These days, I do more course-advising than course-designing, as this is how I see my role: helping the next generation.
I always say to the up-and-coming talent, “The only difference between me and you is that I’ve made more mistakes than you!” The secret in life is to learn from those mistakes and now to help keep others from making the same ones.
The only straight design work I’m doing this year was at Aston-le-Walls last week as a bit of a favour to Nigel Taylor. On the day that we weren’t due to finish until 7.30pm, I knew I was too old to still be doing this. Joking apart, to be still running cross-country that late in the day is not good for horses, grooms, riders, owners, officials and especially the long-suffering volunteers.
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I asked Nigel why and the reply was, “BE [British Eventing] would not let me run an extra day of cross-country.”
So now I’m thinking that nobody wins in this situation. If BE wants to limit the number of runners that organisers can put through in a day, then set a sensible daily maximum of horses to, say, around 250, plus or minus 10%, then everyone can go home at 5pm.
I do appreciate the ever-increasing pressures on organisers, especially the international ones because of the extra FEI costs. To make ends meet, they need significant numbers of entries. The trouble is, every organiser’s costs are different, so there is no one rule that fits it all.
I left the fixtures committee because we were supposed to be helping to make the international fixtures more viable, but there was no level playing field between organisers as some were more restricted than others over how many divisions they could run.
A clear fixtures strategy would be a good item for new BE chair Julia Mulligan to have on her agenda because, in most cases, good entry numbers are directly proportional to an event’s position in the calendar.
My courses at Aston-le-Walls
The one-, two- and three-star at Aston-le-Walls were pretty routine apart from Carys McCrory’s fall in the CCI3*-S. When a rider leaves the venue in an air ambulance, it leaves a sickening feeling in the course-designer’s stomach. Luckily, reports from the hospital say she is making good strides to a full recovery.
Tragically, two other riders were not so lucky last weekend, when Sophie Fouracre and Kerry Donoghue lost their lives in cross-country accidents at Swalcliffe and Penrith respectively. The sympathies of all in the sport are with their family and friends, as well as everyone involved at the events.
In the CCI4*-S, I did something a little different with one-, two- and three-stride combinations as part of the mix.
When I was riding showjumping grands prix, David Broome always told me: a distance of four strides or less, you have to have a plan and make it work. More than four strides, and you have time to stop and start again. That was good advice, so I was disheartened to see so many riders go to their hand and try to add strides in these short combinations, hence the plethora of 20-penalty glance-offs.
Medals aren’t a given in Aachen
Last weekend I was in Avenches in Switzerland, site of next year’s European Championships, where the Germans were having their last run before announcing their team for the worlds. On home soil in Aachen and led by Michael Jung, they will be hoping to repeat their team success last year in Blenheim.
The British squad in Aachen will be led by European champions Laura Collett with London 52, and Ros Canter with Lordships Graffalo. They will be joined by Tom McEwen (JL Dublin), Caroline Harris (D.Day) and Gemma Stevens (Flash Cooley).
Inevitably, we will start favourites after our string of successes with Chris Bartle and Dickie Waygood. Make no mistake, medals are not a given and all will know that nothing less than a personal best performance will get the job done; 13–16 August will be nail-biting viewing in Aachen.
● Who is your tip for World Championships gold? Let us know your thoughts at hhletters@futurenet.com, including your name, nearest town and county, for the chance to have your thoughts published in a future issue of Horse & Hound magazine
