Express Eventing, Millenium Stadium

One of the most sshocking Equestrian events I have ever been to. The dressage to music was entertaining far more interesting than watching it without the music, although the two celebrity judges Andrew Lloyd Webber and Arlene Phillips (strictly come dancing) were not. They commented after each rider but had nothing to say that actually related to dressage more whether they liked the music or not, I don’t find comments like ‘That will cheer you up’ and ‘I loved the music’ very inspiring Arlene Phillips was particularly rude about Austin O’Connors test and his choice of Irish Music calling it ‘Dull’ and ‘Heard it before’ (but then I’m not a fan of these X factor type programmes where rudeness seems to be encouraged). This was followed by a celebrity jump off between Jodie Kidd and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson. The plan I think was for them to jump a course of show jumps. Jodie was ok not brilliant but she got round. Whereas Tara, can she actually ride?  was horrific.  Did someone not think to tell her this was not a good idea. She survived the first four somehow then the horse slipped and she nearly fell off she then stopped and I don’t think she wanted to continue, the crowd egged her on, she jumped the next one crashed through it swerved to the side nearly fell off again then jumped off and left. Quite amusing from where I was sitting but probably throughly embarassing for her and surely not what the organisers had in mind. Next came the showjumping and crosscountry phase. Nine showjumps followed by a pitstop where the rider had to take off their jacket put on a body protector and a cross country shirt get back on and set off as quick as possible then jump 17 technical x country fences. The first horse on the cross country fell on the bank and the rider came off. Of the 19 competitors only 6 finished the course, 2 retired and 11 were eliminated - 4 of those jumped the wrong course another 2 got lost but managed to redeem themselves. A course of 25 fences is not easy to remember do the organisers not realise that in professional cross country these days you only have to stay inside the ropes to find your way around also you tend to have a long run between one techincal fence and the next, long enough to recover whereas these fences came up pretty fast and were very big for such a small area. Mark Todd’s horse banked the corner fence and demolished it beyond repair. Oliver Townend won the event but the day was marred when Mary King’s horse fell on a narrow fence that had previously caused quite a few problems and had to be put to sleep.

As for the Millenium stadium I have not been there for an event before and I’m sure it is ideal for Rugby/Football matches but for an event that ran from 11am to 5pm it sadly lacked any sort of facilities. We had one food oulet selling hot dogs, pastys, pies and drinks and one bar with limited choice of drinks (all overpriced) by mid afternoon the food outlet had sold out of most things and the stadium wasn’t even anywhere near full. If you ever go there take your own food and drinks and dress very warm its freezing.

Posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 12:10 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.