By Samantha Williams

The Brook Farm EC Area Festivals took place from Friday, 28 June to Sunday, 30 June 2019.  They were one of twenty four Area Festivals first round qualifiers which are held all over the UK with the top ten combinations in the Bronze and Silver sections from Prelim to Advanced Medium going forward to one of the eight Area Festivals Finals, and those competing at PSG – Inter II getting direct access to the Finals provided they have obtained the relevant qualifying percentages.

Here we take a look at exactly what Brook Farm EC did to organise the show, and what went on behind the scenes.

Preparation for the event takes place months in advance with the first job being to secure all the Judges, Stewards and Writers required.   

British Dressage send the sashes and rosettes 3-4 weeks ahead, and Brook Farm ensure they have enough of the (correct) test sheets plus plenty of spares.

In the week before the competition, Brook Farm had the mammoth task of co-ordinating all of the entries they had received by post, email, in person and via the online entry facility.

For the competitors, the qualification period is from 1 October in the preceding year up until 14 days before the closing date of the Area Festival First Round they wish to enter.  Once competitors have gained the requisite scores they will receive an email from British Dressage to confirm this, however, there were teething issues with this system and many competitors did not receive their qualification email, hence every single entry had to be entered onto a spreadsheet and then sent to British Dressage so that they were able to verify the competitor was eligible to compete.

By far the most difficult job was to allocate the times for each competitor, ensuring their warm up class time was before their Area Festival test time, and that there were no clashes for the riders competing across two levels or for those with more than one horse at the same level; this was a task which took several days together with a lot of patience and perseverance.

With a few days to go, the banners, flowers and cars are put into place and the arenas harrowed to perfection.

On the morning of Friday, 28 June 2019 with the sun already beating down on the arenas, Brook Farm EC swung into action.

The first test of the first class (being the Medium warm up) took place at 10am.  By 9.30amthe Judges – having checked the arenas – were enjoying their first cup of tea and discussing their expectations for the day ahead.  Already in situ and ready to go were the back office team, BD stewards, sheet collectors, commentator, collecting ring steward, photographers and caterers to the Judges and helpers.

Starting with the back office team, this consisted of the familiar faces of Brook Farm’s very own Zoe Miller and Heather Marshall.  Also present was Antonia De Bearn (who is probably best known for her smooth and efficient running of Patchetts EC shows back in the day and lends her organisational skills to Brook Farm once a year at the Area Festivals) and Samantha Williams.  Guest appearances were also made by Gemma Pye, Colleen Taylor and Laura Vandervleit.  

One of the back office team’s main jobs was to get the scores written up on the board as soon as possible so the competitors did not have to wait long to find out their results.  Every single sheet is double-checked by a different scorer before the scores are written up on the board, and every day there was at least one ‘difficult’ sheet which would be passed around to all the team to be triple and quadruple checked (if you are reading this and have a sheet with liquid paper on it, then yours was one of those sheets!).

In addition to this, the back office team were there to deal with any questions the competitors had, provide first aid, take any telephone calls which came through (and there were many!), notify the Judges of any withdrawals or rider dispensations, separate any sheets which fell foul of the dreaded ‘7% difference rule’, put the sheets in order with the correct rosettes attached, organise the prize giving for each class, publish photographs of the top 3 competitors online and provide BD with the final results at the end of every day.

The British Dressage Stewards were Lotte Olsen and Hayley Sparks. The role of the BD Steward is primarily concerned with the welfare of the horse, but Stewards are also there to ensure rules are enforced fairly and consistently and to keep competitors and spectators safe.  To do this, the Stewards will check tack on the horses of all competitors, review the physical aspects of the venue for health and safety, manage the arenas including the warm-up areas and generally be vigilant throughout the whole competition.

In order to carry out tack checks, the Stewards had to inspect the bit in the horse’s mouth (wearing a fresh pair of gloves for each horse to prevent cross contamination) and check the horse and rider overall; some horses were more amenable and / or tolerant to this than others!  Lotte and Hayley would both say that competitors can greatly assist their work by having someone on the ground practising this type of inspection on their horse prior to a competition so the equine is less likely to become alarmed by the experience.

Lotte and Hayley endeavoured to help all the competitors at Brook Farm EC have as positive an experience as was possible, but it was not within their remit or that of any Steward – to hold horses, remove boots, call tests, remind the competitor to drop their whip before they left the warm up etc; matters such as these remain the responsibility of the competitor as they would in a non-championship class.

The sheet collectors were Les and Paula Wilcox who stood in the blazing sunshine for 3 days to collect sheets from the Judges and deliver these to the back office team.  Timing was the key here, or else Les and Paula would risk being run over by an advancing competitor or abandoned at E or B unable to move until a test had concluded.

Bev Dove and Penny Maples (formerly of Norton Heath) were the voices of Brook Farm ensuring each and every competitor was formally announced as they did their test.  Biographies were also read out for any competitor who took the time to fill a sheet in.  Next year Brook Farm will also have the commentators announcing results as soon as they are confirmed to add to the special atmosphere of the event.

The collecting ring steward was Pam who has done this job since the Area Festivals were first held at Brook Farm 6 years ago.  Pam was there to make sure all competitors were present in the outdoor warm up ahead of their test, and track down anyone still riding in the indoor warm up who may have lost track of time.

Aside from the wonderful Brook Farm Café which provided refreshments to the competitors, the newly formed Team Truss catering were on hand to ensure lunch, snacks and drinks were available for the Judges and writers during their breaks.

The photographers for the occasion were Nick and Elli working for the Brook Farm regular photographer, Sport in Pictures.  The photographers estimated they took in excess of 2,000 individual photographs which then had to be organised into online albums for each class, and there was a near disaster mid-way through the competition when Nick trapped the finger he uses to take photographs in the door of his van…..

Last, but certainly not least. were the fabulous Judges and their writers without whom the Area Festivals would not have been possible.  Each championship class had 3 Judges, and the rules are not the same as they are in non-championship classes: for example, a List 6 Judge is ordinarily able to Judge up to Prelim level, however in the Prelim class at an Area Festival, the presiding Judge at C has to be at least a List 3 and the other two Judges at least a List 5.  Some of the classes were over 5 hours long and not once did any of the Judges take their eye off the proverbial ball, and it is fair to say they were all prepared – and looking forward to – giving high marks to those who rode for them.

This only leaves the competitors and their talented equines who all braved the heatwave to try their very best.  The top 3 combinations in each championship class were:

Prelim Bronze:

1. Sharon Scarlett on Louis VIII (70.00%)
2. Chelsie Pretious on Manderville Capriccio (67.15%)
3. Alix Tidmarsh on Rummley Miss Lilibet (67.01%)

Prelim Silver:

1. Elizabeth Cahill on Egano (73.19%)
2. Hollie Cannon on Zuvola (68.19%) 
3. Amanda Bull on Xavi (68.13%) 

Novice Bronze:

1. Amy Hamilton on Zico II (71.60%)
2. Debra Stapleton on Fuegos Funny Guy (70.35%) 
3. Ruby Lewin on CNS Cob Marley (68.40%)

Novice Silver:

1. Brett Allen on Hybris (73.06%)
2. Margie Gibb on Viscount II (71.18%)
3. Scott Allen on Billynick of Bellhouse (70.42%) 

Elementary Bronze 

1. Viktorija Rakauskaite on Jupiter Star (67.79%)
2. Samantha Jayne Perry on Marco X (67.25%)
3. Emma Slater on Goldbay V (65.74%)

Elementary Silver 

1. Maria Collins on Abborfield Heatwave (71.67%)
2. Sue Penny on Amingo (67.94%) 
3. Trevor Downham on Di Grazia (67.01%)

Medium Bronze: 

1. Trixie Gingell on Contudo (68.58%)
2. Zoe Kirkpatrick on Florian TH (68.04%) 
3. Jan Chopping on Felix 55 (67.45%) 

Medium Silver: 

1. Nicola North on Damons Gold (67.30%) 
2. Kelly Greaves on Fentons Flint (66.81%)
3. Katie Anne Roberts on DHI Cappuccino (66.52%) 

Advanced Medium Bronze:

1. Lauren Ruffle on Freeman H (66.37%)
2. Zena Faulkner on Quarrel (66.15%)
3. Christine Louise Pattle on Icon Zander (63.55%) 

Advanced Medium Silver: 

1. Shelley Brooks on Dalton II (66.67%)
2. Trevor Downham on Reubens (66.15%)
3. Lyn Sirkett on Royal Rispe (64.62%)

This was a 3 day competition involving 22 judges, 233 tests, 567 test sheets, 10 sashes, 141 rosettes and an unprecedented top temperature of 35 degrees Celsius.  Brook Farm EC are already looking forward to hosting the competition again next year and would like to thank the competitors, Judges and loyal team for their continued support, and wish those who have qualified for the finals the very best of luck.

If you would like to compete at the Brook Farm Area Festival next year then please visit the British Dressage website and search under ‘competitions’ and ‘Area Festivals’ for more information.

If you would like to play a part in helping the competition to take place, please contact Brook Farm EC direct for further information.