Tuesday 29 April 2008

Brace Yourself - It's Badminton Week

As any eventing fan will probably tell you it's Badminton week! it's Badminton week! And so the annual pilgrimage begins. The week that many non-horsey husbands & wives are either blissfully ignorant of, or are only too well aware makes most eventing followers gooey eyed, and their credit cards quiver!

All the top events have a certain something different that makes them appealling. I couldn't put my finger on what it is about Badminton - the history, the setting, the shopping - but what ever it is I still rate it as the best buzz of all the big events, including the olympics.

If today is anything to go by it's going to be very wet and very busy. As you'd expect Tuesday down in "the park" was all about getting ready. Tradestand holders were all busying themselves fluffing and puffing their stands. The event's site staff were merrily running round with signage, bogs & bins. Everbody else took shelter under canvas!

All afternoon the roads around Badminton and the site were clogged with horseboxes, caravans, trailers and cars, as the world, his wife, uncle, aunt and all manner of distant cousins decended on Badminton to take part in the greatest show on earth. The enlarged campsite has been fully booked for some time, the same goes for the Grandstand. If you are planning to go on Sunday and want a grandstand seat, you may want to hunt around the net for any not-needed tickets.

And all afternoon the rain came down - It really must be Badminton week. Hopefully tomorrow will prove it drains quickly at Badminton (given a chance) I'd be really surprised if the event suffers from hard going this year.

So what can your average eventing spectator expect from this year's event?
Much of same and a little more seems to be the answer. Tradestands and shopper's choice doesn't seem to show any signs of reducing on previous years. The course overall is very similar to previous years, there are a few notable adrenaline pumpers on the course though, most notably the old vicarage vee (take a look at the course thingy on the Badminton site). It looks like even those of you not able to make it this week (shame on you!) will have plenty to see, hear and follow via the event's website and the bbc. (live video and radio are both going to be available via the net).

The entries list looks more "who's who" than "who's not", especially compared to Kentucky which had very little representation outside of North America. Any how all this is good news for Badminton Pilgrims who can expect to see all the old favourites and few of the new up and coming contenders pitch their wits against Hugh Thomas and his somewhat deceptively tough cross country course.

Peronally I'd like to see Caroline Powell do well on Lenamore, and isn't it about time we saw Andrew Nicholson go last and clear in the show jumping! Apart from any other obvious choices, the ones to watch closely on the cross country are Andrews Nicholson & Hoy, Harry Meade (Midnight Dazzler) and Matt Ryan.

And just for kicks chuckle to yourself as you realise the drawn order reads less like the roll call for the Ministry of Silly Girls Names than previous years!

I'll try and bring you more news and hopefully some photos and video over the coming days.


Tuesday 22 April 2008

Safety, Safety, Safety

High on the agenda at the moment is the subject of safety, training and the potential hazards of Cross-Country. Mark Phillips, one of few "old school" who truly demands respect seems to have hit the nail of the head with his comments on recent events. - and it's not often I find myself agreeing with him.

Having recently found a great, new cross country schooling ground, and a very popular one at that, I have had my long held suspicions confirmed - Too many riders competing at the Intro, PN & Novice levels don't understand the principles of Cross Country Schooling or how to execute a good run. Watching some riders at Intermediate & Advanced can be just as concerning!

I'm no expert and can only comment from my own experience and from watching others. Rhythm is incredibly important out on the course. A horse in a comfortable, even rhythm will "jump out of his stride" easily , whilst a horse that is rushed in and out of fences will constantly adjust stride and look for ways out.

Whilst rhythm needs to be even, this doesn't mean pace needs to be constant, you can maintain rhythm and ride away from your fences. Good, even rhythm will put less strain on both you and your horse, both physically and mentally, thus conserving valuable energy.

It can be all too easy to go cross country schooling and concentrate on fixing problems. The first thing to remember here is the horse is a) a flight animal that has a brain and b) therefore suffers just as much, if not more, emotional stress than you or I. Getting your horse into a positive frame of mind is of paramount importance before you tackle anything more complex or "scary" than a straightforward log.

A good warm up is as much about warming up the horse's mind as it is it's muscles. A good piece of exercise will release endorphins that relax the horse's mind. Wherever possible I also recommend showjumping for 5-10 minutes after a good warm up and before tackling a solid fence. This gives the horse some confidence and acts as a warm up for the physicals strains of actually jumping - again it's as much about his mind.

Before tackling any known problem, like water, ditches or drops spend a good 15 minutes working through some more straightforward jumping efforts, looking to achieve balance, rhythm, control and willingness.

You mustn't forget you also need to be in a positive frame of mind, don't rest for too long before heading onto the more challenging tasks, both you and horse need to be running on endorphins! (not Adrenaline!)

Speed will never help you over a fence, ditch or drop. Impulsion is key, and impulsion will only be there if you have the endorphins flowing. Try walking straight off the lorry and into the water fence (if your horse has a problem with water), and you'll see what I mean.

If you do have, say, a problem with ditches then set up a routine where you can mix a ditch in amongst a few other fences and perhaps canter past the ditch a few times before attempting it (without presenting the horse to the ditch of course).

Now this is where it can be very easy to have your concentration broken by what you have to do, instead of what you are currently doing. Pace, Rhythm & Willingness to move forward must all be in place. If it's not go back and correct these first.

So how do you judge pace & speed if you're not allowed a stop watch? Not that easy, but at Pre-Novice you are looking at running a course at about the four and a half minute mark that's 270 seconds, so with 21 fences that's an average of 13 seconds between fences. You'll only need to jump a few fences counting to 10 in your head to judge whether your pace needs to quicken or slowed down in order to get near to the optimum time.

If you are chasing a horse into a cross country fence, your horse and/or you aren't emotionally ready for an event, so time to take a look back at some other elements (flatwork, show jumping)

With flat work it's all about acceptance and response to rider aids. You should be able to shorten and lengthen stride at will without impulsion dying or fear of lengthening becoming flat. Almost any stride regardless of length should have "bounce" and power.

Show jumping helps bridge a gap between flatwork and the schooling field. You need to be able to jump fences at a much slower pace to ensure success when going faster on cross country. Taking the impulsion and control of pace you've generated through your flatwork and adding commitment to jump obstacles is how to succeed cross country. What obstacles you jump is merely a matter of familiarity for any horse willing to leave the ground. Grid work and basic circuits are a good starting point. Remember you don't need to be jumping huge fences, just large enough to make the horse jump fences rather than step over them. Commitment and control is the objective.

A common mistake is often thinking your problems on a cross country course are just that, often they're more fundamental than that, i.e. don't ignore flatwork and jumping in the arena.

Will all this in place you can then start to fine tune technique and strategy out on the schooling field.

All this being said you should wherever possible enlist the help of a professional trainer/rider. Another great training aid is the video camera and the numerous DVDs available of horse trials, training video etc. Get someone to video as much of your riding and schooling as possible, study in detail the differences in your riding to that of professionals and you'll start to make progress.

As can possibly be detected from my earlier post on the new classes being introduced, I don't believe this will "help bridge the gaps", but probably cloak to problems with education and training. One of the problems I see with the current system is you can move up a class without producing consistent results. I would never recommend attempting the next level up until you had consistently finished on your dressage score (or perhaps with the odd rail) in the current level. Until you can produce a consistent result you can't produce a better one (as any upgrade in class requires). Get it right before you move on and you'll enjoy it more. Also bear in mind horses are emotionally very fragile creatures and need confidence to perform.

As cliched as it is "Success is 90% Planning & Preparation". By the time you get back to the lorry after walking the course, you should have decided all the routes you are going to take, all the ground you're going to use between fences and all your alternatives. Mistakes are almost entirely due to pressure from running into a problem and not having a plan to tackle it. Thus planning and preparation is everything!

Saturday 19 April 2008

How many classes do we need

I know an army marches on its stomach and BE is feed overhelmingly from members who don't compete above Novice level, but do we really need all these new classes like Pre-Novice Plus. Surely there's enough variety across different events to give riders suitable choice and challenge within the existing classes?

I for one would rather see the money invested in prize funds, training facilities and existing cross country courses.

Let the Games Begin

With the first major UK event of the season (Badminton Horse Trials) almost upon us, I suppose the season must be in full swing. The clocks have brought us into British Summer Time, the grass is already sprouting fresh green shoots and William Fox-Pitt has started boring us with his usual benign comment in his Horse & Hound column! - The 2008 season is truly underway.

Whilst on the subject of Badminton, I notice Hugh Thomas is still getting the odd ball out of left field over last year's ground conditions. What a complete over reaction! April 2007 produced almost zero rain in much of the UK, and considering Badminton is famous for it's mud (and not for it's therapeutic qualities), it was particularly exceptional weather conditions.

Hard ground is far less of an issue for horses than the deep or slippery conditions that can often be experienced this early or late in the season. Certainly our friends from over the pond didn't have a problem running their horses, and even one of the biggest critics decided to run and won! If they'd have had a wait list last year I wonder how many on that list would have criticised fellow riders for waiting until after dressage to withdraw, thus taking away an opportunity for them to run.

All that being said there have obviously been some significant re-investments down at Badminton, on the going, the whole event and a flashy new website providing even more content than in earlier years.

I have it on good authority that for those unable to make it down to Gloucestershire this May the website will provide a huge amount of video, audio and other content to satisfy our insatiable appetite for instant information.

Judging by the course walk preview presented by the esteemed Mike Tucker the 2008 course will bring no new surprises, except maybe getting your feet wet slightly earlier on the course. Many of the same questions are posed in the old familiar places on the course. Time for a little change down in the park me thinks! Still it's more of a flowing course than you find in many of the Mike E-S designed courses at least.

I for one will certainly be looking forward to Badminton and all it's trappings.........who knows maybe I'll even report from the ground so to speak.