Rain and Events Cancelled!

Photo Hambledon 2012 after the storm.

Almost everything this weekend is cancelled. Riders on route to Withington are tweeting not happy at the mid morning decision, many of them had already set off for Friday dressage. We live about 25 miles from Withington and its been raining non stop since I woke up at 6 am, its now 10 am.

We were due to run at Bradwall with the 2 brothers on Saturday and thats off too.

My gripe about weather conditions is the SJ and XC. At Hambledon last week it was numbers on the board for SJ, riders publicised times were ignored. This meant if you were on the ball you could get your number down and SJ/XC early before the ground deteriorated further. We realised what was happening and got our numbers down but it meant many very annoyed riders (mainly one horse riders) arrived for SJ on time and had over an hour to wait, and then jumped nearer the end in the very worst ground, despite being drawn half way through the section. I felt so sorry for the steward who was getting lots of abuse.

I have no idea why BE and or Events choose to ignore allocated times. It certainly suits us to go early, better ground, cooler conditions on a hot day, home earlier and to show jump all our horses before XC is easier as saves outfit changes and its easier to keep you eye in for a better SJ round and a faster XC time. Also you can then run the horses XC in any order that you prefer. So maybe the one on the best score last as you always ride quicker 2nd time round as you get the feel of the course.