!

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This is also my opinion. It was awful to watch from the very first round.
 
But WHY was it a disaster?!! It is something that has been thought out/organised by some of the most experienced organisers in eventing so it should be feasible.

The whole "it will never work, money should go to BE" will never happen, this event was privately funded by a no. of different business people/supporters of equestrian sport.
 
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But WHY was it a disaster?!! It is something that has been thought out/organised by some of the most experienced organisers in eventing so it should be feasible.

The whole "it will never work, money should go to BE" will never happen, this event was privately funded by a no. of different business people/supporters of equestrian sport.

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Have you looked at that BE thread, K? Just interested because there are some suggestions on there as to why it doesn't work. Paul Tapner just reckons eventing isn't a stadium sport and he could be right. I agree the organising team was impressive and in some ways that is more alarming because if they can't make it a success no-one can. I still think that to expect the sums to add up to be able to offer that level of prize money was optimistic in the extreme - I'm sure there was a comprehensive Business Plan which showed that it could be done, but there must have been some pretty hefty assumptions in the model and in the end it's only as good as the data you put in! I applaud the experiment and respect what they were trying to achieve, but I think I am coming down in the camp which says this ain't going to work so don't keep fiddling about with it to see if you can make it better, just accept it and move on. I appreciate everyone isn't of the same opinion though, and it will be interesting to see how it all pans out.
 
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But WHY was it a disaster?!! It is something that has been thought out/organised by some of the most experienced organisers in eventing so it should be feasible.

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Just because some of the most experienced people in the sport thought it up and organised it does not mean it will work - that is flawed logic I'm afraid, because if it were true, then no business idea backed by, lets say, Duncan Bannatyne or Alan Sugar would ever fail, and they do!

As for why it was a disaster, well, only 6 out of 19 people completed, not a great success rate really, and of those who did complete, Clayton would have been E at any normal competition for outside assistance when the crowd told him where to go, and Caroline Powell came 6th even though she jumped outside the flags TWICE at one fence, which would have got her 60 penalties at a normal event and shoved her well down the order.

IMO the main reason it was a disaster (without rehashing all the things which have been said elsewhere about the details) is that they started too big with no 'dry run' to iron out any problems. Had this started out small and built up into something which was 4* invite only at the Millennium Stadium with a 100K prize fund 8 years from now, then yes, it probably would have stood a much better chance of working. As it was, every little error was obvious, people are much more unforgiving about it because the tickets were expensive and it was hyped so much, and the accumulation of lots of things going wrong just served to magnify all the issues.

I have no doubt it is feasible, but it was essentially a new sport - you would not expect to start any new sport with a fixture like Badminton and for it to go well, you need it to grow into that ironing out problems along the way.
 
Yep I have looked. I am of mixed opinion tbh.... I do think it should be feasible, but obvioulsy there is alot that needs to be worked on, and the organisers are aware of that. I just resent things being written off without being given a chance when they have been worked so hard for?!
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I too will be watching with baited breath to see what happens next....
 
Another really good point which has been made on the BE forum is that this was basically a scaled up version of 'arena eventing' and so far in the past 12 months a child has died doing it (at Milton Keynes) and a horse has been killed - so perhaps Paul Tapner has a very very good point, and that eventing is not a stadium/arena event? Those two accidents were basically at the opposite extremes of the sport - I think the class at Milton Keynes was about 2'6" wasn't it?
 
I haven't been over to the BE site yet but Vittoria Panizzon (sorry spelling gone wonky) wrote a very good blog on www.horsehero.com from the competitor's point of view. It was very interesting to hear how the organisation came across from the other side of the fence and is definitely worthwhile reading
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Off to lunge horse now but will read the BE forum this evening if there's nothing good on TV!
 
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