| Author | Message | ||
     Christopher Priestley |
An excellent point about there being more one day events - perhaps the role they played have been replaced by indoor? The Health and Safety/insurance aspects certainly would, I imagine, have added costs, as would the higher standard of permanent obstacle construction. Would having quality temporary obstacle "kits" that could be deployed to different events in different configurations provide an economy of scale? With regards to the issue of safety fencing, I went to the European Eventing championships at Blenheim a few years ago and they just had ropes around most of the fences. Maybe we could just deploy a few safety fences where spectators are expected to congregate and leave the rest roped off? | ||
| David Stafford |
In 1985 factors such as Health and Safety and Risk Assessment were not the major concerns that they are today when organising an event. Even at club level now this can drive up the cost of putting on an event. At national events in 1985 a rope surrounding the hazards ( oops, obstacles ) would suffice, rather than the barriers which have to be used now. Obstacles designed today also have to more substantial and 'pleasing to the eye' Whilst numbers may be down at events today I do think however that the overall standard is higher. | ||
| Jane Wilson |
I don't know about other clubs, but the North East events at that time were mostly one day events with dressage and cones in the morning and marathon in the afternoon. Did this make it more accessible to people just starting out? I think it did for me. | ||
| Alan Hodges |
With those figures a profit for the MDTG was to be had with an entry fee of £3.00 per head. Adjusted for inflation that makes it a lot cheaper then than now | ||
| Christopher Priestley |
This is an excerpt from Horse Driving Trials: The sport of competitive coachmanship by Major Tom Coombs “The British Horse Society listed fifteen official national fixtures for 1985 including the two mentioned above [Royal Windsor and an international championships] and the two annual events at Scone and Kelso in Scotland. At least forty small club events, mostly just one-day ones, are also run in Britain each year by clubs. These clubs have a local or regional membership and in 1985 there were fourteen of them, specialising in driving trials and affiliated to the Driving Trials Group… It continues: “As an example, the Midlands Driving Trials Group, with almost two hundred members, runs seven events each summer at different locations throughout the Midlands and East Anglia, with an average of seventy entries at each, and none of them has the cost the group more than £200 [about £480 in 2008 adjusted for inflation based on RPI] to put on…” Is driving trials bigger or smaller than it was a generation ago? Have the costs changed? |