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With the key date of 29th March being reached and HMG restrictions being relaxed as per their roadmap. The restriction of NO Owners at Aston Le Walls Elite Event 31st March 2021, will now be relaxed to normal C19 Sport Protocols under operation for all British Eventing Events in weeks 5 and 6.
-Owners - 1 Owner per horse / 2 Owners per horse if from the same household. (Under Review for Events running from 12th April 2021) Following the cancellation of Rockingham International Horse Trials, set to run in May, the organising teams at Little Downham (Cambs.) and Tweseldown (Hants.) are excited to announce their collaboration for additional fixtures, allowing the heretofore cancelled CCI2*-S and CCI3*-S classes to run alongside a smorgasbord of National classes.
This unique partnership centres around the debut of a compact and forward-thinking timetable, which will see these international classes run over the course of one day each. Affectionately nicknamed ‘Little Tweseldownham’, the competition will run on Thursday, May 20th and Friday, May 21st at Tweseldown, followed by two days of action at Little Downham over the 22nd and 23rd of May. Both venues will host the FEI classes and National classes, allowing each organising team to host smaller international sections and the ability to run all three phases on one day. This represents a unique opportunity for competitors to gain international experience and qualifying runs while cutting the cost per run – and the associated biosecurity risk of on-site stabling – considerably. “Like so many owners I had been looking forward to watching my horses compete at the stunning Rockingham Castle,” says Little Downham organiser Tina Ure, who created the concept. “I am grateful to British Eventing for endorsing this joint bid with Tweseldown and our innovative timetable that will enable both professional and amateur riders the opportunity to complete a CCI-S in one day. I have shared the frustration of many owners and riders about the additional expenses often incurred to compete at this level and welcomed the opportunity to try something different. Working with Rachael [Faulkner] at Tweseldown is a new collaborative venture aimed at maximising the competition opportunities for all despite the difficulties caused by the Coronavirus and EHV-1.” Little Downham stepped in at the last minute to host the same fixture in 2012 when Brigstock cancelled, prior to the fixture being reinstated at Rockingham Castle. Tweseldown, as a venue, has a long history of hosting international fixtures dating back to the Olympic equestrian events in 1948. This fixture will, however, mark the first modern-era FEI fixture at the Hampshire venue. “Tina Ure has been championing the idea of an all-in-one day CCI for ages, but it has taken Covid for it to come to the fore,” says Rachael Faulkner, Managing Director of Tweseldown. “I am thrilled that Tweseldown, sponsored by Lucinda Green XC Academy, will be sharing the FEI and National classes with the Childeric Little Downham Horse Trials.” The revived fixture has attracted much praise from both professional and amateur international level competitors. Suffolk-based New Zealand Olympian Caroline Powell commented: “This new format is a much needed and long-awaited development and could be just what’s needed to help revive and lift the sport. Keeping the costs low and limiting the need for on-site stabling will make the FEI classes more accessible for new competitors and makes it more financially viable for professional riders and owners.” Bristol-based professional rider Alexander Whewall said: “Rockingham was a key fixture for me with the younger 3* horses, so it’s really good to see it’s being replaced. As a professional rider running a smaller operation, the CCI events can get expensive for me, as they require longer periods of time away and therefore increased staff costs to cover the horses at home. Having a choice of locations with good ground and organisation is really good. The real bonus will be getting the CCI done in one day. That is going to be a benefit to a lot of people and we’re really keen to see how it will work.” Amateur 5* competitor and full-time working vet Katie Preston also supported the initiative: “Being able to do a CCI3*-S in one day, at the weekend, would be a big advantage to those of us who have to juggle annual leave. By the time you’ve factored in three days off for a spring and autumn long-format, and then the time off for four to five short formats in a season, it doesn’t leave you any days for an actual holiday. On-site stabling is so expensive that I will often look for local stabling and drive in each day. This format would really reduce the costs and hassle for a large number of riders.” Bicton Arena awarded the Bramham replacement 4* classes!
The venue has proved hugely popular with riders and there has been significant support for the venues bid, from riders on social media of the past week, and we look forward to seeing what Helen West’s team have to offer from a new 4* track. Belsay Horse Trials adds a CCI2*-L for Juniors. This is in addition to the British Pony Championships being hosted at the venue this year and is aimed a giving those targeting the Junior Europeans in August a prep event. Many of the country’s leading event riders are set to converge on Oasby for their Elite event on Monday, March 22.
Organised by the team at BEDE Events, Oasby Elite attracts major names in the sport and Horse & Country will live stream more than five hours of action from the cross-country phase. Riders making their way to the Lincolnshire event include 2020 Pau 5* winner, Laura Collet and London 52, Burghley winners, Pippa Funnell and MGH Grafton Street along with Piggy March, Tom McEwen and Ros Canter. The line-up is second to none with many riders bringing their top horses to take part in the Open Intermediate section and get their season underway. The stream starts at 11.30am and will run until around 5pm with the cross-country course designed to give riders and horses a good “pipe opener” as they start their competition campaign. Well-known commentator and international rider, Spencer Sturmey, will bring the action to life as riders make their way around Stuart Buntine’s cross-country course. H&C Director of Content, Jonathan Rippon said: “We are delighted to be live streaming Oasby Elite. It will be a real feast for eventing fans to be able to see so many of the country’s major stars in action throughout the Monday afternoon. It is brilliant to get live stream coverage from the UK underway and showcase what a magical sport eventing is to our worldwide audience. We will also be live streaming Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event in April and hope to announce more upcoming live streaming from other events as they get confirmed.” To watch the live stream, make sure you are signed up to H&C+, Horse & Country’s worldwide streaming service. H&C+ members can watch online or with H&C’s mobile apps, as well as on Roku, Apple TV, Android TV, and Amazon Fire. Membership is just £5.99 per month and full details on how to join can be found at horseandcountry.tv Specific events may have cancelled but fixtures & classes have not been lost!
British Eventing Official & the BEOA are working hard to replace events that have made the difficult decision to cancel. For this we are EXTREMELY grateful! In a Sports Update earlier today BE confirmed a number of positive updates: Whitfield 👉🏻 now Aston-Le-Walls (27-28 April) Withington 👉🏻 replaced by Cirencester Park (1-2 May) Chatsworth International 👉🏻 at the expression of interest stage with organisers Rockingham International 👉🏻 at the tender stage following a strong interest from organisers to host the fixture Bramham International 👉🏻 at the tender stage following a strong interest from organisers willing to take on the event. The fixtures list will be updated ASAP and thanks to those organisers tendering for the replacement events and to Musketeer Events and aston-le-walls for already stepping up! Please do show your support to our Affiliated events that are trying the new Elite Pathway, Try Eventing and Train For Eventing formats. PRESS RELEASE FROM BRITISH EVENTING:
As we head towards the date where we expect to receive information from the Government about how we will exit the current lockdown, we wanted to update you on BE’s plans for sport resumption. We continue to work closely with our Organisers to ensure that we are providing all our members with optimum competition opportunities and we look forward to resuming sport as soon as possible. Fixtures planning We were delighted to see so many members, both existing and new, entering events when the 2020 season resumed in July 2020. We again expect demand to be high and have factored this into our fixtures planning to ensure that we provide you with the competition opportunities that you need. Inevitably there are some Organisers who are understandably unable to commit to running their events under the current uncertainty. We are marking these events as cancelled on the fixtures list but will leave these events showing on the list so that it is clear which events have cancelled, and which are still intending to run. We are working to fill any gaps left by these cancellations and we will update the calendar with the additions as soon as we have confirmation of when sport can restart. As with the restart last year, entries will not open until restrictions are lifted. In response to concerns about balloting levels, we have adjusted our ‘additional day’ protocol to enable an Organiser to request an additional day of competition earlier where entries levels are high. In order to help us with this, please do make your entries in good time as we will only add days where entries are high prior to ballot date. We also know that moving whole classes to a different day at short notice caused problems for you last year and we will be working with Organisers to minimise this, where possible, as we restart. It is likely that the restrictions will be lifted in a different way across Scotland and Wales and we continue to work closely with the BE Scotland Committee and other stakeholders to ensure that we can restart activity as soon as we are permitted to in each region. Training and alternative formats We expect that we may exit lockdown into a Tier system again. We are keen to provide you with opportunities to get out and have fun with your horses as soon as possible – within what is permitted – and to get you ready for when we can start the competitive season. We are, therefore, working on two alternative formats – Train for Eventing and Try Eventing. Train for Eventing will be run over two phases, show jumping and cross country, and will provide you with an opportunity to hone your skills in a training environment at BE venues. Try Eventing will run all three phases. Both will run as training and will be available at a discounted rate to BE members. More details to follow soon! Help us help you! We understand that you may not want to purchase your horse season ticket until you are ready to make your first entry. However, if you have new horses to register, you can do this ahead of time (it’s free) without needing to purchase a Horse Season Ticket for them. This means we can do the necessary passport checks and have the horse details set up and ready for when you do want to get going. Not only does this mean the process will be quicker for you, but it also enables the BE team to handle the registrations more efficiently behind the scenes and not create the backlog which occurs if everyone leaves it until the last minute. Badminton and Olympic preparation Whilst the timescales and roadmap for coming out of lockdown are not yet known, with Badminton due to take place in early May, we are exploring all opportunities to ensure that elite combinations are fit and ready to run. We are working with Performance Manager and our Organisers to identify and provide the right training and competition opportunities needed as the pathway to Badminton, ensuring that we are safe and compliant within all government requirements. British Eventing are forming an independent Abandonment Insurance Review Panel to review the current provision and make recommendation to the Board regarding the cover required for the 2022 season onwards.
ERA has been invited to supply 2 riders - an amateur member and a professional rider, to form part of the panel. Scope Specifically, the Panel will consider:
Frequency of Meetings At the discretion of the Chair, but in any event not less than monthly. Reporting Minutes in the form of summary action notes will be prepared for every meeting and sent promptly to all members of the Committee and provided to the Board. The Panel will report to the Board following conclusion of their review with their recommendations, and in the interim as the Chair of the Panel feels necessary. A final report will be published to the membership Remuneration The Panel serves as a volunteer body. Those members who are existing BE employees or Board members are expected to fulfil their roles on the Committee within the terms of their existing contracts. Principles The following principles will be applied by the Panel in carrying out its work:
Applicant Requirements: Applicant riders must have the following experience and attributes:
Applications need to be made by 31st January 2021 to office@equiconsulting.co.uk British Eventing, the National Governing Body of the sport of eventing in Great Britain, is currently inviting applications for the role of Chair of the Sport Committee.
The ideal candidate will be one with a deep understanding of the sport together with experience of chairing committees, be an excellent communicator and diplomat. The Role Description can be found here. Applications (to include a letter of motivation and CV) should be made by email to the Chief Executive, Jude Matthews: jude.matthews@britisheventing.com The closing date for applications is 5pm 29th January 2021. If you have any questions about the role please contact Jude Matthews on the email address above. The Covid-19 pandemic continues to disrupt the eventing sporting calendar into 2021.
Following the Government's announcement of a 3rd National lockdown, stretching into February 2021, it was announced that no eventing sport would take place before 26th March 2021. The restart will be dependant upon the easing of Government restrictions and British Eventing will work closely with the BEF, Organisers, Owners and Riders on an effective sport resumption plan. Jude Matthews, BE CEO, commented, “We understand that our members cannot wait to get out eventing, and we are confident that with our protocols in place we will be able to resume sport quickly once government guidance allows us to. When sport resumed in July 2020, we demonstrated that with the support of our hard-working organisers and our army of able volunteers, high-quality events could be prepared quickly. We were able to shorten the timescale for taking entries for events and react to demand by adding extra days of competition where required. Work will continue to ensure we offer members the full calendar of competition they require as we restart, and throughout the season. “We are in continual conversation with those early season event Organisers and are discussing potential alternative formats such as Training Competitions to ease members’ transition into the full season, subject to the restrictions in place at that time. In addition, we are reviewing the qualification criteria and timescales for our Championships to help ensure that members are able to gain their qualifications.” Rachael Faulkner, Chair of the BEOA, added; “We fully support the decision not to start the season until the latter part of March. With current restrictions in place and deadlines to book contractors, pay deposits and secure volunteers fast approaching, we agree that pushing back the start of the season is a sensible choice. We all look forward to welcoming the eventing community to our events as soon as possible.” The BE board announces that Jude Matthews has resigned from her position as CEO.
Chairman Fiona O’Hara said "we are very grateful to Jude for her service and commitment to BE. In particular her leadership in overseeing the resumption of sport last summer was a huge achievement. We wish Jude every success in the future". Jude will remain in post while she serves her notice period. |
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