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Subtitled: Once again idle chatter and gossip plunges Yours Truly into the mire.
Whilst on a course recently we were whiling away the period between lessons by watching the next batch of students going through the mill when the topic of a 'Have a Go Show' was raised. My understanding of the concept was that somebody arranged for us all to turn up and strut our stuff on the track in front of a couple of judges. We would then be given feedback on how we rode and what could be improved upon - the following day we would have a chance to repeat our performance and, hopefully, improve.
Of course judges would be hard to come by.
"Oh I could probably do it with enough warning" said Fi.
Of course a venue would be very hard to find.
"Oh you can use Oakfield any time you like" said Nick.
Of course an organiser would never be found.
"Oh Graeme can do it" said Fiona.
Who am I to ignore the wishes of my child bride? Thus a monster was created - Hags on Nags at Oakfield Farm - and I was that 'somebody'.
After ascertaining that Fi Pugh and Mic Rushen were able to judge for us we settled on the weekend of 8th/9th July as being the only really suitable weekend for the show. Nick Foot had already promised us the use of the facilities at Oakfield Farm and generously kept to this even though we subsequently found that he was booked to go to the Salisbury Show that weekend and would not be able to take part in the Have a Go - thanks to both Nick and Cherie for setting up and allowing us the use of the track.
Unsure of how to proceed (I've never organised anything like this before and there is some substance in the rumour that organising a liquid social occasion in a brewery would be somewhat challenging to me) I did the usual male scurrying around like a headless chicken before admitting defeat and asking - the ladies.
Fi Pugh outlined the ideas behind the show format. Janice and Tim Hutchinson run a successful series of Have a Go Shows on their track in Cumbria and Janice provided us with hints and tips aimed at maximising the benefit of the weekend for the riders. Armed with this information it was just a case of typing out an entry form and sitting back waiting for the entries to flood in. To be honest we were expecting a mere trickle and had intended to limit the show to around twenty rider and horse combinations.
We ended up with thirty four combinations which meant that time was very tight for the judging and we only managed to finish in good time thanks to all the participants being ready for their classes on schedule. We had decided to limit the group classes to three participants on the track at once so that the judges could have a good look at each – however we quickly discovered that the FIPO allocated times for each gait were insufficient to allow proper comments to be written down so we had to extend the 60/70 seconds to around 90 in some cases – so if it seemed that your sixty second canter round had stretched to an eternity – that’s the reason.
Most people Had a Go at their usual events with several trying out different reins, different gait order in their FIPO tests and one brave soul (Hi Harriet!) even tried out the T2 loose rein tölt with commendable results. Typing about results – we decided that the scores given would not be made public, if riders wanted to divulge their own scores then that was fine but we did feel that by keeping the marks under wraps then it would maybe encourage folks to have a go at more advanced classes.
However Snuggur and I can confirm that, once again, we maintained our place at the top of the leader board of the ‘Royaume-uni, nul points’ Club – winning that elusive, hard to come by, big, fat, hairy zero. This time we won it for no pace rather than no trot, no tölt or canter on the wrong leg so that’s another first for the collection – wonder what we can do in the British Championships then J ? No walk would seem favourite.
All in all the weekend, apart from the foul weather overnight Saturday/Sunday, seemed to go well. From the organisational and timing point of view it would be easier to arrange a normal show but the benefits of the Sunday repeat of Saturdays tests make the extra admin worthwhile – I for one found the weekend very useful and we hope to repeat the event in 2007. We’ve already had feedback from Mic and Fi about how to improve the speed of the judging and any feedback from the riders would be most welcome.
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