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Jane Wilson
| | Posted on Tuesday, 3 August, 2010 - 2:43 pm: | |
Janet, hear hear with regard to welfare issues. Someone once said to me that we pay better attention to welfare here than they do on the continent. I happen to think that represents the lack of a feather in their caps, rather than the presence of one in ours!
On the subject of using marathon vehicles in the cones, many marathon vehicles are still smart and shiny and we do still wear our smart clothes. I know ours is a sport steeped in tradition but it is in itself a modern, relatively new sport and I for one don't think that allowing marathon vehicles for all three phases is dumbing down in any way. It's not like we're abandoning the presentation element of the cones by allowing the use of a smart, clean three phase carriage, simply employing modern equipment which has been purpose built to be fit for purpose. Those who want to use a presentation vehicle still can, but I have seen quite a few hairy cones moments over the last couple of years! |
Janet Pilling
| | Posted on Tuesday, 3 August, 2010 - 12:13 pm: | |
Vic said in the percentages thread -
"In Europe they are experimenting with running the marathon as the third phase of the competiton on the final day to make the event more exciting and more appealing to spectators and sponsors. Maybe dicussion of the pros and cons of this idea should take place in a new thread !"
If we are following three day eventing format then the purpose of a cones (showjumping) phase is to show that the horse if fit and willing to come back out and perform after a hard day's cross country driving.
In Aachen they had dressage then cones but still had the marathon on the Saturday and a Speed Cones class on Sunday - exciting viewing for spectators on both days! If we were to follow suit (as often happens!) it would mean dressage Friday, cones Saturday and marathon Sunday, or worse, dressage and cones on Saturday as at club events and then the marathon on Sunday. Either way you would be loading tired horses to travel home - maybe not an issue when the event is local however I feel it is something that should be considered when many of us drive for seven, eight, nine hours or more to get to events.
We are always being told the welfare of the horse is paramount - too often in this sport we see horse welfare being shoved to second place. On the continent they have long prize givings where tired horses are dragged back out to parade and stand for hours in the heat.
And while I'm on my soap box, I would hate to see people leaning towards using marathon vehicles in cones - I love the traditional aspect of a presentation carriage and smart clothes for the dressage and cones. I know we need to make it easier for people to get to events but please don't dumb down the sport out of recognisiton. Rant over ;). |
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