| Author | Message | ||
     James Robson Member Username: Jamesr Post Number: 3 Registered: 06-2008 |
Having sat back and watched this thread with interest - I can't help but to wonder that the author of this thread really really needs to look to her own results before casting any negative reports on other's achievements . is this a true reflection of the UKcc ? | ||
| Derrick Mayes Member Username: Scarlet Post Number: 3 Registered: 03-2007 |
Having just got back from competing at Erddig I would like to add my comments. All 3 Brits competed against the best in the world at 4 in hand and were a credit to their country.None of them looked out of place. In response to my message of thanks to the Chairman of Aachen, Frank Kemperman, he replied "It was a real pleasure for us to welcome a driving team from your country to Aachen again". Georgina was a real star and attraction at the show as the only lady driver competing against the best 20 plus in the world and the Jump & Drive in the main show jumping arena, with Guy Williams, was the modern equivalent of the Coliseum in Rome. Despite her turnover in No.2 in the marathon she and her team picked themselves up and completed. Dan, who was very popular with the other drivers,drove with great élan throughout the competition, being the equestrian showman that he is and was unlucky to to eliminated in no. 3 of the marathon on a technicality. Robert, who came into the team at a very,very,late stage to help us make up a team of 3, following late withdrawals, was steady throughout the competition and in the end finished with our best overall score. He was a great team member. All in all Aachen is a fantastic show, of which driving is but a small,but important, part and some of you will have experienced it but for those who have not, I recommend it as the best Horse Show there is. Our 3 competitors tried their hearts out and despite not being as competitive as they would have wished, were a credit to their country and it was both a pleasure and a privilege to serve as their Chef d'equipe. Derrick Mayes | ||
| Janet Pilling Member Username: Janetp Post Number: 20 Registered: 03-2007 |
Wow - a very challenging marathon! Having been to Aachen I cannot begin to imagine the feeling of competing there - the atmosphere and the crowds are incredible, like nothing else I've ever encountered, it's an amazing show. Well done to you guys and thanks Gi for such an exciting report  | ||
| Emma Burge Member Username: Sonofjaws Post Number: 1 Registered: 10-2010 |
I think the frustration underlying a number of posts recently point up an increasing need for the BHDTA to subsidise a web manager who ties in with the National and International events and PR and Marketing of the sport - Unless things have changed, I was told (when politely asking if results for a National event which hadn't appeared on the site some days after it had finished) that the National (and I guess International ) results would be posted as soon as the volunteer who worked on the website was available - I was also told that 'if I felt things were too slow maybe I should volunteer' - to which I have to say, I whimpered. I do think that we should really focus and celebrate the top end of the sport much more than we currently do - Of course it's great to share the fabulous success of the grass roots, young/old and wonderfully diverse drivers who make HDT so inclusive and brilliant - But we also want to be in able to look up to and learn from the gods, demi-gods and 'ickle godessess! So if there's a purse string to be pulled at the conference, count me in! | ||
| Louise Hodgson Member Username: Louisehodgson Post Number: 1 Registered: 07-2011 |
Many thanks Georgina for your report and congratulations to yourself, Dan and Robert. Many thanks also Minta for one of the most refreshing and reassuring threads I have read in a long time. | ||
| Marilyn Harding Member Username: Geronimo Post Number: 4 Registered: 07-2007 |
ER!! Has it been forgotten already that single Horse came home with TEAM and INDIVIDUAL GOLD !!! Bhdta didnt show much enthusiasm then and it seems everybody (except a few of us) dont seem to remember now. Those who want to go, work hard, get into debt, put life on hold,but in the end the backbones of our sport do not seem really interested. So Georgina you shouldn't be too surprised that your fantastic effort was ignored.At least you have brought us up to date. | ||
| Laura Green Member Username: Thunderchicken Post Number: 2 Registered: 07-2008 |
thank you for your report georgina | ||
| Minta WInn Member Username: Mintaw Post Number: 19 Registered: 07-2008 |
First of all well done to all those who went to Aachen. Like with everything, it takes bravery to look and analyse your own performance but much more importantly being prepared to go out and compete at this level. Having worked with the UKcc coaches on their current (very demanding) Level 3 course, it has shown that a huge amount of planning and prioritising has to go to training and competing if you really want to win. Where and when to train and how to prepare your horses, grooms and team members all need very careful consideration and a very different approach. To win, the route is likely to need to be outside the traditional approach we have followed in our sport for many years. The World pony Team have several of our coaches, who through the process have come on in leaps and bounds in their approach to when and where they compete, who they work with and how they train. As well as having natural talent they have learnt the necessity to analyse and measure their own performance and their approach (self coaching). This process follows the World Class model that the other equine disciplines use, which is starting to show impressive results. For anyone interested in knowing more about this approach, and hopefully the competitions committee and chef's as well as the competitors who really want to win, we are hoping to give a presentation on The Approach to World Class Performance over the winter. The first question competitors have to work out is, “Do you compete to compete or do you compete to Win?” They are two very different things and require two very different approaches. Both can work together comfortably for most of the time. At others they rub each other up the wrong way and become counterproductive. We are one of many minority sports within the equine world. All are having to make these changes and develop a long term approach to success. There are many changes we can easily make but in the end the will has to come from the drivers themselves. If we want to improve the way to do it is now well proven. We sometimes suffer from an island mentality, ie; big fish in a little pool, we might be good here but when pitted against our counterparts in Europe on infrequent forays we tend to fall down badly. Are we not good enough or do we just not perform? Do we wear out our drivers/horses/ponies trying to get selected? Should they prove themselves earlier? Should we encourage them to perform more often on the bigger stage? Do we really sort out minor novice mistakes in our drivers and the horses /ponies before they become set in stone? Are our judges truthful and hard enough in the marking so that we do go and improve our dressage? Are they consistent? We can all hark back to what driving used to be like and when the marathon was a real cross the country experience, testing horse and driver, but we are dealing with the sport as it is today. Therefore need to move with the times and work with the findings of the considerable research that has brought other sports to the top of the medal tables. This is meant to be a viewpoint to promote discussion as well as a possible pathway to look at where we go with the process, if indeed we change our ways at all. From what I read from Gi's very good feedback from Aachen, something needs to be done .......... the drivers have to take the initiative and the sport needs to work with them. | ||
| Fiona Powell Member Username: Fionap Post Number: 57 Registered: 03-2007 |
See G in the water obstacle at Aachen - http://youtu.be/ODrYT8dLq9M Robert Wilkinson - http://youtu.be/GCXemroTa3o Dan Naprous - http://youtu.be/HAxZnTe00VU | ||
| Fiona Powell Member Username: Fionap Post Number: 56 Registered: 03-2007 |
Georgina, thank you very much for your report - how exciting... I hope there will be some photos and videos to see somehere? Well done to all of you! Fiona | ||
| Georgina Frith Member Username: Georgina Post Number: 3 Registered: 04-2007 |
So to all of you who have seen the scores and dismissed us, please be assured that we tried our best and in no way disgraced ourselves. It is sad to see GBR bringing up the rear, but at least we have a score recorded - there are plenty of nations who didn't get that far. To move forward internationally there has to be a complete rethink at horse team level. There is no immediate evidence of anyone in England having the required skill/dedication/funding combination to broach the top 5, but with co-ordination and determination and a bit of enthusiasm from the powers that be i do think we could be in with a shot of the bronze team medal even by the next championship. Thank-you to those who have followed our progress and a huge thank-you to our wonderfully diplomatic chef d'equipe Derrick Mayes, and i'm sorry if you are reading these posts upside down. But you are right Laura. Competing at Aachen is something to be proud of. | ||
| Georgina Frith Member Username: Georgina Post Number: 2 Registered: 04-2007 |
Eight huge obstacles and all of the fastest marathon drivers in the World. The route was mown and cordoned off the whole way to keep spectators out of harms way. Crowds made it impossible for followers to run between obstacles. Two water hazards, one with a massive bridge, knockdowns everywhere. All bar two appeared to be open and flowing and fair. Dan showed his daring by blitzing the bridge hazard (he is a stuntman afterall) but Robert and i showed our caution and were happy to survive rather than compete through this one as is reflected in our slow times. One hazard had loose chippings as a surface and Dan was one of several drivers who had leaders loose their footing. Unfortunately as the horse scrabbled up he put a leg over the trace so he had to get a groom down. Even more unfortunately by the time he pulled up the nose of the other leader broke the line between the exit flags so he suffered a technical elimination - something he didn't realise until he saw the scores so a huge disappointment given some of his times. Robert was approaching the marathon fresh from a tricky marathon in Saumur so by his own admission was not feeling as confident as he might. However he completed without incident to be the best of British on the marathon day. I had trouble in obstacle 2. No 1 went well - 1 sec behind Boyd. No 2 was infront of a huge stand of spectators and my wheeler shied violently and unexpectedly pushing us onto a box which collapsed making a ramp and slowly tipped us over as we had too much momentum to stop. The hardest thing was righting the carriage as the fence was in the way. Language barriers made it hard for me to get help (no way i can lift 600kg!) but eventually i managed to get the horses to safely drag the carriage forwards and Matt and Harry righted it and we carried on with approx 3 mins lost. The adrenaline rush this caused disrupted the next couple of hazards, and a broken chain on the right wheeler swingle tree disrupted our steering a bit on the rest of the course, but we continued and finished safely. | ||
| Georgina Frith Member Username: Georgina Post Number: 1 Registered: 04-2007 |
I couldn't agree with you more Laura! And to come back and find that there is still no mention of team GBR's attendance despite the leading headline on the website feels a bit unsupportive! Still for those of you who are interested i feel i must give some detail behind the scores, which i admit do look terrible in comparison to Boyd's win. The preface is that being invited to Aachen is in itself an achievement. Last year when funding for Kentucky was withdrawn by BEF and it became apparant that GBR was not going to be represented at WEG the horse teams continued their selection trials in a bid to send a team to Aachen. However the invitation was not extended until after RWHS ie only 6 weeks before the event. I was the only team member selected still in a position to go, but fortunately Dan and Robert stepped up to fill in the gaps as we were only invited on conditon that 3 drivers went. I attended Kentucky as an owner rather than a driver and can safely say that Aachen has all the attributes of a world championship. It is superbly organised and attracts crowds of over 300,000 at the weekend. It is fair to say there is nothing in the UK to prepare you for competing in conditions like that! There are 5 days of competition with one dressage and cones score adding to your marathon to give an individual place, and the scores from a second dressage and cones round adding to your marathon to give the score for the team (best score for 2 drivers in each phase goes forward to give nation place) Our dressage on the first day suffered a bit from nerves, both horses and drivers, but the tests were all solid performances spoilt by occassional shying at flowers/judges boxes/crowd cheering. There were many tests of similar standard that scored between 55 and 62, and i'm sure any one of them performed in the relative peace of our national circuit would have looked like a 45. The cones courses were fast and flowing. Different challenges in each course, but only 1hr to learn the route, and a big disadvantage being on early so no time to see whether there is time to take a circle or drive a direct route. Again each team looked world class although we could either go through the cones or go fast, but apparantly none of us could do both! The marathon was something else. | ||
| Laura Green Member Username: Thunderchicken Post Number: 1 Registered: 07-2008 |
why has there been no mention of gbr going out there?its something to be proud of. there is live streaming on www.clipmyhorse.de for both dressage days and poss marathon. good luck to all competeing |