London International horse show

Ibreally enjoyed the Beeb coverage this afternoon. Having William Whitaker giving his opinion was great alongside CB.
Saw the puissance which I had missed. Rachel is a beautiful rider. The Irish guy was doing everything he could to contain his horse who was absolutely off its head. The fact WW said he wouldn't go near it speaks volumes.
 
LeneHorse said:
I think I have fallen in love with Donald Whittakers mare 😍

It was certainly a course that favoured the smaller 'blood' horses. Personally I have no issue with this
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Lovely horse, but still too thin 😔 When they rode in Gothenburg horse show earlier this year people actually complained to the vets and also reported him to FEI.
 
Elno said:
Lovely horse, but still too thin 😔 When they rode in Gothenburg horse show earlier this year people actually complained to the vets and also reported him to FEI.
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I was waiting for a comment along these lines!

She is slim/lean but she is not too thin. Horses like people come in all shapes and sizes.
 
Elno said:
She was definitely too thin at GHS.

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She’s definitely lean. And yes I’d want more on her if she was mine both condition and muscling over back (and I suspect the Whittaker would like more on her too).

But she is who she is.

‘Too thin’ for what? To be out competing?
She has a good coat, a bright eye and full of energy. She’s a skinny minny. Some just are.
 
KikiDee said:
These were the rounds that I watched and I just see a rider in a snaffle, staying off the horses mouth into fences and using his body weight to bring the horse back between fences. 🤷‍♀️ Perhaps it is just Andrew's unique style if he rides other horses this way too but he looks like a calm and effective rider to me, I'm not sure what's horrible about it.

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I genuinely can't work out if he's good (seems to be able to see strides well, even in the puissance) and just doesn't care about looking tidy, or if he's inexperienced and has paid his way up the levels. I thought the long reins clinging with knees approach was just for turbo chestnut and the wall but looking at videos of him riding other horses he seems to do the same thing. Interesting. Not criticising at all just curious.
 
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We were there last night and were suprised to see nearly 25% of the seats empty. I suppose they’re just too expensive - we bought ours through Groupon and they were still over £40 half price.
Ben Maher’s tribute to Explosion W was lovely. The Hungarian display wasn’t the best one we’ve seen. Enjoyed the show but don’t think we’ll dash back next year.
 
asmp said:
We were there last night and were suprised to see nearly 25% of the seats empty. I suppose they’re just too expensive - we bought ours through Groupon and they were still over £40 half price.
Ben Maher’s tribute to Explosion W was lovely. The Hungarian display wasn’t the best one we’ve seen. Enjoyed the show but don’t think we’ll dash back next year.
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Yep same! No I didn’t think much of the Hungarian display! Shopping not as good this year either…not in a massive rush to go back either to be honest!
 
Haven't watched any of it this year. I always used to watch it, and any show jumping on TV so not sure why not watched it. Might watch a bit of it tonight if can track it down on Iplayer as it is the jockeys jumping and the grand prix.
 
I was fortunate to win some tickets to the Sunday afternoon performance, I enjoyed it but wouldn’t have wanted to pay to go, the seats were £110 each! It was well organised, the ground crew were brilliant. we only saw a bit of the Hungarian display but wasn’t the spectacle I thought would be.
 
asmp said:
We were there last night and were suprised to see nearly 25% of the seats empty. I suppose they’re just too expensive - we bought ours through Groupon and they were still over £40 half price.
Ben Maher’s tribute to Explosion W was lovely. The Hungarian display wasn’t the best one we’ve seen. Enjoyed the show but don’t think we’ll dash back next year.
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I think the lack of public transport after the evening on a sunday probably doesn't help, sister had to leave half way through the first round sjing you wouldn't want to do that with full price tickets. Also if you are planning on going on a sunday it makes more sense to watch the world cup in the afternoon for most.

In previous years they've upgraded people from the corners when there are spare tickets along the sides but the corners were fuller than the sides this year.
 
Babypony said:
I genuinely can't work out if he's good (seems to be able to see strides well, even in the puissance) and just doesn't care about looking tidy, or if he's inexperienced and has paid his way up the levels. I thought the long reins clinging with knees approach was just for turbo chestnut and the wall but looking at videos of him riding other horses he seems to do the same thing. Interesting. Not criticising at all just curious.
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I think the jury is out on Andrew's riding! some people think he's a light rider that keeps out of the horses way, other people think he's heavy, hard-handed and awful. It's definitely interesting how we can all perceive things so completely differently. 🤓

I'm purely hypothesising as I know nothing about the man but I don't think he's inexperienced - I'd say the opposite and he's possibly grown up on the hunting field and learned a way of riding that works for him, he has a very stable lower leg and good balance. He reminds me of a lot of the more 'old school' riders you used to see at the top levels that had less conventional ways of riding, not always tidy or very stylish but rode reasonably sympathetically and got the job done. I've been to a few demo's by Geoff Billington and he rides very differently compared to the young riders you see now! I do like that, from what I've seen, all Andrew's horses seem to jump in a basic snaffle set-up.
 
See I thought it's great you now have a second arena to go to too. And for the afternoon performance you were allowed in to see the morning stuff. So in all I think it's probably better value than Olympia was.

I don't mind the shopping being a bit rubbish, I have all I need tbh and am a bit bored with mass consumerism. If you needed something there.was plenty there to try on.

We will be back but maybe not for the top price tickets anymore just because it's quite pricey.
 
Agree, its great having the 2nd arena, we arrived about 12pm with our evening tickets, we easily filled the time until 6.30 between shopping, live talk zone, new arena and watching the warm up arena.

I didn't do any shopping but the 4 others I was with got everything they wanted, quite a lot of gin was also sampled 🤣 and as a non drinker I now know how to make a christmas expresso martini 🤣
 
ester said:
I think the lack of public transport after the evening on a sunday probably doesn't help, sister had to leave half way through the first round sjing you wouldn't want to do that with full price tickets. Also if you are planning on going on a sunday it makes more sense to watch the world cup in the afternoon for most.

In previous years they've upgraded people from the corners when there are spare tickets along the sides but the corners were fuller than the sides this year.
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We stayed at the Premier Inn at Beckton for £49 which is just a few stops on the DLR. We did notice people leaving before and through the jump off and wondered why.
 
I went yesterday to watch the world cup and had a fab time! Stands were full and the 128cm champs and the world cup were both good classes to watch. Thought 5 was about right for jump off, doesn't normally have much more in it.

I also liked the shopping, thought had a good mix of horse and none horse stuff. Also lots of room to look round and not rammed
 
asmp said:
We stayed at the Premier Inn at Beckton for £49 which is just a few stops on the DLR. We did notice people leaving before and through the jump off and wondered why.
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yup its def doable if hotelling/having it that side of london does mean reasonable priced hotels but plenty that wouldn't be suitable for everyone/live too close to justify that, sis was staying with friends as spending a few days in london. If you've a choice of day/time you'd make it easier for yourself and do a different one.

It has always been a bit of an issue on any night though, historically we had to drive to a closer station to get a late enough train, now driving is super easy - but glad we weren't going saturday as there'd been a major accident on the M11 which would have more than doubled the trip time.

Also discussing the cause/effect of which came first people leaving early or lack of finale meaning they don't bother to stay, I think over the last 20 years people have always left early though.

The funny bit was we'd chatted in the queue for the greek van with someone who ended up being the volunteer for our seating block and when we go there she was like Oh its you take all the glowsticks have as many as you want 🤣.
 
Muddywellies said:
I cheered for her when she entered. It takes some balls to face that crowd not knowing what sort of response you would get. Shes done more for dressage (including the wearing of helmets) than the rest of us put together.
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Why do we need more doing for dressage when it's just a constant barrage of horses being shafted for medals? I honestly don't get this mentality at all, that any means of keeping a sport or practice going is justified as long as we don't lose it. Insert racing/showing in there as well if you want...

I can't get my head around anyone still supporting CDJ. Fair enough, I don't think people should be hounding her, but actively supporting her is crazy if you have a genuine love of animals. It feels like people want to be seen as virtuous and compassionate even though compassion should absolutely end when someone takes total advantage of an innocent being.
 
St Nicnaclaus said:
Ibreally enjoyed the Beeb coverage this afternoon. Having William Whitaker giving his opinion was great alongside CB.
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I really enjoyed WW's presenting!

I wish Andy Austin would quit, I find him insufferable. He's always yapping on about someones 'Little hackamore', 'Simple snaffle', as if he's never seen a horse ridden in anything other than 20 different bits of kit.
 
I mute him
YourValentine said:
Ive complained about the commentary the last 2 years, so many comments are completly out of touch with welfare and social licensing. As the only big horse show to be televised on national tv the commentators have to be on point.
And Austin just isn't, and hes a bad commentator.
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he is a terrible commentator and such a fanboy. Honestly there must be someone out there to take over from him by now!
 
IrishMilo said:
I really enjoyed WW's presenting!

I wish Andy Austin would quit, I find him insufferable. He's always yapping on about someones 'Little hackamore', 'Simple snaffle', as if he's never seen a horse ridden in anything other than 20 different bits of kit.
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Mentioned this before, but I always wait for him to say about a horse being by Cornet Obolensky many times. I used to compete again him years ago and did have a lesson with him once which was really good but not a fan of his commentary.
 
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