Striving for Videoing Perfection: 2018 in perspective

Videoing Perfection 2018

Harveywetdog looks back on what at times has been an annus horribilis, reflects on "trouble at t'mill" but recognises that ultimately the good really does outweigh the bad.

Highlights and Regrets

My 2018 Regrets

1 Not videoing Freestyle's first GP at Hartpury in the Spring

2 The Hartpury Festival of Dressage warm up video

3 Not hanging on at Stoneleigh to video Lara Butler when she became National Champion

4 My speeding ticket on the M5 on the way back from Bicton

5 Getting involved with the Valegro Sculpture Campaign

My 2018 Highlights

1 The Hartpury Show Reels for the Festival of Dressage and the International Horse Trials

2 The Belsay Northumberland Bramham road trip

3 Some of the requests for video I've received which are personal and private but mean a lot to me

4 The buzz in the media centres in general and The Hartpury team work in particular

5 Getting involved with the Valegro Sculpture Campaign

Non, je ne regrette rien

I'm going to leave the two lists hanging there enigmatically; but I guess I do have to explain the Valegro double entry. It's a regret because it's very public, it's high pressure, it takes up so much of my time and needs such careful close attention; I even have to ask people for money!  But it's an artistic highlight as well because who wouldn't want to get involved with the world's favourite dressage horse and follow sculpture Georgie Welch on her journey to realise him in Bronze.  

Obviously breaking in the new camera and laptop has been a major achievement as was keeping up to date with Adobe Premiere Pro. That all came together with the one minute highlights video for the NAF Five Star International Hartpury Horse Trials. This represented a commission as such and it reflected the outcome of a second great week working with the team at Hartpury in 2018. I generally like to do my own thing and in my own style but for once I listened and the University were able to accept the video with only one minor tweak. Taking a week of video and getting it down to one minute is a gigantic task. What do you miss out? I had done something similar for the Hartpury Festival of Dressage but that had needed more work to bring it in line with the style they wanted.

So many highlights, as I've indicated some are personal but it was nice that Bicton reviewed their media policy which allowed me to visit in April and great to be asked to go to Belsay which turned into our Belsay Northumberland Bramham road trip. Little Gatcombe continues to frustrate although in 2018 that was to the benefit of discovering Great Witchingham. Great Witchingham in turn showed me that a day trip to Houghton was feasible.

What else has caused me stress in 2018? 

Safeguarding and Avoiding Causing Offence

No one ever said that life was easy; and when I started making small videos for my own amusement about 10 years ago I never imagined that I'd have a world wide audience watching what I do and eagerly waiting for my next output. Of course while success breeds success it also breeds pressure. Pressure to improve, pressure to keep on top of your output and pressure not to spoil what you've achieved. And of course there are the addition pressures brought about by safeguarding restrictions and  the fact that we are all so easily offended nowadays.

When you're a 63 year old males wielding a video camera in an environment dominated by young females you can't afford to ignore Safeguarding; you realise that "Can you give me a list of all the under 18 year olds who I mustn't video please?" isn't likely to be a winning question. In eventing cross country it can be difficult enough distinguishing the guys from the girls when they're flying along with all their protective gear on so to then distinguish between kids and adults becomes even more difficult. But what it means is that you now need to avoid certain classes and when in doubt either consult the media professionals or don't publish.

But how do we stop people being offended and going off on one on social media? If I'm honest I've always enjoyed parody and satire and, to put it bluntly, taking the piss. I think if you aren't part of the establishment then this is an easy thing to do; as you get more involved and see what it takes to organise an event or prepare a horse for competition then you inevitably begin to soften you're approach. Nowadays I always think twice before publishing a fall and will always try and seek permission from the connections. If a horse is naughty during a test I'll either ignore that video or just make it available to the rider. If people ask me to take down a video I will (luckily I haven't been asked to take out one specific part of a cross country video yet) and I go to great lengths to cover over what appears to me to be any inappropriate behaviour such as excessive use of the whip.

Having done all that there are still going to be people who take offence at what you do and don't mind letting others know what they think. "This riders too fat", "this horse is too thin", "this rider's a horse beater" and "this course designer has got it all wrong". Causing offence (both intentionally and unintentionally) and taking offence are very much products of the social media age; while they may not ultimately lead to its demise they will certainly lead to its curtailment.

Disquiet in the lorry park - a two tier organisation?

Organisationally 2018 was an interesting year for the two branches of the sport that we feature on Harveywetdog. Remember we started the year with BEF investigating claims of elitism and bullying in equestrian sport; a review which I felt was allowed to fizzle out in rather unspectacular style. For dressage we've had the debate over the suitability of Stoneleigh as an ongoing Championship venue as well as underlying concerns with the Gold, Silver and Bronze Championship structure. I'm sure all structures have their detractors and supporters. For my part I enjoy being the owner of a Bronze horse and having the chance to compete in the Petplan Area Festivals. On the downside I do believe it leads to "lazy judging" where if you're Bronze I work around 6, if you're Silver I work around 7, if you're Gold  I work around 8 and if you're Platinum I work around 9!

We've recently had a senior and well respected rider going into print and suggesting that while the "Charlotte factor" is inspiring, for many it's downright dispiriting. I don't know if preventing senior riders from competing below medium would make any difference but I do know that when I asked a European Dressage Channel why they didn't use my videos any more the response was that British dressage had become too predictable and boring.

Another indication that success does not guarantee stability was demonstrated by British Eventing who, despite delivering Individual and Team Gold at WEG, had to endure a double vote of no confidence and an EGM and an AGM in quick succession. At the time I described BE as suffering a double whammy of internal unrest coupled with member apathy. 

In hindsight the vote of no confidence appears to have been poorly promoted; as it was unclear what the motion was going to be then members couldn't in all honesty use their proxy vote and, unless you were able to attend or knew someone who was (and were likely to represent your views), the only real option was to trust your proxy to the chairman of the meeting.

The result of the voting is fascinating - we are not told how many people attended or how the proxy votes were cast but we are told 263 people took part in the vote of no confidence in the Chairman and 303 people took part in the vote of no confidence in the Chief Executive. 

At the meeting the CEO wasn't even dammed by faint praise - the Board had his performance review to consider and wouldn't comment further. And while a win is a win the vote was excruciatingly close in the case of the CEO (148 to 155) which basically means that only four people needed to have changed their minds for the motion of no confidence to have been carried. How important was your proxy vote now?

When I discussed the result with friends outside the sport they suggested that it was likely the CEO would decide that the result was too close for comfort and choose to take the honourable course of action. While this has not happened to date it is noted that the Chairman stepped down in 2018 at the end of his first term of office. 

Hopefully BE will listen to some of the concerns raised at the AGM and EGM and do what it can, where it can, to address them. I guess it depends on your point of view and what you want from the sport; the Board are clearly focused on creating a sustainable, blue ribband organisation and maintaining Olympic status; they do not want to see eventing become a "cottage industry" which inevitably puts them at odds with those who see event organisation as more of a lifestyle choice or even a vocation; we are migrating towards a two tier organisation and there will undoubtedly be more unrest in the future.

But What About the Sport in 2018? 

Dressage

So it wasn't just the weather (too wet in the Spring, too hot in the summer and too wet and windy at Stoneleigh) that has put a dampener on 2018 - there's been a lot of extraneous crap going down as well. But putting all that aside what have been my sporting highlights of 2018? In Dressage it's clearly the continuing awesome form of Charlotte Dujardin and her amazing string of horses. Florentina continues to shine and Mount St John Freestyle has fulfilled her promise and has her first WEG medal in the trophy cabinet. Like Freestyle before her River Rise Nisa took the Elite Stallions PSG title at The Hartpury Festival of Dressage during 2018. After her test Charlotte described Nisa as one of her top top horses and a horse that she had future Olympic plans for.

It was very special for me that Lara Butler won the National Dressage Champion and I'm very sorry that I wasn't there to see it and record it. There were a couple of reasons not least H&C are very jealous about their media rights and secondly I reckoned Gareth Hughes was a going to be a shoe-in for the title to compensate for his non-selection for WEG. Luckily I was wrong and Lara took the title.

Dressage for me is generally restricted to Hartpury and Stoneleigh but I was pleased to add Summerhouse and Somerford Park to my venues this year. Somerford Park was suggested to me by Deb Hargrave and I was pleased to find it's a really great venue to video at for dressage. Hopefully I'll be able to return there in 2019 for dressage and eventing.

Eventing

My eventing season went well with more courses videoed than 2017 although I lost Withington Manor and Weston Park (1) to the rain. I had planned to be at Chatsworth but I've had to postpone that trip until 2019 due to a family get together. I started with a lovely day at Tweseldown followed up with a day at Great Witchingham. Great Witchingham were a little hesitant to start with but I think I did their course justice. Bicton was also new and I spent Friday and Sunday there in some lovely April sunshine - in fact it was hotter at Bicton in late April than it was at Belsay in early June! Both days at Bicton were absolute belters with top horse and rider after top horse and rider getting in rides to make up for the loss of progress due to the rain early in the season.

After Bicton came Houghton which was an exciting course except for the part where it cut through the rough ground between the garden and the deer park. Apart from that it was a good course and competition to video and I was very pleased with the final product.

I've already mentioned the Belsay Northumberland Bramham road trip and we had a great time spending two days at both competitions and touring the sights in between. Belsay is a wonderful picturesque venue and it was really nice to be asked to video there. Laura de Wesselow kept her word and gave us full access to the park which was great having the little flag on the Discovery but brings with it a great responsibility when crossing a live cross country course.

Equi-Trek Bramham is a great event for me because it's big without being ridiculously busy. And you still get a press badge rather than a wrist band; guess I'm a traditionalist me! Thanks to Winnie and her team for looking after me at that one and thanks to Mrs Harveywetdog for planning the whole trip, working out the accommodation and putting up with all the walking.

Farley Hall came next which was a revisit this time to see the Intermediate track. I spent two days at the Festival of British Eventing which was extremely hot and sponsored by Magic Millions. I've said before how difficult I find access around some parts of the course at Gatcombe and this year was no exception. There seemed to be even more fences crammed onto the Avening Banks. Entries seemed to be generally down and there was a lot of people who decided not to run horses. My conclusion was that it wasn't a classic Festival.

Hot on the heals of the Festival came the NAF Five Star Hartpury International Horse Trials. Hartpury is central to my plans every year and this year was no exception with what seemed an informal WEG selection going on. The Sony camera and rain cover did its stuff especially when videoing Pippa Funnell in a monsoon style downpour. Pippa's verdict was that it was "very wet" when I asked her later.

At Hartpury it is always a real privilege to work with Rachael Morley as press officer and the whole communications team from the University who are having to balance their day jobs with running the horse trials. Although it was disappointing at first that Emma Walters had moved on after 2017 (good luck in your new job Emma) it was a pleasure this year to work alongside Steph Bateman who was drafted in to bolster the team. As a professional journalist Steph produced some excellent copy for the event and it was great being asked to provide video clips to deadlines to support her stories. Hopefully we'll be able to repeat this in 2019.

After Hartpury I'd planned a return trip to Bicton but you will recall this event was cancelled due to a low number of entries. I'd always planned to miss Burghley and toyed with the idea of going to Wellington but in the end that clashed with one of Vincent's competition days.

I made a late decision to bring Blenheim into my plans; Blenheim, like Bramham is big but not too busy. I had a very enjoyable time at Blenheim, this time thanks to Catherine Austen and her team. There had been some adjustment of the timetable which worked OK for me and I enjoyed getting out into the arena and videoing the Prize Givings. When I came to produce my highlights thank you video for 2018 I used quite a lot from Blenheim - I think that reflects the quality of setting and competition at the event. My only disappointment came with the Sunday morning trot up which was to have been against the stunning backdrop of the Palace. Unfortunately the public had been allowed onto the Palace "lawn" as well which rather spoilt the image and setting!

My final event was Weston (2) which was not without incident and I hung on to the end to video the prize giving there as a juxtaposition to the prize giving at Blenheim. These two images, the splendour of Blenheim contrasted with the business like set up at Weston, was very much in my mind as I read about divisions in the sport later on in the year. While they represent different ends of the eventing spectrum they both reflected the same ambition, same effort and same pride in achievement in the same sport.       

Valegro

No review of my year would be complete without a mention of the Valegro Newent Sculpture Project. I've been happy to support where I can although as I indicated earlier it does soak up a lot of my time.

The highlight was probably the interview/photo-shoot with sculptor Georgie Welch and Rose Lewis of Daydream Equine Art and I was delighted when both Horse and Hound and Cotswold Life carried the story and my video. The photo-shoot took place at Georgie's studio in Stroud.

There is still a lot of work to do and any help (cash!) people can give the project is greatly appreciated.

My Plans for 2019 and 2020

I have already published my plans for 2019 and as well as some old favourites I hope to visit Somerford Park and Pontispool as new eventing venues in 2019. Bicton will make a fitting finale to the season and I'm really pleased that Helen and co have captured the old Aldon end of year slot. My plan remains to continue to reduce my travel and work towards the Young Rider European Championships at Hartpury in 2020.