Hickstead Sunday

Well from what was actually told to the long queue of people waiting to come in (which was not a lot) there was only 1 tractor for the entire event to pull people in and out of the showground which meant not enough people were leaving (as the ground was so boggy) and the horsebox park was full! I was in the queue for over 2 hours, by the time i got to the front of the queue i got a call to say my class had closed so was no longer able to jump and left.

Some poeple were parking in the pub car park up the road and hacking in, others were trying to get in via the main entrance. Chaos really, was very cross indeed. We were predicted rain and more precautions should have been in place to allow for the popularity and shear size and organisation a show of this calibre takes.

Has put me off Showjumping as many places seem to have problems with their time management and do not think i shall be renewing my BSJA membership. Shall stick to eventing!
 
I would be having words and asking for my money back TBH! On Fri and SAt they were jumping in the all weather warm up area instead of the smaller rings. At times the warm up looked fun! Too many in a small area
 
Yes, I was riding in the RC teams. I had hitched a lift with a member in our 2nd team, got stuck in the queue. I unloaded, trotted into the warm up, was about 5th to go by then! Jumped and tried to find my teammate. Uuum, cut a long story short, after a tractor tow later she got her horse home after it being stuck on the lorry for 7 hours. Needless to say she didnt jump. I cant believe the state of the lorry fields, they looked like people had been coming and going all week, surely there must have been a contingency plan after the weather around the derby meeting?
 
As a spectator, I felt so very very sorry for all the people stuck in lorries trying to get in. It was a complete and utter c*ck up!!!

A friend of mine was in the RC teams and spent 2 hours queuing to get in and then didn't get home till really late and we are only local, so god knows what time some of the poor souls got home. She said the lorry park was hideous - luckily for her we had been on the Thursday and someone had said how bad the lorry park was on Wednesday, so she had left the lorry at home and hitched a lift in a team mates trailer, as the trailers were having a bit more luck getting out than the lorries.

Its not the first time Hickstead have had problems with the traffic etc and in my opinion its about time they got it sorted out. The whole place needs updating - they ask enough money for the public to get in, so money just isn't an excuse in my book.

I mainly went to watch the dressage, but even that was disappointing. They had shoved all the public grandstands right up one end at A with limited viewing, just so all the (pretty much empty!) hospitality could be spread out along both long sides.

I am a member of "friends of hickstead" so I can get my passes for the dressage on all days, but am seriously considering not renewing that either. We didn't even have proper seating like last year - just some very hard and horrible bench type seating.

I also thought the quality and numbers of entries in the dressage classes were down too. Not many top names, although some of what we saw was lovely.

Had a good four days at Hickstead, but have to admit, not the best or most memorable.

Personally I wouldn't blame any of our international riders from any discipline if they struck Hickstead off their list of competitions!
 
I was also doing RC teams, and it took over 2 hours from entrance to parking, and again at the end of the day..pretty ridiculous - 2 tractors was really not enough!! I ended up tacking mine up on the lorry and unloading halfway down the driveway, to hack up in time for my class.
Had a fab SJ round, but it was a veeeery long day for just the one round!
 
We arrived at 6.10am so that I could work my horse in before my 8am class. We got onto the showground (were about 7th in the queue). Took another 45 minutes to get towed anywhere and I finally got the horse off the lorry at 7.10am and went straight down to the ring (as we had been parked right at the top of the hill which is MILES to the ring we were in). Took another 1.5 hours to get towed out again. Some people missed their classes (none of the showing ones though - I think we were all there at least an hour before we needed to be just in case as our classes were very early). However, anyone arriving around midday would have had a real problem.
 
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