Badminton HorseTrials
It was a bit of a spur of the moment decision to go to Badminton Horse Trials on Saturday but the weather had given out dry and believe me there is nothing worse than Badminton in the rain. Amelia and I left a little later than intended and anticipated long queues and although we did queue a little bit they weren’t that bad. We arrived at 10ish and did a tour of the shops for an hour Amelia wanted to be in the main ring to see the first one start and the last one finish. Just before 11am we made our way to the main arena to watch William Fox Pitt start after which we proceeded to walk the course. I think its a shame they’ve taken the roads and tracks and steeplechase out, its probably better for the competition but I use to enjoy marching the kids miles across the park through the airplane parking to see the steeplechase and the 10 min halt box. The following year they refused to come cause they had to walk so far and I got a nice day out minus kids. We walked part of the course and then found seats in the stand by the water and stayed put for a while. No one fell off in the water but one did hit the trucks and the rider catapulted over the horses head. I’ve read a bit about the new body protectors and body cages available but this is the first time I’ve seen what I can only describe as airbags for riders. The air jacket is worn over the conventional body protector and is attached to the front of the saddle when the riders falls from the horse the connection is broken and the air jacket inflates. I noticed many riders wearing them I also noticed that a rider was eliminated after a fall and I thought they could remount so I’m wondering if the rules have changed and is this down to the air jacket because I’m guessing you would be there sometime trying to deflate it. We returned to the shops for a while in the afternoon to have something to eat there is always a lot of food stalls at Badminton offering all sorts of tempting overpriced food. We had had fish and chips earlier in the day The curry was inedible the chips barely edible, the fish was ok but most of it went in the bin. The strawberries and cream were worth paying for though. We made our way back to the main arena stopping by the big screen for a while to watch the crosscountry. I thought it would be difficult to get seats in the grandstand but we had no trouble. The first fence and the last are situated in the main arena so we watched the last few start and finish. Oliver Townend was in the lead at the end of the day and was the overall winner after the show jumping phase on sunday. Its a good day out if the weather is good, Saturday is the cross country day when the biggest crowds go and they charge the most, I didn’t think it was as busy as it was last time I went even though there were thousands of people there. At £23 a ticket and £10 to park the car, overpriced food and there is not the bargains there used to be its an expensive day for a family. Not so bad when the kids have grown up and can pay for themselves though.
Posted on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 1:17 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.
