Fair Hill is very good, they have gotten in a lot more stuff and are well known for fitting helmets. Our trainer is an Ambassador for them, send me a DM and I’ll give you a code you can use.
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I was there 2 weeks ago (for a new helmet) and believe they said they’d be there this year. Something about a better spot than last year but admit I wasn’t paying much attention!
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Great to hear! I didn’t see them on the vendor list but I don’t think it’s etched in stone yet 
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If Fair Hill Saddlery ends up being there, definitely go there for helmet fitting! If not, stop by the store. Last year they had their Charles Owen rep doing the CO helmet fittings and she was great, if not, Kim is fantastic and knowledgeable.
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Astier Nicolas and Ollie Townend are late additions to the 5* line up.
Astier Nicolas is a late one, Olli Townsend was on the list when it was first published.
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Remember last year they were also dealing with the maybe / maybe not having the event due to Covid. They also dealt with supply chain issues - not being able to get the # of golf carts and toilets they wanted. There were staffing issues for the event caterers, vendors etc. While I understand all of that, there was still room for improvement, which I would like to believe the organizers have taken to heart and worked on improving. It sounds like they’ve made some positive changes for this year so let’s hope for the best. While there 5* entries are light, my understanding is there are plenty for the 3*. My feeling is the pool of 5* horses is smaller this year. I was at Blair Castle/Scotland and they only had like 14 in their 4* but “bumper” entries in the 3* so many they had to shift the schedules around to accommodate the high number of entries. Let’s hope for glorious weather, and everyone makes it around w/o any indidents.
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Blair has always had fairly low entries in the 4L, it is a tough hilly course and there are others events around the same time that are more popular. They had about 50 running in the 4S though which is pretty decent!
The 2L and 3L also had good numbers, but much of the scheduling change was down to the massive entries in the two 1*S sections - nearly 200 competitors at this level! It is only the 2nd time that Blair has run at this level. It meant that 1 section ran XC Saturday and the other Sunday. Unfortunately it had a knock on effect on the Scottish grassroots championships, particularly at BE100 level, numbers there were very low in comparison.
ETA I don’t want italics, I want stars!
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I appreciate reading everyone’s tales from the 2021 trenches! I’ve also done some event management in my time (people events, not horsey events) and know how hard it is to pull something off when you don’t have a proven blueprint.
Hoping that the hard-working organizers have reflected on and used the feedback and observations from last year. I bought tickets for this year and am REALLY looking forward to a few days of horse-saturated fun.
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Pretty cool to see Ian Stark riding Caroline Martin’s 2021 YEH 4 year old champ in the 5 year old class this year!
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I ended up taking Friday off work so I can catch some of the dressage, too. My mom lives a stone’s throw away, so I might end up sticking DH with horse care, my mom with child care, and making a whole long weekend of it. Not that I’m far to begin with, but it will save me all the back and forth.
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FairHill Saddlery was supposed to have a big booth again this year so I am not sure what happened. I saw the owner a few months ago. He said that they were supposed to have a stand alone tent. I do not know why that fell through. A lot of vendors were not happy with the set up last year and the lack of turnout. They paid premium prices and not many made it back.
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Fair Hill Saddlery just hit the vendors list today, wasn’t there when I looked yesterday!
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Looks like Tim Price is now entered.
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OMG amazing YASS!!!
Astier Nicholas from France too - don’t remember seeing him last time I looked.
oh awesome!
We’ve just had a ton of rain here in Cecil County, and the 10 day looks sunny 
should make for good footing
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Woohoo! We’re watching the forecast closely so we know which vehicle to bring. We took my car last year which was fine until the XC downpour at the end of the day. We almost didn’t make it out of the mud hole….I’m sorry, parking area…so if it rains this year we’re bringing the truck 
:dizzy:
“Hallie Coon had some pregnancy issues 
”
This is absolutely not true. Her post on instagram a while back about that was unconnected to this season.
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