Welsh Dressage Championships

BenvardenRach2

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Has anyone been? Held at The David Broome Event center...

I am contemplating taking my boy, we have a qualifying score. This would be our first taste of any sort of 'champs' we only were affiliated at the start of the year.

Is it a good one to go too? :)

Thanks!
 

milliepops

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I have been twice and am aiming for it again this year :)
Nice atmosphere, cheap stabling, good value, loved it.

They used to run it alongside the area festival they had at broomes but that's now a relic of the past. TBH it made it a very busy weekend having too many classes on!
 

milliepops

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It's earlier than usual this year which might have an impact on numbers, I am making time in my calendar to try and go because the new dressage organisers at Broomes are really trying to put on classes that people want to attend and I want to support their efforts.

I made a fuss about not having any PSG classes in Wales that I could use to qualify (unless I do an overnighter to Beacons) and I got an email back from the RDO a couple of weeks later with some new dates that they had put on. It's a good venue and I want them to keep going ;)

EtA last year BD did a demo on the Saturday evening, not sure if they will do the same this year but that was good and counts towards regional training if you're aiming at teams. There was also some arena hire & lessons available beforehand.
 

BenvardenRach2

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Thank you MP!!
We are actually quite local.. about 45 mins away from Broomes although we haven't been yet!
Thank you for all the info!

I have a stupid question because I'm new to all this! They haven't put the schedule up for this year yet but i looked at last years..
The warm up classes? Are they just really so that you can ride in the arena and de-spook before the heats?

:)
 

milliepops

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Yeah. usually the way it runs is the warm up classes are the day before and they are normal affiliated classes.
The championship is then run over the weekend and those are technically unaffiliated but you get the normal BD judges etc, just no points.
The champs results just take the weekend scores to determine final placings.

If you've never been then some more info: there are multiple warm up arenas,often you can pick the one you want to use but sometimes they allocate them to specific classes
The main big outdoor they usually have 3 long arenas in, I can't recall if they can fit 4 in, I think so. it's huge.
You might have seen on FB they've just put another massive surface on where one of the grass SJ rings used to be. Not sure whether they will use that for dressage.
The secretary's building overlooks the original big outdoor.
Stables are all permanent brick built and while they can be a bit rough and ready I have always found them safe and there's often bedding in them left over from previous shows.
Lots of parking/camping space in the lorry area, there's plenty of hook up capacity.
The club house serves food all day/eve and there's a bar too.
 

BenvardenRach2

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I absolutely will do , would be lovely to meet you :)!
I'm trying to talk myself into going.. worried we wont be quite ready in under 2 months time to be up against the big dogs :Do_O
Although I think the stay away aspect is a bit daunting for me I don't know if Rocks would be stressy.. I guess we could travel there on the saturday and back again on the sunday if needed too..

Will give it more thought.. when the cut off for entries? o_O
 

milliepops

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Not sure about the cut off but as the entries aren't open yet I think you've got plenty of time ;)

Last couple of years the standard has been much like any BD show. Some mega horses, some average ones. A friend of mine went a couple of years ago having used Quest sheets to qualify with her little horse, it was her first BD season and she found the show really fun. It's a bit more inclusive than, say, Regionals. IMO anyway!

The stables are usually quite quiet, there's lots of horses but they are good size boxes and I have found the horses settle well enough.
 
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