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Yesterday, I
was given some free tickets to Hickstead for the British Jumping
Derby Meeting. My new friend Jody (met through other new
friends) had been jumping there for the week and had freebies.
Anyway, much to my surprise, the meet was so much more than jumping.... showing, hunters, harness, some breeds and SHOPPING!!!! I was very interested to see the showing, being a showie myself back in Australia. I watched the working out of the small hack class. I was actually a bit disappointed as I don't believe that these horses were of as good a quality, or work as well as what we see in Australia. I must say that I am sure expectations here in the UK are different to what we see at home. The horses seemed to work in a rather jammed framed, and they didn't cover alot of ground. This line up of horses were nice horses, but none had the "wow, I'd love to take you home factor!". This show was a qualifier for the HOTY, so was not a local knock about show. The horses were worked by the riders, worked by the judge and then stripped and led out. Which was good to see, but personally I think our system where we have a separate led hack class is better. The grey horse in first went on to win champion for the day, which was judged on a line up of the 1st and 2nd place getters from the small and large hack class. |
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| I was surprised to find Grand Prix freestyle happening at the other end of the showgrounds (that was when we dropped off our first load of shopping!). What a beautiful arena and surrounds, even an Australian flag was spotted. I love freestyle dressage, but till yesterday, the only freestyles I had seen was at the Sydney Olympics. For all you dressage fans, you would have loved being able to get as up close and personal to the action as we did. |
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My other half’s favourite part of the day was watching the pony Scurry Driving Championships (not the shopping). This was amazing! It was cool to see two ponies go hell for leather around the Hickstead international arena, in and around cones and the fixed jumps. |
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For me, I
know Hickstead as being the home of Derby jumping and.....the
bank!!! and it didn't disappoint. But what did surprise me the
was a ‘mini me bank’ for the novice riders in one of the many
outside arenas. It was certainly not for the faint hearted, horse or rider. It also seemed that there were many ways of coming down: in one leap, 2 leaps, sliding, or Erin Whittaker style, down the side, back to the top, and carefully down the correct side! I loved every minute of it, especially seeing the course completed in record time by Irish rider Sean Breen (sorry about spelling). But my other half’s least favourite part of the day was the shopping, has to be a male thing, this non-love of shopping but I got soooooo many bargains, and I don't even have my own horses over here, but will have a shipping container to move home next year! I have already looked up the Aussie saddlery sights, exchange rates sites to see how much we saved......LOADS!!!! Overall I had a great day, and can't wait until next year. If any forumites are planning on coming to the Uk, make sure you plan to visit a large show such as Hickstead...it was the best!!! PS. Huge public hugs for my other half Gareth for feeding my horsie appetite. He is just learning about what he is getting into. |
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photos by Jacqui Illa |
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