New BE80 Championships

I'm hoping to start BE this season.

One can only dream...! I think my mum would kill me if I qualify... Chester isn't local!
 
Lévrier;13736528 said:
Just practice your dressage - it’s the only way to win! Signed: a cynic :) :)
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lol with you! All part of BEs major aim of winning another international championship ,I guess a 70 would be even better.
 
popsdosh said:
I guess a 70 would be even better.
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It will happen.
When Intro started (BE90) it was supposed to be pretty much a training class to let people have a taste of BE. The intro and pre-novice (BE100) names were dropped when they added BE80
When 80 was introduced it was supposed to be purely a training class BE80(T). Then it became BE80 and now a championship.
Give it a few years and there will be a BE40
 
PaddyMonty said:
It will happen.
When Intro started (BE90) it was supposed to be pretty much a training class to let people have a taste of BE. The intro and pre-novice (BE100) names were dropped when they added BE80
When 80 was introduced it was supposed to be purely a training class BE80(T). Then it became BE80 and now a championship.
Give it a few years and there will be a BE40
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Yes im sure your right , I can remember the entry level being Novice when it was a true novice., LOL
 
PaddyMonty said:
It will happen.
When Intro started (BE90) it was supposed to be pretty much a training class to let people have a taste of BE. The intro and pre-novice (BE100) names were dropped when they added BE80
When 80 was introduced it was supposed to be purely a training class BE80(T). Then it became BE80 and now a championship.
Give it a few years and there will be a BE40
Click to expand...

I am glad there are ODE events run over smaller courses. They are fun, kids can do them before they are old enough to go BE etc. I loved hunter trialling over 60cm courses when I first got back into jumping after many years refusing to. But I don't understand why they have to be affiliated events. Given the huge costs of affiliating and the inflated entry fees, I'd have thought people would be better off staying unaffiliated until they are able to step up to the bigger classes. But I think people need to improve the quality of the unaffiliated courses. At one venue the 65 was more like a 30/45 (literally - there was not a single fence up to height. A real disappointment when you travel a long way to go 'up' a class!) And the 80 at the same venue was mostly 50/60 with 2 really unfair (imo) tests. In one you jump down almost a foot into water. Not something you see at BE until 100cm. The 2nd test was an offset double jumped on an angle. Again a ridiculously technical line for a course that was otherwise tiny. I completed over 80 a few times last year but did not affiliate. I plan to affiliate as soon as I feel ready for BE90 though I will run over BE80T first to get my confidence back up first. Whether that is this season or next season is not yet clear!
 
PaddyMonty said:
It will happen.
When Intro started (BE90) it was supposed to be pretty much a training class to let people have a taste of BE. The intro and pre-novice (BE100) names were dropped when they added BE80
When 80 was introduced it was supposed to be purely a training class BE80(T). Then it became BE80 and now a championship.
Give it a few years and there will be a BE40
Click to expand...

In my day too it was just Novice, Intermediate and Advanced. But nearly everyone went hunting, and most hunts and pony clubs ran hunter trials, some of which could be pretty stiff. It was after doing well in local hunter trials that I took the plunge for Novice eventing, although our dressage was rubbish.

But then you could just use some local farmer's fields and hedges and make a cross country course, there were none of the costs and risks of running an event that there are now. Plus for fundraising it is much easier just to put on a Pleasure Ride and you don't have to find all those fence judges. So I can well see that the lower levels of BE have become so popular, there really isn't much other choice. Good luck to everyone, it is pretty hard to come first in any event!
 
popsdosh said:
Yes im sure your right , I can remember the entry level being Novice when it was a true novice., LOL
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I think PN had recently been introduced when I started. I was a die hard show jumper back then that popped Xc fences for a bit of fun.
owner asked me to take her horse in the MK3DE which we somehow won so suggested I took the horse BE. Knowing nothing about BE at the time I looked at the levels and thought Novice (as in low level) seemed a good place to start.
Guess you can imagine my shock at first event when I saw the XC (Purston I think). Second event was Goring, third was Weston and fourth Chatsworth. Baptism by fire but loved it.
I remember my wife walking the course at Chatsworth with me. Fence one she asked "Are you sure Wally can jump this size of XC fence", fence 5 she announced she was going back to the horsebox and didn't want to see another fence. This was back when novice fences were big bold rider frighteners.
 
In Scotland, I think the lower levels are so popular because we dont have that many XC courses anymore so as much as Id have liked to get my horse out to some unaffiliated ones prior to her first ODE 2 years ago - there weren't any in my area so I ended up having to do a BE80 as her first one (obviously she'd done some hunter trials etc. before then but not a full blown ODE). I like 80 for baby horses, but I hope they dont make any lower classes.
 
As someone who struggles with jumping confidence, I think it's great - if that's where the demand is, then why not cater to it? Riders are different nowadays and I for one like the fact that the sport is opening up to a wider population.

Unaff events are very patchy, and of a mixed standard. Yes the lower heights won't offer a challenge to those who want bigger and bolder, but those folks have events that do that, so it's not interefering with them surely?
 
Bernster said:
As someone who struggles with jumping confidence, I think it's great - if that's where the demand is, then why not cater to it? Riders are different nowadays and I for one like the fact that the sport is opening up to a wider population.

Unaff events are very patchy, and of a mixed standard. Yes the lower heights won't offer a challenge to those who want bigger and bolder, but those folks have events that do that, so it's not interefering with them surely?
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Im afraid that is very far from the truth! The opportunities to get runs for horses at int and above are getting less and less partly due to organisers being able to cream in more from the lower end so not investing in the more complex courses for the higher levels. Of the venues we lose every year mostly they are the higher level ones .

I have never been able to get very excited about a dressage competition with a few jumps to go round for a bit of a spin as that is what the lower levels are gravitating to.
 
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Bernster said:
As someone who struggles with jumping confidence, I think it's great - if that's where the demand is, then why not cater to it? Riders are different nowadays and I for one like the fact that the sport is opening up to a wider population.

Unaff events are very patchy, and of a mixed standard. Yes the lower heights won't offer a challenge to those who want bigger and bolder, but those folks have events that do that, so it's not interefering with them surely?
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Totally agree I like to see smaller courses. I am lucky in that I am near several fantastic unaffiliated venues that run over the same courses as the affiliated events which I guess is why the cost of BE eventing was eye watering when I first started looking into affiliating. I'd pay for quality if I had to but I don't see why there can't be good quality unaffiliated events that are more affordable. As you say the demand is there so why not build the quality and put on good events to cater for that demand instead of BE doing it at BE prices.

There is a similar situation with triathlon. Ironman used to be a distance (2.4 miles swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run). Then Ironman became a brand and now you can either do 'long course' (which is ironman distance) or Ironman. Branded events are twice or 3 times the cost and usually sell out. Other long courses are often just as good but don't fill up. Many eventually fold. And get replaced with Branded races at Ironman prices again. Just extending BE classes down to lower heights could have the same effect at threatening unaffiliated classes as people decide to affiliate instead, so actually pricing people out more than encouraging them in!
 
I wonder if the demise of good unaffiliated and riding club competitions at the lower level is due to the introduction of lower levels at affiliated events rather then the other way around. I really struggle to find decent unaffiliated events now and it's a shame when I feel I'm not quite ready for paying the expense to affiliate. However I am glad that the BE80s will get a champs as it was a shame to pay all of that money and not have one :)
 
I'm lucky in my area as Swalcliffe, Calmsden, Aston, Tweseldown, West Wilts and Crown Farm all have unaffiliated ODEs over their affiliated courses. My PRE is definitely not a typical eventing type and I wouldn't dream of affiliating him, but it seems that BE is trying to cater for non-eventing types more with this kind of championship. Is that right? I really don't know! It's been a good money-spinner for BE to have a lot of associated champs so people are more likely to affiliate, their membership has increased but there are similar complaints about fewer higher-level competitions.

Either way it's far less of a big deal these days to 'go affiliated'. When I was a teenager we would gaze in awe at those combinations who were about to make the leap!
 
shortstuff99 said:
I wonder if the demise of good unaffiliated and riding club competitions at the lower level is due to the introduction of lower levels at affiliated events rather then the other way around. I really struggle to find decent unaffiliated events now and it's a shame when I feel I'm not quite ready for paying the expense to affiliate. However I am glad that the BE80s will get a champs as it was a shame to pay all of that money and not have one :)
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In my experience the unaffiliated competitions disappeared before the BE80(T) arrived 10 years ago. Growing up in Essex we had a choice of hunter trials every weekend from late Feb to the start of November. The Essex Rider Cross Country League was fiercely contested, to the extent that they had to create a rule that you couldn't get points from two different venues on the same day!!

By comparison we have never had many options in the way of BE's. The landowners/organisers I have spoken to cite costs, insurance, and land sale as reasons that hunter trials have close to all dried up. There is only now two venues in the county that each host 2 hunter trials/ODE's a year that don't also run BE (2 BE venues!)

I think people can be a bit disparaging about BE80s but I think British Eventing have done a great job of growing the sport and offer some excellent training to get more people involved. I must also say that having grown up on hunter trials and never batting an eye on some (in hindsight) dodgy course building, I certainly appreciated the quality of BE courses now!
 
I have done lots of unaffiliated XC/ODE and BE80 and 90. I well remember some very dodgy unaffiliated XC courses. IMO the BE80 give people a chance to have a go round safe, well designed courses at a well organised event.
The unaffiliated XC were disappearing long before the arrival BE80 in my area. Although the Pony Club ones are still flourishing.
 
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