The Hand Equestrian Centre

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KarenX

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Anyone been to The Hand this Christmas/New Year? Just wondered if anyone knew any results..

Thanks

Karen
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I went Saturday, it was very good and busy, people had even come over from Northern Ireland. I only stayed for the first 2 classes though. There was 89 in the 1m and 110 in the 1.10 - floyd and cath were third in it.
 
went today but as taking so long only watched the 1m10 GP which Anna Edwards won with Nick Guantlett coming about 4th on a very nice eventing stallion. Also liked Emily Davis' horse in that class produced a very professional double clear and I think one to watch as had a tremendous jump. Also Anna won after having been knocked out in the Collecting ring earlier in the class.

Was very impressed with the facilities even if the projector screen got very behind most of the time especially in the jump off. Fabulous fences, surface, warmup and shrubbery! Only downside the heating for the seating area was either not on high enough or just useless full stop as was blooming freezing.

Sadly though also saw some appalling riding but thankfully most was good.
 
Who did Anna win the 1.10 on? the warm up ring is way too small. When I was there Saturday someone got kicked in the leg, someone else got knocked over when a horse napped going into the ring, when I was trying to warm up this stupid girl on a chestnut, dressed in jeans so not actually competing kept insisting on walking her horse in circles in front of all the jumps at which point it kept rearing vertical and no one could get near to anything to jump a fence.

Did you see the clifton suspension bridge fence? It even had lights all over it.
 
Anna won on Sometimes II i think it was called. Emily was riding a horse with a strange name (god I'm helpful) a big bay (about 16h3-17h2!!!!!) which was quite long and still a bit gangly and green but had such a scopey careful jump. Think its name started with a 'T'

Didn't actually go into warmup but it seemed bigger than the old one (which I see now has stables on it!!) which always peeved me beyond belief as I had far too many near misses in that one. Not sure what happened to Anna in there other than she got knocked unconcious when warming up her second horse (not sometimes), she still jumped it though although that had 4 faults in the first round.

Andrew Davies and Mark Armstrong were 2nd and 3rd though can't remember in which order! Think Nick's horse was Chilli Morning.
 
Did not stay for end but Guy Williams had a very strong lead, Nick Gauntlett was in 3rd and think Andrew Davies was up there as well. 8 clears and about 41 in class. I saw some appalling riding though and they were punished. I was impressed with only one YR and think his name was Joe Clayton??
 
The warm up is less than half the size of the outdoor one.

The projector screen was upto date at theis point - they obviously have got everyones names of the BSJA website so you knew everyones embrassing middle names...

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Yeah watched Joe today and I was very impressed with him it was just a real shame his horse tipped a pole. He used to have a friend's old 14h2 but today was the first time I saw him ride in the flesh having only seened videos and he really was good. Was very very quiet in his hands (unlike the worst rider i saw who i think was going to be disciplined afterwards as most people were cringing as they yanked on the single rein connected to a hackamore!!!
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) he also just rode what was blatently a hot little horse very well.
 
Sorry was not very clear in that those who rode appallingly had ots of faults. One girl had two rides one who the commentator knew and must be a fairly new ride and she gunned it into everything felt so sorry for the horse as really did not have a hope. She gunned her first ride as well and was eliminated.
 
i wonder whether its the same rider I saw today as she gunned the horse (in a hackamore) but was yanking it as well. Had a big cricket score in first round so big that about 20 penalties clear of all the other 25 odd horses I watched in the first round (minus 2 eliminations)!!
 
Yes, I know Joe - he's only 16. He works for Alan Fazakerley now and presumably rides his horses. Was there loads of YRs there or not? We were tempted to go but didnt end up going..
 
Big bay horse in a pelham cannot remember what it was called had a stripe down its face.
 
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the outdoor must have increased in size since i last went as it was about 35x25 at absolute biggest at that point (admittedly a few years ago!!)

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No the outdoor is still/was the same size, they changed the surface a few years a go but never increased the size.
 
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Oh thats why Nick's in a good mood
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He wasn't in a good mood on saturday. started yelling at everyone in the collecting ring to get out of the way of the fence and everyone was really f**king him off...
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It is probably 15x25 maybe. You have about 2 strides after you've landed to turn and it's quite hard to turn in time so you end up riding into the corner. It's even smaller when your horse is feeling a bit ye ha and keeps bucking after the fences in excitment as he hasn't been to a show in a while...
 
They are suposed to be building another indoor warm up where the old outdoor one was and then there will be a Cafe between them. Siennamum has been there as well she should be able to say how big it is.
 
in that case mind could be changed again as long as it is of a decent size or same size again with current one as holding/walking area and new one as no unmounted horses allowed type thing...

that also suggests i take it that they will open up the other side and have windows running down the length. even with apparent size of current warm up the improvements are massive and cant wait to see what else happens to it.
 
If you can picture it - they have extended the arena all the way to the hedge at the far end, they have a standing, collecting ring area at the far end and the warm up in the space in between, it's pretty awful tbh. They are reopening the outdoor arena as well though so it should all be remedied.
I would happily warm Sienna up in there as we really only need a few jumps, if you wantd a proper school before though you'd be pushed.
 
Chilli Morning is owned by Chris Stone, the guy who nearly bought Sunny, he buys them from Germany, so no suprise it has good form. Maybe we need to get Sienna up to Chipping Sodbury for a few overnighters.......
 
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