Hickstead NC team

VDL Group Amelie by Luidam ridden bt leopold van asten who brought it from here (i think he said from a girl called something fox) about seven months ago.
 
british showjumping is not getting the results as it is far too busy throwing money into the pony/young/ junior teams, yes they do get the results but does this ever move on to the senior teams ??? no these riders seen to fall by the wayside and the bsja should be looking into why this is as we need to be competitive in our nc teams to put british sj bck on the map
 
You are making a valid point but one reason the young riders don't often go onto be seniors is surely that as they get older they probably realise they would be better off doing a ' proper job' to earn a living and have horse as a hobby.

Unless you are one of the lucky ones whose family are either steeped in the sport or very rich the obstacles to doing it for a living must be insurmountable.

A, you wouldn't get sponsorship cos no buggers ever heard of you,
B, you won't get heard of cos you can't afford a horse good enough to get you noticed
C. you'd probably have to work really hard to build up a clientel of locals for lessons to at least have some regular income coming in which thus reduces your time available to produce and compete your horse
D, the costs of setting up a yard are huge

The lists probably goes on and on.............


The VOICE - Not sure if your last comment was directed at me but didn't go for a horse went for another house instead.
 
yes i understand all this (im in this situation myself) but why is the bsja not funding talented amateurs like they fund the juniors, people such as Vicky Tulloch??? good results a talented horse with form yet ignored by the bsja in favour of the "names" on what may not be such a consistent horse, but they will have a string so can always back there place up with another horse, i think the bsja has got its priorites wrong and that needs to be looked into if we are to regain form in nc again
 
I suppose they are playing ' safe' with the names in that if they went for someone more risky and it went pearshaped they would be in for loads of criticism.

One of the noticeable things I think is that none of this sport is dealt with as a team, its all about how far you can get on your own in isolation. Ie can you as an individual find and afford the right horse, can you attract and retain new owners / sponsors, can you find the right trainer to get the best out of your partnership. We all know horses go better for different riders so why not mix n match a bit more to see which rider gets the best from which horse.

Its a shame in a way there aren't a pool of talented horses that can be matched to talented riders so everyone gets some experience at the higher levels.

Am just pondering now........

I do think though from an outsiders point of view that the BSJA need to begin running a business rather than a sport and they need to work on their credibility with their members cos without that they are on a hiding to nothing.
 
they need to remember that we are essentially thier customers, and the customer is always right!!! i think you make a super point in that talented riders should be matched with talented riders, perhaps the bsja could buy some ??? but this maybe open to alot of critism and "favouritism", it is not often that you here fvourable comments about the bsja, perhaps they could send round a survey about there service like be??? would be a start
 
TBH if you are not extremely wealthy or have really good connections I would take up ping pong instead. Everything about SJ conspires against you.

You aren't likely to get any kind of government funding cos the figures don't stack up ie a million would buy one horse that could break down v a zillion cricket bats. Which way would you go to help promote a sport for the most people to participate.

Do the BSJA have a vision of how they see the sport progressing in the future and have they communicated that to members inviting feedback or are they firefighting and plugging todays gaps with the same old faces ?

The way I see it the Whitakers had better keep breeding.

Can you tell i'm bored at work.
 
Dont get me started on this subject, it depresses me entirely how many good young riders give up or move abroad or what ever.
 
maybe i should mate with a whitaker ???? (might be a case of super expensive stallion and mare not up to it though
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) the bsja are only interested in making money and do nothing for the grassroots amateur who is essentially keeping them going
the only vision for the future they have is how the keep increasing there profit every year
and its all very well just using the same old faces but there shelf life is ever shortening and may concerb is who is going to take over the reins (pardon the pun) when they hang up there boots (another 1!!!)???
i doubt the bsja has a long term plan and if they do i would like to see it
 
Such a shame but if the grass roots folk are the main funders it would be foolish to alienate them.

Maybe a couple of grass root supporters should be nominated to the board to represent the interests of the grass root silent majority
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Either that or don a heavy yorkshire accent and arrive on the circuit as Lady Whitaker of Bradford
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You'll probably get a call up next month.
 
Corlato is just back in action after some time off - she had an embryo transfer and it took it out of her a bit, but she jumped well at the Yorkshire so hopefully she will be back on top form soon
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British show jumping is heading to its grave. The sad fact is that the BSJA are to blame.

I'm not longer a member, but when I was, as both an owner and owner/rider, I was disgusted at every aspect - their administration, their organisation, their treatment of members and their inability to make anything straightforward or enjoyable.

The only rider we have with a consistent international record is Michael Whitaker, who, of course, has been caught up in this media-attention-seeking FEI witch hunt and is receiving absolutely NO support from the BSJA, despite it being glaringly obvious that there was no intentional rule breaking going on at all. There is very little chance Michael will compete on the British teams in the future given the way he's being treated - well done BSJA.

I'm also sick of hearing the line "we are making the sport more accessible to the public". How? Has anyone looked at the prices of tickets for the Europeans? They are not selling very quickly and why would they at 22-49 quid per session? The same for Kentucky - ticket prices have tripled for some sessions since Aachen. Now I'm a lifelong supporter of show jumping and I am refusing to pay those prices, so why would your average member of the public think "ooh, the European Championships are at Windsor this weekend, let's take the family for a day out?"

In short: the BSJA will be the death of show jumping in this country, and it's not very far off at all.
 
Actually ticket price is very valid, we are only going to the Europeans for the jumping and the afternoon was £49 ?. I wanted to stay for the dressage aswell but my friends couldn't afford the same money again for a dressage ticket. Also we didn't go to our usual windsor visit as both would be too dear.

Olympia is heading this way aswell, we've paid £53 for a seat this year and I know a couple of families who have now been outpriced from this.
 
I'm hoping there's a miracle and the team does good... but once again I am a little unsure about the team that has been picked... Peter Charles should definately be there, as he has been so consistant in the Nations cups this year, it just depends on if his horses are tiring a little, as they have travelled a lot this year. Ben Maher should perform well in that arena. Unsure about Robert on Vangelis and Tim on Omelli. Both could pull it out of the bag and go well, but could also have a few fences down. The ground is about perfect at Hickstead, so I think we will see a fair number of double clears. Personally I think it will be won on a clean sheet or a maximum four faults. The pressure will be on for us to do well though... 9th place is not where we'd really wanted to be at this stage. I'm still not convinced about this so-called lack of horsepower in this country. I think there are some seriously good horses around, but they seem to be choosing from a puddle when they could be choosing from a larger pond. Look what happened last year when they picked someone from outside the normal group - Charlotte Platt jumped a double clear. Has she sol that horse? And how come she hasn't been on anymore teams after that? We also have missed a couple of opportunities to try new people out - for example they didnt send a team to Copenhagen... surely they would hae been better sending a team to try out people that have performed consistantly to a certain level? I've been following the stairway series and some horses are jumping seriously well in those. Also watched a huge class at Chester - 1.55/1.65 in height, and the big class at the Yorkshire Show - and again there were a few horses that stood out. Tina Fletcher on Promised Land is performing very consistantly over some big tracks this year. Anyway, I shall look forward to hearing the result from Hickstead. Good luck Team GB, we could really do with a win! ... miracles may happen!
 
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British show jumping is heading to its grave. The sad fact is that the BSJA are to blame.
The only rider we have with a consistent international record is Michael Whitaker

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What about Peter Charles? He's been pretty consistant. I think we do have horses and riders in the country that could compete consistantly abroad, but many don't have the backing, and are simply not given the chance to do so. I agree that it all seems to be heading down the pan though... which is a shame. I think other countries think we're a bit of a joke to be honest. Having said that, their equestrian federations are often given much more government funding than us. Our government just want to make money out of horsey people - apparantly the new idea is a tax for horse owners!
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Actually ticket price is very valid, we are only going to the Europeans for the jumping and the afternoon was £49 ?. I wanted to stay for the dressage aswell but my friends couldn't afford the same money again for a dressage ticket. Also we didn't go to our usual windsor visit as both would be too dear.

Olympia is heading this way aswell, we've paid £53 for a seat this year and I know a couple of families who have now been outpriced from this.

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It's sad isnt it?
Since we have next to no TV time,it would make far more sense to have low ticket prices to encorage more people through the gates-Windsor is hardly a million miles away from civilization-if tickets were more affordbble a hell of a lot of people would pop along for a family day out all spending money at teh show which in turn encorages sponsers & trade stands paying to be there and puts the sport in a better position to command air time.
Lowering prices would of course mean less in the bank for a while,but IMO the long term gains are well worth it.

Maybe since what the BSJA is doing is clearly not working,they should take a look at how the racing industry makes itself so popular...or maybe BE can pimp out Zara Phillips to get more publiic intrest
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Yes especially after we've just had a prime time TV show of Windsor courtesy of Alan Titchmarch. Imagine if families saw that and thought lets go there for a day out only to see the extortionate prices. Hardly an incentive to encourage more interest is it.

The public think that stereotypically horsey people are loaded and this won't help them think otherwise.
 
They are doing that now - looking into the other horse industries, including racing to see how they can make it more popular. The British Masters at Chester is a good show - it's on canterbanter on 5th Augyust. The betting idea seems popular. I think they should promote that idea a bit more - like at the big county shows having betting booths. the public will be much more interested if they think that they can make some money out of it! It would definately help if we could get more media attention for the sport and what we need most of all is bigger sponsers. Look at all the massive sponsers in polo for example. Have to say, they are trying to publicise it a bit more - with canter banter, and stuff like that. I think Maria clayton is doing a good job of trying to make showjumping a more popular sport. I think they need to add more glamour to the shows too - owners and riders marquees at county shows, champagne bars, etc... rather than a chip van and a porta loo, lol
 
No offence but who the hell watches canter banter ? The british masters was introduced as a winning success yet the photo's that came out show empty grandstands so it smacks of a PR stunt trying to make it look more popular than it was.

Even Hickstead coverage this year was dull and thats a big TV highlight.
 
Problems this year. I know this is a statement of the obvious but:
No Peppermill since Rome, no Corlato, no Omelli (yet), no Locarno, Arko and Russel retired, Rolette, Billy Birr sold. No Paulien since La Baule when it did not jump on the team. No Michael since before Aachen etc etc etc. That is a big hole to fill.

That leaves you with several of our best riders without their best recognised horse or with inexperienced but potentially good horses or inexperienced riders with potentially good horses. Some new combinations have been picked and you can see some of their results improving with experience.
As far as the Hickstead team is concerned I think it is spot on - Pete and Ben have been consistently good, Robert has two clear rounds to his name in Nations Cup this year and Tim's horse is world class and looks fit again.

Good luck.
 
I am not sure that Tim Gredley and Robert Smith are the best choice for this competition, they seem to possibly be there on past performance rather than where they are now.

I do agree with Quadro that there are a few younger tallented horse and rider combinations who are being over looked. From watcing the showjumping at this years Royal and Great Yorkshire then obviously Tina Fletcher, Vicky Tulloch and William Whitaker are all perfroming well at the moment, and Geoff Luckett has had a few good results too.

I do feel that the BSJA are maybe trying to play it safe by backing riders with a history of multiple top ranked horses rather than looking at indevidual horse and rider combinations that are currently performing consistantly well and could perform well for us and bring back a bit of excitment and pride in the team.
 
good point, but canterbanter has been bought by sky now so maybe that will allow more viewers to see it... I guess they are trying. I would agree that the tv footage does tend to be a bit dull though
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I wan;t saying I didn't agree with the team - I said I was unsure about Robert and Tim, although both are capable of producing a clear. Omelli didn't jump well at the last show I saw him at, but I'm not sure what he has done since then. Like I said in an earlier post I think that there are more potential team combinations than people think - but a lot are not given a chance to prove themselves. Corlato is back... just, so lets hope that they will be back on top form soon, as that is a good combination. I don't think the retiral of Russell is exactly a loss, as that was inconsistant. We could do with another Arko though. Where is Paulien? Is it off? or just not being picked? I still think there are more to choise from - Guy on Torinto, Laura on Limelight, Helen on Oppy, Geoff on Rosinus, other Geoff on Brickfield Boy, Tina Fletcher on Promised Land, Scott Brash on Intertoy, Vicky Tulloch on Soliegette, Ellen on Occolado, etc...
 
Omelli has been jumping consistently well on the GCT this year....you just don't see him jumping in the UK these days...not enough prize money
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Not sure what has happenned to Paulien...but agree that they did a fantastic job at Hickstead last year.

Guy was on the team in Falsterbo but had a few down from memory. Not convinced about Rosinus at all and i don't really see Limelight as a Super League horse either.

I think Peppermill is being saved for Windsor...and if Corlato is back jumping then she will be in with a chance of a team place. Vangelis won at Chester which is the biggest thing you can win in this country really...and obviously Ben and Robin Hood are the leading Brits on the GCT league at the moment.

I think we can/will pull out a decent squad for the Europeans...my concern is if we can get enough points to stay in the Superleague next year.

I suspect the fact that we are now only allowed 4 riders at Superleague shows may have something to do with the preference for riders with more than one horse at that level...imagine losing your only NC horse for whatever reason...the other 3 then have to score...
 
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VDL Group Amelie by Luidam ridden bt leopold van asten who brought it from here (i think he said from a girl called something fox) about seven months ago.

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Lucretia do you have any info about where Amelie is now??? My SJ instructor bred her, my mum and I helped break her in and did a lot of the early work with her...I knew she was sold abroad but didnt know where to, I'd love to have some info on her if you could point me in the right direction
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the clue is in my post Mizel...... she is now in holland where she is ridden by leopld van asten if you send me a pm to reming me I might be able to find a picture or two xx
 
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