| Author | Message | ||
     Dawn Emmerson |
I've been saying for years that the Nationsals should be held at Catton, while being held at Windsor they for me, spectating became dull and boring. Then when I Competed at Catton at club Events and National Qualifiers in previous years I found Catton so much more exciting and worthwhile than entering the Championships at Winsdor. Maybe it will just be a matter of time before Catton becomes the Championship venue... | ||
| Fiona Powell |
Dear BHDTA, May I firstly congratulate Jill and her crew on one of the best national championships I have ever been to. Not only has all your hard work been greatly appreciated but you have shown what a resourceful bunch of people you are. Catton Hall is the best place for the national championships, a good course, amazing obstacles; challenging exciting and great potential. At Windsor we are greatly hampered by the lack of endorphins, the obstacles are dull and samey, I have heard the excuse “we cant put new ones in the park doesn’t like it”… then why the H*** are we there? We have an amazing sport, huge potential for large crowds and an electric atmosphere, neither of which we can get if were charging for people to come and watch horses walking round posts, the general public want excitement, speed and thundering hooves. These are all things that Catton has to offer, with more publicity and a low ticket price the BHDTA could make the national championships into the biggest and best event on the HDT calendar, which it is supposed to be. As a competitor Catton hall has it all, good arenas, spectacular sections and outstanding obstacles, if the nationals are there next year you can count on my entry. Yours sincerely, (posted on behalf of) Mr X | ||
| Martyn Willis |
Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to put on the Championships. For us Catton is a natural home for the National Championships. It's an easy 3.5 hours drive with an HGV from Southampton. The Dressage and Cones fields are flat whereas Windsor's are not. World class obstacles. Plenty of flat level parking. Please support keeping it at Catton. | ||
| Fiona Powell |
Janet, without exception every single person I spoke to on the subject preferred Catton to Windsor. Because it's more central the Scottish drivers are more likely to come, too. It doesn't seem fair to always have the Champs in the south, to me. My journey was about 3.5 hours from the wilds of Suffolk - similar to going to Windsor but without the joys of the M25. I don't know how people from the South West and further afield feel about it? The Midland club are friendly, welcoming and know what they are doing and put on a super show. The stable field is flat, as are the arenas, with lots of space, plenty of water, loads of flat warming-up areas and easy parking for spectators. The obstacles are within walking distance and they are, for me, wonderful to drive. It was mentioned that it's easier to get sponsorship for Windsor - but we can try to overcome that, can't we? The Championships was mentioned on the national news and in the press for once - but did anyone send out any press releases to invite spectators to Catton? (I don't mean this remark as a criticism! Straw and camel's back... it'd be interesting to see just how much support we could drum up if we all really tried?) Several people have kindly said how much they are enjoying reading the belated blog, so I'll finish it... You'll have seen the final results now - not too many surprises. Thanks to a steaming marathon, Julia Liles overcame her 7th place in dressage - due to an over-enthusiastic leader who's a marathon star - to leap to 2nd in Pony Fours, behind Sarah-Jane Cook who nevertheless won on a 38 penalty lead. Novice Pony class was small but mighty well matched. There was scarcely a whisker between Ann Davey, Nicola Blandin and Edward Foster going into cones - 0.3 pens between each place. Ann's nerve held and she had the first of only 5 double-clear rounds (116.12). Nicola looked very happy with only one cone down (119.49) and Edward Foster, dressage winner, did the same (119.73). Sue Pridding sportingly completed the cones with only one down but had accumulated a large number of penalties on the sections in the marathon and was no longer in the competition. Mike Fallowell, MDTG committee member, on home turf, had a hugely popular win in Novice Horse. His 13-penalty lead after dressage (53.41) proved too tough even for Lucy McGill's speedy marathon and he romped home on 120.4. If you see him, he's probably still floating a few inches off the ground with delight. Intermediate Pony: Tracey Fletcher led from the front and, despite 1.94 penalites in cones against Cathy Willis' clear, she took home the red ribbon on 126.28 against Cathy's 135.42. Sharon Redfern's extra 20 penalties in an otherwise typically strong marathon dropped her to 4th and Susan Don picked up the yellow rosette. (It seems a shame to me that there are so few in the Novice and Intermediate classes, even allowing for the changed venue. What number do you think makes a good competition in your class?) Helen Hunter cantered home with only 6 cones penalties in Intermediate Horse class (145.79), but as Nicola Pimbblet did the same, they remained separated by only 0.65 penalties (146.44). Vicky Irwin was severely penalised on the sections and minus the extra 22.8, she'd have been up there... (163.08). Phillip Reeves retired after obstacle 6. Open Pony's Jackie Herd had less than one cone in hand following Gary Brown into cones after his double-clear, but she did the same and it was another popular, breath-holding finish - 138.02, Gary 140.54. Caroline Hall said Percy paced the whole way round the cones and came within time but with two on the ground. Nevertheless, she was delighted with third place. Sue Mayes finished cones but had retired after obstacle 4 on the marathon. Sue Denney's uncharacteristic 6 penalties in cones eased some pressure from leader Sara Howe, and her meagre 3.21 kept her in front, 115.69 to Sue's 123.84. Advanced Pony drivers kept their placings with only a few penalites between them, Sue Mart, Sara Simmons and Anna Grayston ending a very tight, consistently driven competition. I was warming up for the Pony Pairs class at this point and had the most relaxing time I remember at such an important event. We went in first and the course was a real pleasure to drive. It was flowing and moved you on but without necessitating those frantic canters back and forth across the arena. There were no really tight turns but a couple of cones "reversed" - 13 - 16 were in a lovely line except that 14 and 16 were the wrong way round so you had to circle to go through them. I was surprised and pleased with just three down and to come within the time. Carol Meredith certainly gets my vote as a sympathetic cones course designer. Pony Pairs class had a shake up in cones which still left Rachel Stevens first, Jo Rennison second and Jessica Meredith third but only Wendy Wadsworth retained her place, fifth, and all the rest of us played snakes and ladders, as is the nature of cones! To be continued... | ||
| Janet Pilling |
There seems to be great enthusiasm for this venue and for the obstacles - would there be a case for trying to have the event held there again in future? (either annually or as part of a touring event as I believe used to be the case in the dark and distant past). Windsor could then be held as a regular National. I have been to Catton as a spectator on two occasions - once at a National and once for the Pony Worlds - both events were fantastic. I have been to the National Championships at Windsor several times and while I love the venue and the atmosphere, it does seem to be a regular gripe that the obstacles are almost all post and rail and that the routes get too technical. Never having driven at either event (not for the want of trying!) I would be interested to hear what others thought of the comparison and also what the feeling is for having the Championships at a different venue. | ||
| Wendy Peckham |
Only managed to watch on Saturday (Patrick was dragged into stewarding on Ob 6 but think he enjoyed himself! Fiona's blog is quite fascinating - straight from the horse's mouth. It's nice that people have thanked the organisers but hey - what about an extra big thank you to Midlands who gave up their last event of the season (Catton is our Club Championship track and we novices do both the hill (obs 2) and over the bridge into the water) and supplied most of the stewards. Wendy P | ||
| Dawn Emmerson |
Cheers for that info Fiona, makes a lot of sense now Lol and hey your blog is gripping, can't wait to read the rest. | ||
| Fiona Powell |
I am still on a high from one of the most enjoyable events of the year for me (so far, Rockbourne). IMHO, the obstacles and the whole marathon course was a dream to drive, over interesting terrain and tracks with fantastic views, well constructed and, once we'd worked out the route maps for the sections, well marked! (Marking "north" helps.) If you've never driven at Catton, take a look at Mike Watts' photos for a view of the obstacles. What made them special? I think it's because they use the terrain so well and they are all different. No 1 is very early in section E, naturalistic post-and-rails parallel alleyways. No 2 is a stomach-churningly steep up-and-down bank but the wide initial gates and choice-riddled flagging make it easier to drive than it first appears and, unusually, it had an extra start gate which took you down a steep bank but saved a few seconds. 3 was Carriage Driving magazine's elegant gazebo wrapped around with solid post-and-rails shapes, triangles and squares and artistically decorated. 4 and 5 were in the woods, 5 including a low bank. 6 was a maze with some tight and tighter options, but it flowed nicely, I found, once you were in there. 7 was the water, which you couldn't avoid, with an exciting and cleansing dash through to the finish. 8 was the "bridge", a three-way rise with some interesting options. Every obstacle had its own character - which helps you remember them more easily - and most had some pretty flowers and decorations in spite of the short preparation time. On Friday night we were given an all-embracing technical briefing (which began shakily with, "The start of A is where it usually is..." Aargh! Where's that, for us amnesiacs and first-timers? Sorry, I don't mean to carp, but we don't always communicate as inclusively as we might, do we?) But it told us what we needed to know - thank you! And we were told that gate A on the water obstacle (7) had been widened, owing to popular demand, so you weren't forced over the steep wooden bridge. We'd already decided to initiate ourselves over the bridge, so weren't affected. It was a three-section marathon for everyone of about 17kms. In the open classes, Sue Denney lived up to her reputation for swiftness and came in over 21 seconds faster than the speedy Sara Howe, Sue on 65.84 and Sara 70.08. Flying Scotsman Ian Bertram won Advanced Horse on 69.7 and Wilf Bowman-Ripley's 76.56 put him well ahead of second-fastest Libby Priest's 91.31. Fred Pendlebury didn't wait around and beat the horse tandems by 100 seconds on 100.66 with Rene Schoop consistent on 121.24 in second. Horse Four's gave Pippa Bassett the lead, 111.14, but George Bowman, "the Grand Seigneur", was hot on her heels with 112.96 and Karen Bassett had only 114.87. But three of their comrades were lost, Barry Capstick retiring and George Bowman IV and Robert Bowman eliminated. (More to follow shortly...) | ||
| Fiona Powell |
Dawn, the results are on Tom's PC and I'm sure they will be posted as soon as Vic gets them from him - I'm not going to spoil the excitement! | ||
| Dawn Emmerson |
When I went to the resultrs page via the BHDTA site the final results showed minus scores for the cones which made me assume the cones were not run. Teach me to assume won't it lol so next question how come the final results are being shown without cones scores? or am I still missing something here? | ||
| Fiona Powell |
"Thank you" to all who made the National Championships happen, first of all - and I'll write a proper appreciation later. Pictures are on www.mikewatts.com Someone said, "It'd be nice to have a blog from the Championships" so I said, "Yes...", forgetting that, when I blogged from Poland, I only had to stand around taking pictures all day, not plaiting ponies, walking obstacles, feeding ponies, walking obstacles, washing ponies, feeding self and groom, walking... etc. as one does at events. So here is a user's impression after the event. Weather overall on Friday was pleasant, a bit humid but mostly dry until, that is, pony pairs set off to warm up for the dressage near the end of the day, when a gentle, you-might-get-away-with-wearing-your-best-hat drizzle turned into a raging torrent in which a sou'wester would have been more appropriate. I have rarely been quite so thoroughly wet through. However, the rain made the carriage look shiny and kept the ponies heads down (a bit). We had two arenas - flat and nicely mown, with flowers and lots of loverly flat mown grass to warm up on. DRESSAGE: There were surprises in the dressage results not so much who but just in the results themselves - Cherry Gaynor and Sara Clinghan tied in first place in the largest class of the event (9 entries) Advanced Horse on 50.77 - and Fred Pendlebury's horse tandem won on the same score (in Horse Tandem class, that is). Wilf Bowman-Ripley won the dressage in Horse Pairs and Sue Botley surprised herself coming second. Mike Fallowell built a 13-point lead in Novice Horse, Tracey Fletcher went back into Intermediate Pony and won that - 54.33. Rachel Stevens won Pony Pairs, 49.33. Di Hayes built a 10-point lead in Open Horse, 51.47. Best dressage result was Bronze Medallist Sara Howe's 42.4 (Advanced Pony) but she was closely tailed by Sara Simmons, 43.47. Faith Szczuka beat the other six pony teams on 57.81 and Pippa Bassett won horse teams on 61.23 from Georgina Frith, 61.44. MARATHON: A fine day despite a misty start wasn't too hot and dried out the surface so it was soft and not too slippery as the obstacle section got underway. How many people said they loved these obstacles? They were real driver's obstacles - not memory tests, not traps, not for walking round. They were brilliant to drive, testing - of nerve, agility and fitness, of course, but only as much as you wanted. George Prince had deliberately flagged them to offer flowing routes, I'm told - and kindly came to Catton specially to do so. It's a pity, it seems to me, that because novices only drive 6 obstacles and intermediates drive 7 and neither drive the F gates, you can no longer compare your times in the obstacles with the other clases. (I used to love matching my scores against other peoples - a bit like fantasy league football. Um, "I'd have been third in horse tandem class in obstacle 3, and so on", daft but inspiring!) But at least we all drove 20 cones... (My Deputy Dawg pyjamas are calling and I must go to bed now as my eyelids are closing but I'll finish the blog tomorrow - or someone else might?) | ||
| Fiona Powell |
Yes, all phases happened! The results were posted still hot from Tom Petitpierre's computer each day and, as we left before the end of the competition, Vic will post the final results as soon as he can get them from Tom. (Hope that makes sense!) Post-event blog to follow... | ||
| Geoff Kay |
Where did you hear that the cones was not run? I was at Catton and from 8.30 am to 1pm was steward on the cones........I am pretty damn sure there were horses running through cones! The cones were completed about 4pm G | ||
| Dawn Emmerson |
Unfortunately we were booked at an event to take photographs so never got a chance to come and watch any of the Championships :-( but my friend has been keeping me a bit updated. I looked at the final results and noticed that there was nothing for cones. Can someone tell me why the cones course was not run? I was told a few things were missing from teh event and as I wasn't there I don't know if this is true or not. if it is what was missing (apart from the cones)? Thanks Dawn | ||
| Mike Watts |
Terrific work by lots of people to make this event possible. The weather's been mostly kind, though we did dressage in a cloudburst - very, very wet. Results for dressage here - hope they reached you Vic for BHDTA main site, internet shaky in our horsebox... Looking forward to tomorrow's marathon; 8 varied and well decorated obstacles, |