Eventing Pippa Funnels article on letting covid 'dumb down' eventing

spacefaer said:
@ycbm
I think there is a very long list of lost venues - I think a lot were National Trust.
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I've ridden at these which have gone

Henbury
Storeton
Catton
Osmaston
Draycott
Tetton
Marchington
Standish
Rodbaston (surprising because it's an agricultural college)


And Lyme was cancelled the year I entered and never ran again.

Those are just the ones within 2 hours travel of here.
 
Catton is still going - they’ve just had a couple of cancellations in recent years. They sent round a lovely email when they’d decided they couldn’t run this year. No event income from the estate in 2020 meant they couldn’t afford to replace the XC fences, but they still sounded really committed to running BE in the future.

I can only think of one that’s gone in my area (NW) since I started FJing 9 years ago and that’s Malpas. We only did it once and I think it stopped because the landowner died and the new one didn’t want to run it any more?
 
ycbm said:
I've ridden at these which have gone

Henbury
Storeton
Catton
Osmaston
Draycott
Tetton
Marchington
Standish
Rodbaston (surprising because it's an agricultural college)


And Lyme was cancelled the year I entered and never ran again.

Those are just the ones within 2 hours travel of here.
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Off the top of my head, in no particular order, events we've lost. ...
Brigstock
Powderham
Montacute
Wessex
Honiton
Llanfechain
Ferney Hall
Berrington Hall
Llanover
Pembrey
Stilemans
Cleobury Mortimer
Hopton Court
Cheltenham
Offchurch Bury
Hilmarton
Somerleyton
Llanhydrock
Pembrey
Aston Park
Urchinwood
Aldon
Taunton
Stoneleigh Park
Belton
Malpas
Knaptoft

And most of the Scottish ones
Auchinleck
Aswanley
Eglinton
Burgie

You can see why BE are favouring the purpose built set ups, rather than the privately owned, beauty places where changes in ownership, farming practices etc may end the hosting arrangements. I don't think the National Trust allows any to run over its land (although I'd love to be wrong on this claim) which straightaway loses you a lot of glorious locations.
 
Not necessarily in reply to Pippa's point but to eventing as a whole; surely the weather has had a massive impact on events?

Maybe rose tinted glasses and I know we havent always had reliable weather/seasons but it does appear that a lot more events are cancelled due to weather.

From a business POV that had to give the advantage to purpose built even if those events doesnt have the same prestige/atmosphere as estates?
 
think Syde Park and Salperton packed up at similar time, I remember them saying about Salperton that it had too much of an impact on the Estate. Spring Hill, another annual one in similar area, only ran N and I so prob not a good money maker.
 
spacefaer said:
Off the top of my head, in no particular order, events we've lost. ...
Brigstock
Powderham
Montacute
Wessex
Honiton
Llanfechain
Ferney Hall
Berrington Hall
Llanover
Pembrey
Stilemans
Cleobury Mortimer
Hopton Court
Cheltenham
Offchurch Bury
Hilmarton
Somerleyton
Llanhydrock
Pembrey
Aston Park
Urchinwood
Aldon
Taunton
Stoneleigh Park
Belton
Malpas
Knaptoft

And most of the Scottish ones
Auchinleck
Aswanley
Eglinton
Burgie

You can see why BE are favouring the purpose built set ups, rather than the privately owned, beauty places where changes in ownership, farming practices etc may end the hosting arrangements. I don't think the National Trust allows any to run over its land (although I'd love to be wrong on this claim) which straightaway loses you a lot of glorious locations.
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Sorry, Catton was a mistake, I should have said Tutbury and Osbaldeston.
 
I'd forgotten those. Spring Hill ran before the invention of the lower classes, I think and Syde was so stoney - they had a special machine to remove the stones from the course.
 
Has Belmont packed up? another estate one.

Stockland Lovell was a surprise as they obv have permanent facilties and run a lot of other stuff.

I did the N at Spring Hill a few times so that will have been after Intro and Pre Novice were invented as my horse came up through those.
 
milliepops said:
Has Belmont packed up? another estate one.

Stockland Lovell was a surprise as they obv have permanent facilties and run a lot of other stuff.

I did the N at Spring Hill a few times so that will have been after Intro and Pre Novice were invented as my horse came up through those.
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Ah I've only done the N and I at Spring Hill
 
Highclere ?
Somerley Park
Purton Manor
Iping
Great Tew
Longlete

Probably a load more
 
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TPO said:
Not necessarily in reply to Pippa's point but to eventing as a whole; surely the weather has had a massive impact on events?

Maybe rose tinted glasses and I know we havent always had reliable weather/seasons but it does appear that a lot more events are cancelled due to weather.

From a business POV that had to give the advantage to purpose built even if those events doesnt have the same prestige/atmosphere as estates?
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I should think it does. Plus the cost of upgrades to the fences for H&S/BE regs.

Hopton Court off Spacefaer's list for example, packed up quite specifically because they couldn't stomach the cost of upgrades. They carried on renting out the xc course for a few years but eventually it all just faded away. A lot of the fences are still there though and there is still equestrian business on the estate. I suppose there will be other venues with a similar story out there. I wonder if BE have done any analysis on the feasibility of bringing old venues back online.
 
spacefaer said:
So to add to the list
Syde Park
Salperton
Tetbury
Stockland Lovell

What's been lost in the East or South East? (Not my patches!)
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Silvermere, from 1970s between Byfleet and Cobham, Mark Phillips built the course there, the odd rotten stumps are still occasionally seen on the rough at the edge of the golf course.
 
Ragley was a lovely estate that ran a 2 day weekend event just after Badminton weekend, when The Marchioness of Hertford was in Mastership of the CWWF in the 1980's.

The hunt supporters club did a huge amount of work from fence judging, catering and ground work. I did several years of out riding there and had one cringe worthy moment of coming off my horse whilst trying to catch a loose event horse.
 
I wish I had something sensible to add but I don't as haven't evented for years but this makes sad reading tbh. What I can see though, is a similar trend to what seems to have happened in other equestrian sports; that by widening the base appeal/making it more accessible, the governing bodies have actually lost the 'drive' for excellence and strength working their way up to the top and for there to be provision for events at those levels. It may be a good thing or not but it IS much easier to do any equestrian sport at a level that literally didn't exist years ago.

This hasn't necessarily made things better at all in fact and increasingly in equestrian sport there is a divide between the top and the bottom which is actually really hard to bridge. Slightly oddly, to me at least, horse power is potentially 'better' now in that increasingly athletic horses are being bred and just about anyone with any competitive aspirations buys a quite decent sort of horse, yet the starting points in sport are lower. A couple of decades ago either you didn't jump/do dressage etc OR you started at around 2'9'' in old money competing and it wasn't unusual to see real amateurs on fairly ordinary horses competing quite happily at those levels or at Novice dressage. I guess the death of riding school and hunting education may have something to do with that though the Pony Club still seems to be really encouraging. The main killer for eventing I guess is the money though as well as the NT distaste for anything 'untidy' or where they may be criticised for animal related activities. I understand that caution but it seems utterly to betray the roots of the organisation and it's fundamental link with country activities but there are other reasons too. The thought of top class eventing taking place at ready made venues; for all their advantages and convenience is very sad really.

I think though PF's message was a bit muddled she made some really good points.
 
the NT ones I'd been to were iffy ground-wise because they didn't permit any spiking etc, which possibly didn't help hugely. Was nice to have lovely backdrops but if it was one of those baked-hard summers it was unforgiving. I remember a ridge and furrow-esque dressage warm up too. Made you get on top of the balance pretty fast! :p
 
I’m not speaking on behalf of the organisation or anything but the reason the NT stopping running the few events it hosted is almost certainly due to the increased focused on land management rather than because of animal welfare issues. The conservation and compliance issues are a lot more stringent now than they were pre-2000 or so (which seems to be the heyday of a few that are being mentioned) and it’s really hard to make that duty of care compatible with allowing hundreds of massive horse boxes to park all over your ancient parkland, preparing the track to BE standards, all the other infrastructure etc. Also hosting events is meant to be income generating and I’m not convinced many people make money off the one day events!

Privately owned estates don’t have the same restrictions in place but even there, it’s very dependent on an individual owner having a specific interest in hosting. The vast majority of those events on the lists above are privately owned land and I imagine they’ve all dropped out because it’s not worth running them from a financial perspective.
 
Are there many jobbing horse trials organising companies who travel round the country running events?

I'm thinking of Musketeer, who run Cholmondeley, Houghton and others.

*whispers, they upset a good few experienced locals at first by not looking after their volunteers properly, but they have since cottoned on how important it is that volunteers feel appreciated, and are suitably fed and watered for their efforts*
 
Bede Events?

I really like Musketeer! Much more professional in their volunteer management than lots of places, and Alec always spends the time to come and have a proper chat.
 
Volunteers are the backbone of the sport :).

Maybe it was early days, but I know of it first hand. One fence judge radioed in, told control that they were hungry, thirsty and fed up, and were downing tools to go home mid competition, leaving their fence unattended. Many others said they'd never go back.

It is much better now.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Volunteers are the backbone of the sport :).

Maybe it was early days, but I know of it first hand. One fence judge radioed in, told control that they were hungry, thirsty and fed up, and were downing tools to go home mid competition, leaving their fence unattended. Many others said they'd never go back.

It is much better now.
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I voluteered somewhere the week before last - was left on my own, someone brought me lunch but no chance to eat it, no relief so I could go for a wee/grab a tea either, and no one said thank you when I left.

I spent a long time volunteering for RDA where everyone is thanked week in, week out. It's not hard to appreciate people, but it's also very easy to piss them off.
 
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Tiddlypom said:
Volunteers are the backbone of the sport :).

Maybe it was early days, but I know of it first hand. One fence judge radioed in, told control that they were hungry, thirsty and fed up, and were downing tools to go home mid competition, leaving their fence unattended. Many others said they'd never go back.

It is much better now.
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Blimey! Yes, definitely loads better now. They gave us goody bags and wine glasses pre-Covid ?

I won’t go back to Bold Heath after a couple of appalling experiences there.
 
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