Whats missing in the south east....

hi everyone....

i was just wondering what you guys thought we could really use here in the south east (im in berks)...
if you could see anything (equestrian orientated) what would you like it to be?
an equestrian centre? top competition centre, sport horse auctions, stud, british sport horse breeding, tack shop, rodeo, western - anything you'd love to see really - i'd love to hear your ideas??
 
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eventersrus

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def a top competition centre are you thinking of building one
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hmmm i wish i was!! but have an investor who is very passionate and i think they want to do something big and beneficial ... so thought i'd put the feelers out!! might i ask what exactly you'd like to see at a competition centre? indoor outdoor? eventing? dressage? jumping? jump cross?
 
An arena as vast as at Stoneleigh, so that any combination of SJ, Combined Training, Dressage and showing could be held on one day to accommodate all tastes.

Would prefer it was a bit further South than Berks though!
 
Jump Cross for sure.... I would love to have a go but everywhere is sooo far away...

All the thrills of XC without the fear of falling over!! For me thats the way forward competing.... lost nerve over fixed fences after a bad fall in 2006
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Agree with you! A real top-class competition venue around the Tunbridge Wells area would be great - would need a large and light indoor arena and large warm-up plus plenty of parking!
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We can but dream ....
 
you've got Hoplands MM, what you complaining about
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- a friend was up there the other weekend and said that the changes are fantastic
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The lorry park even has little wheelbarrow houses plus wheelbarrows and scoops to pick up droppings etc (ok the indoor could be doing with being a bit bigger)

Plus they've got far more planned for up there
 
Yeah a top competition centre is definitely needed.
There are some good ones I go to, such as merrist wood but a really big one with a lot of facilities would be amazing!
 
Nah make the place nearer me.. Ive got BCA just up the road but we could do with a nice big yard that can hold several things at once.

Patchetts is miles away from us.
 
Can someone please buy Crockstead? That used to be a brill show centre and the XC was amazing.

It's all there ready to resurrect!
 
a xc schooling place closer to London area, so us weekend riders can get out a bit more but not travel so far.

A decently priced tack shop in London - i.e. not Harrods, with it's sky high prices.

Will think of some more soon.....
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[ QUOTE ]
Agree with you! A real top-class competition venue around the Tunbridge Wells area would be great - would need a large and light indoor arena and large warm-up plus plenty of parking!
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We can but dream ....

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There used to be one
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It was actually at Gillingham though...Matthews Euestrian Centre...and it was the 'Towerlands' for Kent. Unfortunately it ceased being a competition centre about 25 years ago but at the time it was amazing.

I think there is a genuine gap in the market around the Kent/Sussex border though for something really special. Kent in particular is very short on competition centres and East Sussex too now that Crockstead is no longer running much. In fact all it would take would be for someone to buy Crockstead and invest about two or three million in it and they'd have a cracking venue. It's got everything you need...lots of space for both indoor and outdoor rings, accommodation on site in the form of a hotel and therefore good catering facilities too, good road links and access. It could be a cracking showground in the same mould as Towerlands quite easily.

I'd have thought Berkshire is already fairly well served...Patchetts and Addington both relatively close already
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I thought Hoplands were starting BSJA from April onwards, twice a month on the big outdoor ....

Having lived in both Hampshire and on the Berks/Oxon boarder, Hampshire is fantastic for competition centres. So given I am moving soon I would like to vote for a new state of the art competition centre somewhere around Henley on Thames please
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We need something in Kent! Would be great to have something more around the canterbury area
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All the places round me have now closed and weren't exactly the most pleasant experiences anyway!

Last time I attempted to go out and do some winter jumping locally these were the warm up rings I had to contend with...

venue 1
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venue 2
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I feel very fortunate to be based in e sussex, there are still enough venues running all disciplines across the board without having to travel more than 20 miles,eg Duckhurst,royal leisure,golden cross,sands farm,oldencraig etc. I agree it would be good to have a mega centre down this way but feel that the smaller venues who do there best to survive in a very competive market would suffer and then close,enough venues have been lost due to ever increasing buisness rates and insurance costs.The loss of crockstead has been a blow but has not really functioned to its potential for about 10 years and its demise has definetly helped the other centres who now only clash 4 times a month instead of 8 !!!The more support the smaller centres get the better there faclitys will become.
 
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Can someone please buy Crockstead? That used to be a brill show centre and the XC was amazing.

It's all there ready to resurrect!

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Wasn't it just. I remember going round their xc course in the 90's sometime and it was ace. Its such a shame and a waste of what could be a decent show centre.
Maybe we should all club together and buy it!!!
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[ QUOTE ]
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Agree with you! A real top-class competition venue around the Tunbridge Wells area would be great - would need a large and light indoor arena and large warm-up plus plenty of parking!
grin.gif
We can but dream ....

[/ QUOTE ]

There used to be one
shocked.gif
It was actually at Gillingham though...Matthews Euestrian Centre...and it was the 'Towerlands' for Kent. Unfortunately it ceased being a competition centre about 25 years ago but at the time it was amazing.

I think there is a genuine gap in the market around the Kent/Sussex border though for something really special. Kent in particular is very short on competition centres and East Sussex too now that Crockstead is no longer running much. In fact all it would take would be for someone to buy Crockstead and invest about two or three million in it and they'd have a cracking venue. It's got everything you need...lots of space for both indoor and outdoor rings, accommodation on site in the form of a hotel and therefore good catering facilities too, good road links and access. It could be a cracking showground in the same mould as Towerlands quite easily.

I'd have thought Berkshire is already fairly well served...Patchetts and Addington both relatively close already
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OMG that's a blast from the past, I learnt to ride at Matthews Riding School, wasn't it amazing with that lovely big school!
Such a shame he closed it down
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I used to live just up the road from Matthews Equestrian Centre but it had closed by the time I lived there. I heard it closed because they didn’t have planning permission to build it in the first place. Such a shame, it would be so easy to get to for me.
 
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I used to live just up the road from Matthews Equestrian Centre but it had closed by the time I lived there. I heard it closed because they didn’t have planning permission to build it in the first place. Such a shame, it would be so easy to get to for me.

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I don't think that was quite the case...they certainly had planning permission to build it but as part of that permission they were restricted to only running a handful of shows each year. Tony Rocco...the guy who built it...had a vision of creating this major international competition venue but obviously that very much depended on being allowed to run the shows. He waged a very public and very high profile publicity campaign via the local media to support his campaign...but ultimately failed. They did hold a couple of major events there...the biggest of which I was lucky enough to compete in myself. It was a major pro-am class with the likes of the Whitakers, Harvey Smith, Nick Skelton et al taking part. This was back in the days when showjumping was still on prime time TV and it was quite a coup to pull it off
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I have looked on Google Maps recently to see if the building itself is still there...and it looks as if it could be !? Anyone from that area know what it is being used for these days ? It was in the Lower Rainham Road, Gillingham if my memory serves me right
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