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.
My plans for the weekend of the Equifeast Calmsden (1) Horse Trials were changed slightly so instead of a long Sunday I spent Saturday morning and Sunday morning there instead. The playlist contains action from the BE90 (Saturday) and BE100 (Sunday) cross country courses and a couple of rounds of show jumping from both days. The Calmsden event is always well run and features classic Cotswold grass land and terrain. I like it!
After checking in as requested on Saturday, having a lovely strong cappuccino and recording a couple of rounds of show jumping I set off around the BE90 course. The course was excellently presenting and looked to be a fair test for the BE90 level. As in previous weeks I stuck to videoing in strict fence order although there were a couple of variations.
Sunday saw more sunshine and I arrived on the course earlier for the BE100 Competition. The Cross Country was due to run for several hours so I was a little worried that things might be a little slow to begin with but I needn't have worried as there was a steady stream of riders all morning.
It's always a pleasant surprise when you arrive on site, set up your tripod and then Mary King enters the show jumping ring! Once again the course was challenging enough with their appearing to be problems all around. Fences 11AB claimed a few victims as I'd predicted the day before.
The combination featured on the cover are Hal Anderson and Ballyea Rose. His support team told me that it was Hal's first BE100 event so I thought he deserved pride of place. I saw him complete and he seemed pleased enough but when I later looked at the results it appeared he has been eliminated so a bit of videographer's curse there!
So a great couple of days with a good mix of professional riders bringing on youngsters and amateur riders pitting themselves against two lovely courses and some great coffee as well.
Influential Fence 11AB on the BE100 course
A couple of anecdotal moments; well there was one rider whose horse seemed not to want to leave the start field and who upon elimination rode home telling the horse all the things they had done to sort out their problems and how this was the last straw; and there was the rider who having told the starter she was ready obviously had a brain freeze with 10 seconds to go and suddenly asked him where fence 2 was? Starter politely sent her on her way explaining he didn't know but he was sure she'd find it.
Thank you to Jo Verey for permission to video at this event and thank you to all involved.
Copyright for all video recorded at BE Events resides with British Eventing.
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