US eventer Sharon White is in England with her horse Rafferty’s Rules preparing for the Blenheim CCI3* on September 9th-12th. Going over to England is always an eye-opening experience for US eventers and I love hearing them talk about their trip. Sharon attended Burghley this weekend and was kind enough to write to Eventing Nation with her thoughts and observations. Thanks for writing this Sharon and thank you for reading.
From Sharon:
Hello EN! Sharon White here reporting from England where I have been for the past couple weeks in preparation for the Blenheim CCI***. This is my first time competing in England, the mecca of eventing, and I told John I would give my views on Burghley and British Eventing.
About Burghley: Burghley is in a word, massive. I thought everything in England was smaller than in America–road, cars, parking lots (especially parking lots)–until I went to Burghley. Bughley is huge and there are people everywhere. There are so many people that it’s hard to get close enough to some of the jumps to see them. The crowd is not only large but very well educated! The comments I overheard made it sound like people really follow horses and riders and know their histories.
I will say I spent all day at Burghley on Saturday. I arrived early to walk the course, then walked around the course while it was running to watch horses at each fence, then spent the rest of the day watching the big telatron screen, where you could see the most. And I have to say EN knew more about what had happened with the airlifted rider than I did! When the rider was airlifted, there was a long hold, but you didn’t know what had happened or what was going on, the announcers just immediately started interviewing British WEG riders. I find it quite amazing that I was at a venue but knew less about circumstances there than someone in the States!
About England: The best thing I’ve discovered since being over here in England is that eventing is an awesome sport back in the United States. Let me explain myself. Yes, England is the mecca of eventing and it is amazing, but our US events totally hold up to what I’ve seen here. We have great cross country courses and great events, super facilities and organizers, and at all levels our riding skills and horses seem comprable.
All that being said, one of the big differences that I see is that there are many more events here in England–you could go 5 days a week to different events. Also, there are many more top notch competitors in England. At the Highclere HT last weekend, the intermediate and advanced all ran on monday (as it was a bank holiday), and there were 5 intermediate dressage rings and 3 advanced dressage rings all running at the same time. That is a lot of upper level eventing going on at the same time. And every other rider was a team rider from some country. Many, many great riders, many, many nice horses. It’s a density of talent competing against each other that we don’t have in the US. The other big difference is the footing. The soil is just different here. If I were a farmer I could probably tell you how, but I’m not so I can’t. The soil is loamy, so it makes for good turf (and excellent dairy I might add–the cows get better grass I think). This makes keeping your event horses sounder a bit easier.
The crowds at all the events in England are also a big difference. At Highclere HT they had a country fair going on with shopping, food, moonbounces, pony rides, a rock climbing wall, and…ferret racing. Ferrets running in tubes. I now can completely appreciate what Phillip is trying to do with Plantation. Make it a fun day for the family to get outside interest. Our sport is just as great at home as it is here in England, they just liven it up more here. I’ve had the chance to walk around Gatcombe and Badminton while here, and the settings are amazing, and there’s great tradition there, but I couldn’t help but feel we do have equally beautiful places in the US. Morven Park, for example, is steeped in our own history, with amazing grounds and a beautiful course, and I think the terrain and course on the advanced side of Morven rivals any event anywhere. And think about The Fork! That is a beautiful spot with a fabulous course and facility. And that’s just to name two. My point is that we have great events back home in the US. We just need to make the general US public realize that! I vote for wine tasting. Get wine tasting and dog agility involved in all events and we’d have to turn people away. Go eventing.
