William Fox-Pitt says . . .
“Sue Benson’s course [at Bramham] was well received. She had made several alterations and trouble was well spread. A huge effort had been made to cater for all ranges of experience and iron out Bramham’s notorious cambers. Sue put a lot of thought into creating a horse-friendly course.
“The under-25s made light of the cross-country. It’s a good concept to have the under-25s doing the senior dressage test, cross-country time and show jumping in an effort to bridge the gap between them and seniors.”
Lynn Russell says . . .
“While a judge should be expected to give a fair chance and a decent ride to every horse, he or she isn’t there to school it. A ride judge’s job is to assess a horse, not try to improve or correct it. My philosophy when I’m judging is that I ask the horse nicely and if it doesn’t want to know, neither do I!
“Manners should be made at home by the rider, not by the judge in the ring. Public squaring ups are ugly and cause bad feeling. Riders don’t want to see it and neither do spectators, whether they are knowledgable or not.”
Pammy Hutton says . . .
“With immediate effect each rider must source and declare every single musical extract used on every single dressage to music tape. The information must then be listed, signedfor and submitted to BD. . . before that tape can be played in public. Any slip-ups and dressage to music in this country comes to an end.
“While British riders are searching attics to find where that 30sec of walk music came from, our foreign rivals are practising their tests unfettered by bureaucracy.”
