Eventing Cinema: My 2013 Entry

In 2012 British Eventing launched a video competition and due the success of the 2012 competition the competition is being run again this year.

The winning entry is that which best captures the spirit, adrenaline and horsemanship of the sport of Eventing. This is a celebration of the sport and as such, non-professional film-makers are invited to submit films from any Eventing competition around the world filmed in 2013.

My entry features the cross country stage of the CIC 3* Event held at Hartpury in August and sponsored by NAF.

Here is my video entry. As I explain later I need everybody to watch it a couple of times and hopefully forward the link to their friends. Views win prizes!!

Thank you for watching.


CIC 3* competitions are basically international one day events. This is preparing riders and their horses to compete at the likes of Badminton and Burghley; the top tough tracks.

For the video the music is by the Ameritz Tribute Club and features "Don't Stop" as made famous by Fleetwood Mac from the album "Rumours". I'm grateful to Ameritz for giving me permission to use the track in this instance.

A panel of judges will decide the ultimate winner from a shortlist of 10. The final 10 will be decided by You Tube views which seemed a bit strange at first but I realise now makes sense because it means you've taken the trouble to get your message out there.

I had intended my video to feature William Fox Pitt and Parklane Hawk, mainly because I'd been able to get to Hartpury briefly on the Friday morning of the competition to video their dressage test:

I'd also made a flying visit on the Saturday morning to capture their show jumping:

Unfortunately it was late on the same day that I found out that William had decided not to run Parklane Hawk cross country. Best laid plans!

As you will see from watching the video I've decided to concentrate my entry on the cross country competition. The video more or less follows the fences around the course although I did double back to watch Pippa Funnell jump the two skinnies on the bank and Lucinda Fredericks jump the table.

As I put time to on-line at a premium there isn't a lot of time for artistry in the editing suite. However I did allow myself to show Lucinda Fredericks and "Flying Finish" in slight slow motion and then over dub the fence judge's "247 clear 25" because in the end that's what's important and fundamental to the eventing spirit: horses and riders getting home safely and officials doing their work quietly and efficiently in the background.

As well as William's two videos I also captured Andrew Nicholson's test and Nicola Wilson's showjumping. Here they are:

Thank you for watching.