Friday
We had another fantastic day on Friday with the gates up and lots of happy spectators. We managed to complete three sections of dressage and get the CIC*** show jumping course ready for walking - even if the day light was failing us! I'm a lucky "leader" to have such a fantastic band of volunteers and can't begin to imagine how the event would function without them.
The Burghley Dubarry Young Event horse classes were a marathon event running for almost ten hours in the East Arena but kept the crowds entertained.
We had bit of rain to end the day but that was welcomed by all of us - the park needed a drink, the dust needed dampening down and it cooled us all down.
I can't praise Ian's first course here enough; he's really done a fantastic job and got the riders thinking. Many of the Under 25 riders won't have ever ridden anything like this and the senior riders seem to be relishing the challenge ahead - I'm really looking forward to what Saturday brings.
Saturday
What a simply brilliant day! The sun shone, the public flocked in their droves and best of all we got through three sections of competition with no serious incidents or major injury to horse or rider.
Ian Stark’s course lived up to the billing and provided plenty of entertainment for the amassed crowds. As expected, it rewarded good riding and those who dithered, picked up 20 penalties. I think he was a little disappointed more didn’t take on the direct route at the water at five but maybe this was wishful thinking! The double of corners and the Land Rover Double certainly claimed a number of victims. Saturday is a strange day for me.
There’s always the shadow of doubt in the back of your mind about have we got things right, will the course be okay, will the parking system work, will the rubbish be collected on time, have we planned everything to the letter and most of all, will everyone have a good time- whatever their involvement with Bramham. But a few hours into the day, usually when the traffic problems settle and I can relax a bit, I can get out into the park and see all the planning and effort come to fruition and all the doubts melt away and I realise why we do it.
Those who aren’t regular visitors to Bramham are always amazed by our crowds – most other events fizzle out once the cross country action is over. But not here! Yorkshire people love their show jumping and The Bramham Classic and Six Bar Competition keep the crowds here – even at about 7:00pm we still had a few thousand people enjoying the action with a few (okay, more than a few!) drinks being consumed.
The forecast for tomorrow isn’t as favourable as we’ve had but let’s hope the really heavy rain stays away so we can see off Bramham International Horse Trials 2010 in fitting style.