Weezy - excellent letter in H&H

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S_N

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Well I've looked around on here, before making this post, to make sure I wasn't repeating someone else, but I cannae find a post about your letter, So I've made this one!!

Bloody good points raised - I know of 2 bay mares that you should take to the FH finals
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Sod the fecking age limit!! Go girl!!!
 
Oohhh...haven't seen H&H yet today. Is it in response to Mr Funnell's article last week about renaming a certain Novice Champs by any chance though
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Oohhh...haven't seen H&H yet today. Is it in response to Mr Funnell's article last week about renaming a certain Novice Champs by any chance though
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It certainly is!!!! I left H&H at home, but basically she was saying that (not direct quote) "why should a popular and highly successful competition be renamed? It holds so much worth and ambition etc... If it's renamed, then newcomers needs re-naming too, as there are now even lower levels, so it is a misleading name too. Also, utter balderdash about age limits, as it is many competitors goal to get to the Foxhunter finals and that for some partnerships takes time - also some horses may take longer to get there - that it shouldn't become another age class, there are enough of those etc...." It's a bloody good, eloquent letter IMO!! Anyways, isn't it named after the horse - Foxhunter?
 
*blush* Oh thanks guys - first tme I have ever written in but the comment last week really annoyed me! The letter has of course been edited, but I did state that we amateurs have enough to contend with having, what could well be considered, pro riders in the am champs etc, and to push us out of contention for yet another title, that is so many peoples dream, is just not on! Also that some horses are not even discovered until they are older and why should their chance been taken away because of their age - if you want age classes, they are available, but not to take somethng else away from the happy amateur
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Yes it is named after Foxhunter the horse. He won the only british olympic gold medal of the 1952 Helsinki games

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I've been to his grave...well apparently its just his skin there, the rest went to the Curre and Llangibby hunt kennels.

Haven't read the letter yet but it sounds interesting!
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At the risk of being contraversial here, I can sort of understand where Will was coming from. His article was based around a personal experience where he had been talking to a foreign interest about one of his horses (presumably Billy Burr !?) who had recently competed in the Foxhunter Final. His point was that many people abroad couldn't relate to what the Foxhunter Final was / meant and that in branding it as a Novice Championship it might make things clearer
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I didn't personally agree with his idea of restricting entries by age as I too think there are already enough age classes. My concern in renaming the existing championships though would be that some of the heritage and prestige of the competition might be lost
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Anyone who thinks that the Foxhunter championship is the domain of the amateur though is a long way out of touch...it hasn't been that for decades...and even those who might 'claim' to be 'non-professional' are usually riding and competing loads of horses on the circuit and doing little else
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I can never see an 'amateur' horse ever winning the Foxhunter Final. I don't think that the class should be restricted in anyway, neither do I think Newcomers should be,did the BSJA scrap its idea about not letting top riders in the NC final? I think you would be hard pushed to find a normal horse with a normal rider winning the British Novice.
 
Yes well said Wezzy!!! When i read WFs comments i couldn't believe it, its so stupid, just beacuse he gets to compete in it every year, lol, he certainly doesn't know how hard it is for amateurs! Argh!

Well Done
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I certainly agree with the comment about age limit - my friend at our yard has recently purchased a CRACKING 10y.o. horse who only has a hundred odd pounds on his card due to being owned by a 'happy hacker' most his life. He has very low mileage & has hardly competed. As it happens, he looks to be a real find. He could do an elementary dressage test with his eyes closed (paces to DIE for) & when my pal 'popped' him over 1m 30 at home the other day, he cleared it by so much he jumped her out the saddle & she fell off!!! Point being, he will certainly spend this year & probably next working up to & competing at Fox - my friend is only 17 & has just moved up to Fox herself on her other horse. Under Will's theory, should the rider be pushed to jump beyond her current ability, or should the horse just continue to be wasted?
 
Will's idea was suggested by other people some 20 years ago when Geoff Billington won with Edisford Bridge who was 11 but had only been jumped at very low level in Greece before Geoff got him. The topic has been discussed again since and I'm enough of a traditionalist to think that there is no need to change the scope of the class given that we do now have good Young Horse classes. It is true though that these days many horses are Grade A by the time they reach the Final. This is primarily because the 2nd Rds (aka Semi Finals, Regional Finals) are held earlier in the season than used to be the case. I am however all in favour of reverting to making the Final a 3 rounder.
Also a small correction to the post that says Foxhunter was the sole Gold medallist in Helsinki - it was the Team that won Gold. The best rounds came from Harry's teammate Wilf White and Nizefella.
 
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