SunshineTallulah
Well-Known Member
Hi all!
After a three hour drive up from South Bucks, we arrived at Arena UK safe and sound.
Settled the lad into his stable, fortunately one of the perm ones on the back of the arena so no risk of flooding unlike the horrible temp ones they had there.
The bar was open that night doing meals, but they failed to tell us they only took cash! In this day and age?!!!! Anyways luckily stable manager had a card machine so not all bad.
Got quick peek at the course that evening and walked it, so all good. The Joker / Top Score course was in a tiny collecting ring with the jumps just plonked anywhere so more tricky!!!
So to cut long story short, managed to lose my horse at 6.30am on the morning of the final, littlw wotsit - he barged out of the stable when I had my back turned nabbing his haynet....... ARghhhhhhhhh. Loose Horse Loose Horse! Luckily he was caught by a helpful man. Why is it when you lose your horse it makes you feel so flipping stupid!!!!
Our Top Score was ok but then turned rubbish - poor riding!! In one way it was good as it made me realise I had to actually not rely on him just to do the job but I had to tell him.
I was first in for my class in the main arena, so I tried to put my foot down and we went clear!!!! YAY. I didnt do any corner cutting as I didnt want to risk unbalancing him and rolling a pole. It turned out that I came 6th and so I was very very happy with him as he jumped brilliantly. Rossettes were to 8th place.
So we got a rosette (the ones at the qualifiers were much nicer than the ones at the final) and Oli stood with us for a picture.
We did have a good time however I have a few criticisms of the event!!!!!
- nobody manning the collecting ring next to the main arena (surely there should be a max number of horses in there for H&S)
- it was only after my top score that I realised there was a HUGE arena outdoors - so I used that for my main class warm up
- the main arena collecting ring was TINY and at any one time had as many as 12 if not more ponies and horses warming up and jumping - tres dangerous
- would have been nice if Oli had "opened the event" or each round
- it was not announced what prizes the winners got (which would have been nice)
- would have been nice if they had explained or thanked people for still attending despite them moving it from BCA (15mins from me) to Grantham
- the top score rosettes I saw looked very cheap
- when the winners were announced no times were given out nor were the winning points for the top score announced, so no one had ANY idea how close the placings were
- no one was informed beforehand that there was a Best Turn Out prize
- the classes should have been Under 12s and Over 12s and not Any Age as in my class there were kids who should have been in the Under 12s section
It was enjoyable, dont get me wrong. I just feel that for a CHAMPIONSHIP event as it was plugged should have been a bit more polished.
There were a few mumblings of "its a publicity stunt for Oli and that is all" "horse & Country TV had no intention of filming just a way of enticing more competitors to take part" which is not what you want to hear when you have spent a fortune getting there and back again!
It took us 5 hours to get home cos they shut the M25! Arrgh.
This was my first over night trip with my horse competing, and with hubby and our puppy! I'd do it again as we had fun and the facilites at Arena UK were great.
Pics are not online til Wednes so will post again with links later in the week!
How did everyone else do?
After a three hour drive up from South Bucks, we arrived at Arena UK safe and sound.
Settled the lad into his stable, fortunately one of the perm ones on the back of the arena so no risk of flooding unlike the horrible temp ones they had there.
The bar was open that night doing meals, but they failed to tell us they only took cash! In this day and age?!!!! Anyways luckily stable manager had a card machine so not all bad.
Got quick peek at the course that evening and walked it, so all good. The Joker / Top Score course was in a tiny collecting ring with the jumps just plonked anywhere so more tricky!!!
So to cut long story short, managed to lose my horse at 6.30am on the morning of the final, littlw wotsit - he barged out of the stable when I had my back turned nabbing his haynet....... ARghhhhhhhhh. Loose Horse Loose Horse! Luckily he was caught by a helpful man. Why is it when you lose your horse it makes you feel so flipping stupid!!!!
Our Top Score was ok but then turned rubbish - poor riding!! In one way it was good as it made me realise I had to actually not rely on him just to do the job but I had to tell him.
I was first in for my class in the main arena, so I tried to put my foot down and we went clear!!!! YAY. I didnt do any corner cutting as I didnt want to risk unbalancing him and rolling a pole. It turned out that I came 6th and so I was very very happy with him as he jumped brilliantly. Rossettes were to 8th place.
So we got a rosette (the ones at the qualifiers were much nicer than the ones at the final) and Oli stood with us for a picture.
We did have a good time however I have a few criticisms of the event!!!!!
- nobody manning the collecting ring next to the main arena (surely there should be a max number of horses in there for H&S)
- it was only after my top score that I realised there was a HUGE arena outdoors - so I used that for my main class warm up
- the main arena collecting ring was TINY and at any one time had as many as 12 if not more ponies and horses warming up and jumping - tres dangerous
- would have been nice if Oli had "opened the event" or each round
- it was not announced what prizes the winners got (which would have been nice)
- would have been nice if they had explained or thanked people for still attending despite them moving it from BCA (15mins from me) to Grantham
- the top score rosettes I saw looked very cheap
- when the winners were announced no times were given out nor were the winning points for the top score announced, so no one had ANY idea how close the placings were
- no one was informed beforehand that there was a Best Turn Out prize
- the classes should have been Under 12s and Over 12s and not Any Age as in my class there were kids who should have been in the Under 12s section
It was enjoyable, dont get me wrong. I just feel that for a CHAMPIONSHIP event as it was plugged should have been a bit more polished.
There were a few mumblings of "its a publicity stunt for Oli and that is all" "horse & Country TV had no intention of filming just a way of enticing more competitors to take part" which is not what you want to hear when you have spent a fortune getting there and back again!
It took us 5 hours to get home cos they shut the M25! Arrgh.
This was my first over night trip with my horse competing, and with hubby and our puppy! I'd do it again as we had fun and the facilites at Arena UK were great.
Pics are not online til Wednes so will post again with links later in the week!
How did everyone else do?
