EPWORTH - NEW SEPTEMBER
EPWORTH HORSE TRIALS will run on 3rd & 4th September in aid of BREAST CANCER RESEARCH. Following a successful application through the fixtures protocol a move from week 1 to week 27 has been granted by BE. Organisers Cheryl & John Gibbons are delighted to be able to offer the very best of their facilities in the second half of the season with Epworth’s new date this will be a great asset to the Northern Region as this date will give the BE calendar the replacements for Richmond 2 & Frickley 2. Being on well drained sandy soil the XC course will be in perfect condition even if the summer turns out to be a nice one and with SJ taking place on a surface the horses welfare is paramount. CIRENCESTER PARK - NEW SPRING DATE Following the Organisers of Withington difficult decision to not run in 2022, British Eventing are delighted to announce that Cirencester Park will now be running on Withington’s date with Withington’s classes. Cirencester Park will now run across 30 April – 1 May and will mirror the classes which had been scheduled at Withington. For clarity the classes that will be run are Novice, Intermediate, Advanced 2*S and 2*S Reserved for Ponies. Earlier in the week Cirencester Park were due to run BE90, BE90 Open, BE100, BE100 Open, Novice and Open Novices classes between the 26 – 27 April. These dates were the result of them running as a replacement fixture for Whitfield and it has been agreed that this fixture will be moved to an alternative venue within a nearby location. British Eventing will be circulating an expression of interest to event organisers with a view to seeking an alternative venue. TWESELDOWN - NEW JUNE DATE The team at Tweseldown will run an additional fixture over the weekend of 18-19 June this season, providing BE80, BE90 and BE100 classes for members in the South East. Following the unfortunate loss of the popular BE Fixture at Rackham due to run over this weekend (18-19 June), an Expression of Interest was sought for a replacement. There was interest from a number of new venues, which is great news for the future, but to get up and running for the 2022 season proved to be just too challenging. Therefore, the expressions of interest will roll over into next year and a permanent replacement will be chosen from 2023 onwards. To fill the gap for 2022, the team at Tweseldown have kindly offered to step in to run classes at BE80, BE90 and BE100 level to serve our membership in the South East region. British Eventing have made the decision, based on equine welfare best practice, to reintroduce the Equine Self Certification form requirement. This will mean that with immediate effect all entries will require that a completed form be submitted prior to arrival at the events.
With the new FEI rulings in place this year at international competitions and the introduction of the FEI Horse App it is important that both national and international horses arriving at the same competition venue have had the same health declaration/checks prior to arrival. As before it is a simple form that needs to be completed prior to printing out your number and arrival at the venue. The self-certfication process will require a health declaration to be submitted to the event organiser 24 hours before arrival and can be completed by either the groom or rider. Helen West, Chief Executive for British Eventing said, “Whilst it is only an official requirement for international competitions where national classes may, or may not, be included within the schedule we felt it was best practice in the interests of equine welfare that we made it a standard requirement for the season ahead across all events within our calendar. It only takes one horse to be at an event for there to be an outbreak and we feel it is important to ensure we do all we can to minimise the risk. EventingScores will have a link to the form which is easily completed online when you download your number for printing. I would like to thank all of our members for working with us to ensure the highest level of bio-security and protecting the health of our competition horses.” Former 4* event rider Sarah Bullen is marking the career of one of her beloved homebred horses by providing a new trophy for The Eventing Spring Carnival this April.
Sarah bred the talented Rock Model, selling him to Vittoria Panizzon as a six-year-old, and followed his career closely with the tiny, but dynamic bundle of fun being a big winner over the years. The bay gelding won the Grantham Cup at Belton and a number of other major events with Vittoria in the saddle. To mark his achievements Sarah has had the ‘Rock Model Trophy’ designed and made for The Eventing Spring Carnival at Thoresby Park in Nottinghamshire, a horse trials also organised by the BEDE Events team who were responsible for the success of Belton for such a long time. The ‘Rock Model Trophy’ will be awarded to the winner of the 3* Investec sponsored section on the Saturday of The Eventing Spring Carnival. Vittoria lost Bug, as he was known at home, in 2014 after her ‘best friend’ and the horse that took the Italian rider to her first Olympics died of a heart attack while out hacking at the age of 19. Standing just 15.3hh Rock Model was by Sarah’s stallion Rock King out of Little Model, a mare she bought at Ascot Sales. A prolific winner at BEDE organised events Rock Model finished third at Belton in 2013 and second at Oasby in his last run, while winning twice at Belton in his career. Said Vittoria: “He took me round the world competing in Hong Kong, Portugal, Germany, Poland, Italy,France and Great Britain. He was 16th and double clear at my first Olympics at Beijing in 2008, was eighth and bronze at the Europeans and should have won gold -my fault silver – at the Young Rider Europeans.” Added Sarah: “It is wonderful to mark his career even so many years after his passing and thanks to this new trophy he will continue to shine a light on the fantastic career he and Vittoria had together.” ASTON-LE-WALLS
All competition at Aston le Walls Equestrian Centre on Sunday 6th March is going ahead as scheduled. The Organisers are currently working hard to reroute the XC Course to enable the event to take place therefore there will be no XC course walking until after 16.30hrs today, Saturday 5th March. We thank Nigel and his team for the quick thinking regarding Saturday's competition to offer riders a good level of refund and a combined training option. ADDITIONAL DAY – CIRENCESTER PARK (1) 26-28 March Due to the level of entries received , the Organisers of Cirencester Park (1) have requested and been granted an additional day to accommodate those entries. The event will now run Saturday 26 – Monday 28 March 2022. Some entries for the Novice, Intermediate and Open Intermediate will automatically be transferred to Monday. Members entered in these classes should contact the entries secretary, entries@musketeer.co.uk by 9.00am on Monday 7th March if they cannot compete on Monday 28th March. Members will either be accommodated on the original day stated in the schedule or receive a full refund. TWO DAYS FOR GREAT WITCHINGHAM (1) 25-26 March Due to the level of entries received , the Organisers of Great Witchingham (1) have made the difficult decision to reduce their days of competition down to two days. The event will now run on Friday 25 – Saturday 26 March 2022. All Sunday entries will automatically be moved to either Friday or Saturday, members are asked to contact the Entries Secretary by 10.00am on Tuesday 8th March if they are unable run on the alternative day and a full refund will be issued. The ONu18 will sadly be cancelled as there are insufficient entries to run the class. We are pleased to see that a number of BE Organisers have now secured abandonment insurance for their 2022 events, provided through our long time supporters Shearwater Insurance.
As a result, a number of organisers are able to offer an abandonment refund policy that is substantially better than the minimum requirements set out by BE at the start of the season. Organisers will use the Event News Flash box on their schedule page to provide details of their own abandonment refund policy and indicate if this exceeds the minimum refund rule 4.12. Members are encouraged to check the Event’s New Flash box on their schedule page on the BE website to obtain information on the exact details of an organiser’s refund policy in the case of abandonment. Please do what you can to help our organising teams by entering as early as you can and giving your support to those events going the extra mile to deliver the BE Gold Standard of eventing. We will continue to monitor closely the impact of the removal of abandonment insurance from all entry fees. To help this process an Abandonment Refund Policy Working Group with representatives from all stakeholder groups is being established to monitor how this works in practice over the early weeks of the 2022 season and adjust as necessary. Following a membership survey undertaken at the end of 2019, British Eventing have taken on board the feedback received and revisited the prize money structure ahead of the 2022 season.
Helen West, Chief Executive of British Eventing said “The common theme that emerged was that our members wanted to see a higher level of prize money paid out with the guarantee of winning back at least their entry and start fee if they won their section. We have taken this on board and are delighted to now be in a position to implement this in time for the start of the season. As with everything, it has been a balance to ensure that the rise in prize money didn’t affect the entry fee for our members or add a financial burden to our event organisers. Having researched the average number of starters in sections across all levels of competition, it has resulted in a change of ratio in terms of the pay-out down the line. This will now mean that at the lower-level classes prize money will be paid out on a ratio of one in eight rather than one in six, whilst the higher-level competition has been increased to a ratio of one in five.” “A table on how the prize money will be calculated can be found on the link below along with an online calculator which will assist you to work out the prize money prior to you competing. The key message from this is that from the start of the season anyone winning their section will receive a minimum of their entry and start fee, excluding VAT, as 1st prize.” “I sincerely trust that this is welcomed by the membership, and I would like to reiterate that we will continue listening to our membership and responding, as we have here, to meet their wishes wherever it is possible. On a final note, I would like to wish all of our members a safe and successful start to the season, and I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the events I am planning to attend.” Link to the competition page with table and calculator here ![]() The Eventing Spring Carnival at Thoresby Park in Nottinghamshire will play host to a glittering black tie ball and dinner. Held on the Saturday evening, April 2 in the Riding Hall at Thoresby Park, the Launch Ball is sponsored by Lycetts in aid of the British Eventing Support Trust. It aims to help riders through difficult times, whether that be recovering from an eventing related accident or coping with mental health challenges. The charity also seeks to promote, research, develop and implement initiatives which will help maintain the overall safety and welfare of our riders. It has support from the highest levels in the eventing world, the three principles are Ian Stark, Madeleine Lloyd Webber and Mark Sartori. To book a place or table email rebecca.stockbridge@lycetts.co.uk – RSVP by March 18. ![]() Following questions submitted by the Rider Working Groups, the below responses have been received from the British Eventing Board of Directors candidates. ![]()
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![]() It is with much regret that the British Eventing Board of Directors has accepted the resignation of our Chairman, Fiona O’Hara. A recent change to her own personal and professional circumstances means that Fiona feels she is no longer able to give the continued time, commitment and dedication required to carry out the role as effectively as she would wish to. First appointed to the BE Board in 2017, Fiona became Chairman in 2019 and was re-elected this year. She has been a key part of managing the organisation through the COVID-19 pandemic and paving the way with all stakeholder groups for the sport to resume successfully. The Board and Staff thank her for her commitment to the sport and will miss her commercial acumen and judgement deeply. Chief Executive Helen West commented “This is an unfortunate day for British Eventing. Fiona has given nearly five years of dedicated, loyal service and been instrumental in managing our sport safely through some very testing times. She is a skilled chairperson, and we will miss her natural ability to strike the balance between setting discussion and listening. On behalf of everyone, I’d like to thank her for everything she’s done to manage difficult situations while simultaneously driving the organisation forward. We wish her all the best in the future both professionally and personally.” Linda Allan, Chair of the Event Horse Owners Association (EHOA) acknowledged Fiona’s departure by saying, “On behalf of owners, we thank Fiona O’Hara for her services to British Eventing during her term as Director and also Chair of the organisation.” The British Event Organisers Association (BEOA), also acknowledged Fiona by saying “The BEOA recognise the years of service by Fiona O’Hara in her role for BE. We wish her well for the future.” Bruce Haskell, Chair for the Event Riders Association (ERA) added to this by saying “ERA would like to thank Fiona for her valued input during her tenure as Director and Chair, particularly regarding the IT project and the abandonment insurance claim in 2020 which greatly benefited the membership. We wish her well for the future.” ![]() ERA & the Rider Working Groups (RWG) have posed a series to questions to those individuals who have put themselves forward for the British Eventing Director elections. Submitted questions can be found below. Responses will be hosted via the website and shared across social media in advance of the voting. 1. During your two-year term at BE if you could change 3 things a) in order of importance what would these be? b) what results would you hope to achieve from those changes? 2. What do you think BE should do to compete with the growing number of unregulated events targeting riders at 80, 90 and 100 levels and the linked grassroots series’ which have started up? 3. What do you see as the biggest issue facing BE currently and why? 4. How do you see yourself serving the "middle tier" membership? The Novice/Intermediate Riders who are not GR nor are they Elite, but they make up a great majority of the membership and are often the producers of the next Elite superstar horse so a very key part of our Sport. 5. The Rider Working Groups have already demonstrated their beneficial input to BE; including the Novice Masters, Area Festivals and Bicton 90/100 three day. If elected, what would you like from us in 2022/3? Responses have been requested by the 15th November 2021 |