Harry Potter–two thumbs up with the caveat that the story is so good I probably would have given a Harry Potter cartoon two thumbs up. The only other thing I would say is that it is considerably darker than any of the previous movies, but I suppose when he-who-must-not-be-named rises to power a few heads are going to have to roll. And that’s all I have to say on that matter. We have an international heavy day on eventing nation, starting with a breeches color, or should I say “colour,” guest article from lec in England.
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From lec:
Sometimes rules go a little too far and become slightly ridiculous. I understand that some US eventers want to relax the rules on dress so thought this was an apt time to mention a recent scenario about the colour of breeches and the uproar it recently caused last in the UK.
Currently the rule in British Eventing is that you can wear buff or beige breeches with tweed and that you should not be wearing white breeches until you get to Intermediate plus. At a recent event grassroots event, Eland Lodge. A competitor turned up with white breeches and tweed. They were told by a steward that they would be eliminated from the competition for wearing white as this is not allowed in the rules until you reach intermediate. The competitor protested about this and they were reinstated but by the time they were told it was too late and they had gone steadily round the cross country occurring time penalties and knocking them out of a decent placing.
With this a message was placed on the BE forum about being eliminated for something as trivial as whether the breeches were white or beige and BE came back with a new rule amendment.
The BE Sport Committee was consulted and unanimously agreed to amend the Competitors’ Dress Rules in Annex 6 of the current BE Rule Book, with immediate effect, for Dressage & Show Jumping at Intermediate level and below.
· White breeches may be worn with a black or dark blue coat with white stock
· Buff or fawn breeches may be worn with a tweed coat with coloured stock or tie.
This rule appeared on the BE website but was then criticised because some members moaned that they never wear white with a navy jacket and it was still not clear that you ‘may not’ wear white with tweed so a few hours after some members wrote about the new rule being as clear as mud on the BE forum another rule amendment appeared regarding breeches.
The BE Sport Committee was consulted and unanimously agreed to amend the Competitors’ Dress Rules in Annex 6 of the current BE Rule Book, with immediate effect, for Dressage & Show Jumping at Intermediate level and below.
· White, buff or fawn breeches may be worn with a black or dark blue coat with white stock.
· Only buff or fawn breeches may be worn with a tweed coat with coloured stock or tie.
So now we are all clear where we stand with breeches and the colour we are allowed to ride in for dressage and showjumping. I am guessing that it’s a little pedantic to point out that under the rule the rider should never have been eliminated in the first place as it states that the rider should have a 2 point deduction for incorrect dress!
So next time you are looking to soften the rules on dress just think of us poor Brits who have to contend with the colour of our breeches and whether its correct or not. It appears we can have two rule amendments in 24 hours on clothing colour and yet big issues such as wait lists, withdrawals etc. have still not been resolved.
