Sands Farm - Whats it like?

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sammiea

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Morning,

I am thinking for heading to Sands Farm on Sunday for the Novice Qualifier but I've never been there before so wondered what it is like??

Main Arena?
Surface?
Courses?
Warm Up?
Is it easy to get to?
Food?
Friendly?
Does it get busy?

Thanks :)
 
sammiea said:
Morning,

I am thinking for heading to Sands Farm on Sunday for the Novice Qualifier but I've never been there before so wondered what it is like??

Main Arena?

Was fairly dark in there when I last went, but fairly good size

Surface?

Fine, not deep

Courses?

Weren't any particularly nasty fillers that I recall

Warm Up?

Busy! The collecting area outside the main ring is annoying as people seem to use it as a grandstand and get right in the way :mad:

Is it easy to get to?

We found it first time, sat nav takes u there easily enough :)

Food?

Can't answer as was too nervous to eat anything!

Friendly?

Everyone I spoke to was helpful

Does it get busy?

Was pretty busy, but car park is a decent size

Thanks :)
Click to expand...

Hope that helps, I haven't been for a while though!
 
I'm going there on Sunday as well, doing the 90cm Open and then the qualifier :eek: I'm expecting it to be a busy, cold place with not many scary fillers. I know the Billy Stud will be taking a lot of horses there :/

Look on youtube there are loads of videos, this is last years Novice qualifier held there and it doesn't look, hopefully, particularly challenging ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17IeOvZOxsU
 
Cold. Cold and more cold. No idea why but it is always a howling gale and about 10 degrees colder than anywhere else. (It is on the top of a hill!)

The main arena is tight. The surface is fibresand which is a bizarre orange colour but is quite nice otherwise. Watch out for fences on the far long side left as you enter the arena - the catering area is really close and sometimes people make a bit of noise that can cause something spooky to jump sideways. On sunny days the light coming through the skylights causes odd patches of shade so watch out for that on your course walk.

Most of the cups are fairly deep - you can usually get away with a rub. But the poles are heavy if you have a sensitive soul! The plank cups are flat obviously! I don't think we've ever seen a wall or water trays there.

Also watch out for the entry to the warm up area - it gets boggy and can cause an odd deep mis-step.

Do everyone a favour and don't wait around outside the arena entrance! Usually the stewards try to make people move on but it can be a bit of an obstacle course.

Food is good. I've never had the cheesy chips but the rest is reaosnable quality burger van fare.
 
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