All Hope is Not Lost!!
On Sunday I finally came out to walk some courses and see some horses in action. We decided to target a national event with 90cm, 100cm and 110cm eventing on the schedule.
I love the fact that I can say I came home with an all happy feeling from this event 😃
Did everything run according to plan? No, not really. At least not for spectators in regards to hospitality.
Cause if you want me to support your catering you shouldn't bother asking me to scan a QR-code to pay for a soda. Cash is king, and if you cannot handle cash then you make sure to offer an actual pin machine, not a QR-code!
Even so, if that is the ONE hick-up one have during the event I'd say that the organisation have made quite the successful event!
Did we see bad riding? Sure we did.
Is that something new? No it's not!
Did one of the absolute worst rides of the day win a prize? Unfortunately yes. But hey, that's the game as we know it.
One can just hope someone stop them before they hurt themselves and or their hors(es), fence judges or spectators...
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On the other side of bad we also got to see at least three riders from the 2024 Paris Olympics in the starting list. Two of them riding the same horses that took them to Paris in the first place.
One of these combos did the whole event "hors concours" like a schooling session. The other one was probably just there for a sorry to say much needed schooling round in dressage. Still they were there!
What a delight for the organisation!
The third athlete from Paris, who by now did no less than seven Olympic Games, came with the next generation horses. Again, what a delight!
Somewhere in between these three ladies [yes all ladies] and the really bad ones were the rest. Some of them being unknown fresh "out of the oven" seniors riders sitting on absolutely brilliant horses.
Some of them also rode freakin' brilliant in a way that would make some of the top names really jealous.
Others were the kind of seniors that been around the block for a while, and who also done a couple of big shows and championships and now were riding some highly potential 6 year olds.
Which make one wonder how come the national team coach was not present?
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First of all one would think that would be part of the job description. Second of all, for a small eventing nation that offer this kind of national 110cm on the schedule it should be freakin' mandatory to attend!
Cause this particular event was run at what is probably one of the best venues one can find in let's say a 350km [mainland] radius from Antwerpen, Belgium.
Still the international eventing events that has been hosted here have flunked out big time. So bad actually that all international events for the season of 2025 were cancelled.
Never mind the organisation behind the national event that now ran over the past weekend and the international one are not the same.
But the lesson one should take away from this is, if one like to organise any kind of international events one first need to learn how to walk before one start running.
So, as long as i don't look at the results from the international events some of the riders that could have been riding at this national one decided to go too, I'd say all hope is not lost.
Sunday was fun for both spectators and eventing nerds [petite moi] as well as fun and educating for both horses and riders no matter their level of skills!
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