What an excellent event..
This was the first time I had ventured to Belton, but had heard positive feedback from a number of people before I had arrived. I was not disappointed. For a whole variety of reasons this was a very enjoyable three days, with a number of features that worked well and added to the whole experience.
As soon as one arrived at the event one was impressed. The car parking arrangements worked very well.
The owners/riders car park was adjacent to the horsebox area, although one had to come in a separate entrance. Given the conditions this worked extremely well and I would like to see this adopted where the location permits.
The programme was very informative and incorporated some very good features, such as five riders to follow, and I liked the cross country fence layout and descriptions.
There was a manned spectator information point, where one could track down all the riders times, and find anything else out.
A large variety of stalls, with plenty of opportunity to spend money. I got as far as a double seated swinging garden seat, but drew the line at nickys’ suggestion of a tractor for the yard.
The dressage display by Ruth Edge was a big hit with my wife, and it was fantastic to see one of the disciplines being demystified with a rider, judge and trainer all involved in the explanations.
It was also interesting to be close to Yogi and the other trainers as they were doing post mortems with the riders after the 3* dressage. Fascinating
I must also thank the organisers who have posted on my daughters camera case with photocard inside that my wife mislaid. Everyone was very helpful when we discovered it was lost and that they have managed to track it down as well is an added bonus.
There were a huge number of volunteers manning crossing points, handing out programmes, answering
Again the riders were very approachable and
So what of the event itself.
The weather at least was a lot better than what we had experienced so far this season.
Most of the top riders were there, and in addition I met Edward Nicholson, from whom we purchased Freddy and had a long and informative chat
The first day and a half was spent in pursuit of Nicky’s horses, and although there were no ribbons there was plenty to be encouraged about.
Trig Point completed his first novice competition coming 21st. A competent dressage was followed by a show jumping round with 8 faults, where he dropped his feet early on twice, and then jumped well. I was very pleased with the cross country round as he was clear with only 6 time faults. Definitely something to build on for Team Roncoroni
Nicky’s other horses were all running in intermediates, with Rare Hero 12th (not involved with) , Mistral 13th, and Freddy Curtis 14th in his first intermediate.
The cross country rounds were again very impressive and having walked the course was delighted with the way each of them attacked the course where required, no jumping faults and some time faults, while others had a range of problems. Dressage rounds were steady, but each had fences down in showjumping. Nicky blamed Mistrals fence down on driver error, and Freddy managed to take the wing of a fence out with a hoof , when he would have cleared the pole. His jumping was absolutely sensational otherwise and was very impressive for his first intermediate. The star of the weekend as far as the yard is concerned.
The courses were very well designed, and asked serious questions at all levels, both in show jumping and cross country . The Grantham cup show jumping was very exciting to watch, and I suppose the good sign of a cross country course is wanting to see as much of the round as possible. If one ran reasonably quickly and had 20/20 vision it was possible on the intermediate track to see 70% of the fences, but required oxygen at the end. The faults were spread around the advanced track too, and both my daughter and I wanted the event to carry on for another couple of days so we could take it all in.
The top riders were all impressive, but special mention must go to Emily Galbraith who produced an outstanding cross country round to win the under 25 Advanced. She was one of the few in all the advanced classes to go straight at the 6th which must have save her around 15 seconds, and made it look easy (when it wasn’t), and she took a very good line through 21a and b which caused huge problems later. She is teaching Iona to ride at the moment, which gave us added interest, so her first and third were very welcome. Her next stop is her first Badminton.
A mention also for the Old Manor at Allington, where we stayed for three nights where Garth Vincent, and his team were charming hosts, and the fellow guests were Michael and Jane Kier, who are involved with Macchiato. We had a splendid dinner and his victory also rounded the weekend off nicely
Next step for our horses is
Ballygraffan : Freddy and Mistral, though I won’t be trekking off to
May looks pretty busy with trips scheduled for
If one was relatively new to eventing, and was daunted by the scale of a Badminton or Burghley, this event scores very highly, as it enables you to grasp all the disciplines, and to see top riders participating, in a very attractive setting. The ability to see large parts of the cross country course also helps.
Will be keen to return.
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