In April 2020 and in the interest of legacy I wrote a Wikipedia entry recording the thoughts and notable works of Harveywetdog. I admit I was ignorant of the rules concerning self promotion on Wikipedia and consequently my entry was correctly deleted and my account expunged from the system. As a result my original words and links were sadly lost but nevertheless here is a rewrite. Perhaps when I'm gone someone will be able to enter it onto Wikipedia as a fitting epitaph for my time on the Harveywetdog Project.
I had wanted to set out at 08:00 for the normally one hour journey from Churcham to Badminton. But pointers have to be fed and walked and horses have to be skipped and fed so we settled for a departure time of 09:00 and while I had expected some queuing on the way in, I wasn’t prepared for the nightmare journey that event director Jane Tuckwell had planned for us.
My route of choice is A38, Cam and Dursley and then up onto Cotswolds, pick up the A46 and queue down to the Dunkirk Crossroads and then make a final decision which car park to head for. All went to plan until about three quarters into our journey we came to an abrupt halt on the A46. It would be wrong to say that we stood still for the next two hours, but I suspect that the 0.5 mile we did cover was achieved by people trying to cut across to other routes or simply turning.
Of course the frustration of that part of the Cotswolds is that there is very little internet signal and you are out of range of Radio Badminton; so you have absolutely no idea what is going on and even if the event was trying to communicate with you then the message can’t get through. The Sat Nav seemed to suggest that the traffic wasn’t queuing from the M4 up to the Dunkirk cross roads so my theory was that they were working to keep the M4 clear and we were basically being parked on the A46. But when I suggested this on social media I was told people had queued for two to three hours from the motorway as well (with some reporting to have left the motorway at 07:00am).
Whatever the cause at about 11:30, just as the first horse was on the course, we suddenly started to move and quickly covered the 2 to 3 miles to the junction with the Bath Road. There was a slight delay and then we were up to the Dunkirk Cross Roads and heading towards the site. Again this was at creeping pace, especially through Little Badminton where the road goes back to one lane, but eventually at about mid day we were directed on to the main car park and parked up very close to the exit.
The competition
And so to the competition itself; we had landed on the course between fences 27 and 28 so headed off in search of the Quarry and the toilets that are always situated there. The first few riders had already started but as we arrived there was a hold on course although Radio Badminton did not seem to know why. When we arrived at the Quarry we found an absence of toilets but I was able to climb up on one of the hay wagons and video Tim Price over the wall. This was one of the fences that had been changed due to the conditions hence the riders did not have to jump over the wall in greatly simplifying the challenge at the fence.
Having eventually sorted out some toilets and checked in my voucher for my Radio Badminton headset we avoided the inaccessible Huntsmans Close and headed down toward the Lake videoing horses as we went. My basic plan was to head out to the Vicarage Vee area and come back to the Lake later. I just managed to catch Austin O'Connor and Colorado Blue at the Mars M and got some good video of Hector Payne at this Fence although Dynasty was beginning to look tired by this stage.
Topspin, Jalapeno and RSH Contend OR were all on my list to video although the latter was later eliminated before completing. I hoped to capture a few combinations in the Vicarage Vee area, involving the Footbridge 14 to the Pond 15AB but Susie Berry pulled up just before and although Richard Jones made it through safely he too retired later round the course.
I was quite pleased with the video of Greta Mason at 11 to 12AB and Katherine (with a K!) Coleman at 10AB although it was a bit shaky when I was pulling a big zoom without the monopod. I used the Katherine Coleman video as my short from the event. Although I videoed a couple of riders heading towards 16 there always seemed to be either a tree or a horse ambulance in the way.
Quite a bit of time was spent on the new section of the course at 8ABC and 9, although unfortunately it was not to include Harveywetdog favourites Kitty King and Vendredi Biats who had an uncharacteristic tip up at 5AB. The live stream cameras at 11 to 12AB and 8ABC had unfortunately suffered from internal condensation blur earlier in the day (and on the BBC highlights) which can be a problem if you've let your camera get wet and then cold but you don't allow it to warm up gradually.
We pressed on back towards the Lake 20, 21ABC, 22 and 23 and thanks to the very kind group of people who suddenly stepped back from the railings and invited me to the front. I know you're supposed to let the kids stand at the front but s** 'em I had a video to make! We arrived at the Lake just as Tom Crisp was doing his swimming piece but I wasn't in a position to record it, but I did get Arthur Duffort taking the long route and saluting his French supporters on the way back from the alternative 22 to 23 which was great to see.
As we made our way to the Beaufort Staircase we were told that there were only four horses left to go as the other four had withdrawn; and as last to Pippa Funnell and Billy Walk On retired at 10A the afternoon sort of fizzled out and that was that.
Some thoughts on Radio Badminton
As I said above I paid in advance for Radio Badminton and cashed in my voucher as soon as I was on course to get my earpiece. My idea had been to get up to the second information as to who was on course and just how far round they were and thereby avoid being taken by surprise. Unfortunately I was disappointed, with the RB team seemingly more intent on having a good time and a chat than providing any useful information as to what was happening on the cross country course.
Getting out
One of the advantages of our delayed arrival was that we were parked right by the Lambing Pen entrance so as we finished at the Drays fences (28AB) we were quickly back in the car, over the string, out the gate and home by ten past five.
Making the video
The video was shot on my Sony AX100, camera number 3, (now camera #2) in 4K. I knew that for the video to remain relevant I had to get it up and out quickly. I'd done some preparatory work on the combination and fence names so it was just a case of getting the best bits of videos edited and uploaded as quickly as possible which I achieved the evening of cross country day. I made a longer version, using all the clips I had and adding slow motion where possible a few days later. The videos have so achieved over 18k views which means it is already in my top ten cross country videos.
On reflection
Definitely not a great or a classic Badminton. Ros Canter probably deserved her win but despite everyone saying on Friday and Saturday "this is not a dressage competition" that's ultimately what it turned out to be. I seem to recall a seemingly sombre Captain Mark Phillips (on a wet cross country day at Burghley 2016) explaining his aim of achieving 50% jumping clear round his cross country track and that was achieved at Badminton 2023 but only with some very careful riding.
I'm actually surprised that there hasn't been more said about the wisdom of letting the competition go ahead. Once you start taking fences out you are on the slippery slope (quite literally) and as was demonstrated by the number of retirements and withdrawals (especially in that last group of eight horses (with one understandable exception)) very few combinations appeared to be competing, it was simply a case of hopefully surviving and completing to compete another day. Clearly deciding to abandon Badminton is a serious call and perhaps there is too much vested interest nowadays to make it a feasible decision. The decision seems to have been better to have a charade of a competition than no competition at all.
As to the controversy with Swallow Springs I didn't see it so I cannot comment. Certainly Swallow Springs looked fine when we saw him just three weeks later making the time around the CCI-S 4* course at Bicton (the only horse to finish inside the time). Perhaps the luckiest combination in the end were Laura Collett and London 52 who managed to avoid the Badminton mud bath and come out fresh to win at Bicton.
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