Anybody else head over there? There was tons of people, and so much fun and pink!
Yep we were there, it was extremely hot the first 2 days and then cooled off pretty nicely! Overall it was a good event but there is definitely room for improvement. XC was great fun!
Yep, I was there hanging out
OP, what issues need improving? Just wondering for feedback for better run events. Thx!
I was there enjoying the pink!
This is second hand, so take it as that. The stadium course was put back in the grass area, which is located on the slanted hill. As it did during the first recognized event that was held at Cobblestone, it caused RF’s, rails (which it should do), a lot of time penalties and a fall of a horse. If this is not correct, then please correct me?
Since there was no way to check the scoring (they really ought to join the other events who do have online scoring), I got my info from a friend who rode there. Since she was on one of the BN teams for the COTH team challenge, she was able to watch the Preliminary SJ, down through BN.
“The cross country course was tough, but very nicely done.” They loved the new water complex, too. :yes:
Hopefully, this works as constructive feedback, even if it is second hand?
Feedback for Prelim only (I didn’t watch any other divisions):
The XC was big, tough, and challenging - definitely up to level. I loved it - excellent quality and diversity of jumps. Our young horses thought it was a hoot and galloped around with true joie de vie. Tougher than most Area VIII Prelims, up to the standard set by Richland. Long, galloping course, only about 4 out of 36 or so entries made time - which IMO is the way it should be. Footing was surprisingly good; I’d expected concrete but they had worked the lanes and then we got a good rain Friday nite which softened (but didn’t muddy) the course. I’d give the XC course an “A-” but would suggest building up with a couple or three galloping fences before the tough ones - that huge trakehner early in the course was definitely a confidence challenge before the horses hit their strides. I had a feeling that many of the Prelim entries had not seen this type of quality course before.
Stadium was on turf, on a rolling setting. I didn’t see the class, but it was obvious on Saturday that there would be many rails. For some reason (perhaps because the horses think they are on XC and rap the fences) turf stadium rings never ride as well as arenas. But the course again was big and fair, no complaints - I’ve preached for years that tougher XC and SJ venues are needed to balance the over-emphasis on dressage in today’s events. Since I didn’t see it, can’t comment on why, but you might study what I believe was fence 7 - we think only one Preliminary horse didn’t drop it - and the triple rode very poorly for essentially everyone. I’d rate the stadium a “B-” not because it was tough but because some experienced pairs had problems with it - when you would have expected them to set the standards. Our young horses had rails but honestly had great rounds - very proud and pleased with them as they stepped up in class.
Dressage was about 150 miles away from the barns - my only complaint.
Overall, MUCH BETTER event than I expected - definitely 3 stars (out of 4). Very close to Richland standards - my complements to Michigan for having what I judge to be the two best venues in Area VIII - and Hunter’s Run might make it top 3 except my memory there is the flood. Well done!
Hunter’s Run might make it top 3 except my memory there is the flood.
Which one? :lol:
I was there grooming for my trainer who was running her guy in his first prelim.
As far as improvements, I agree that dressage distance from barns was a big issue. It was difficult for me also as a groom with multiple horses, since on foot it was taking me 15-20 min each way carrying all of their crap (I don’t know why people think they need so much before they go in the ring :D).
Cross country was nice. It seemed to ride nicely with questions that could be negotiated by more novice pairs, while riding for the time was a good challenge for more seasoned ones. We were worried about the footing, but were also pleasantly surprised that it was not rock hard.
Stadium was tough. Some people seemed to think that it was fair, others not so much. My jock had a nice ride in prelim with only the second oxer in the triple down so we can’t complain too much, but others had a lot of trouble. I recall there were only two clean prelim rounds out of both groups. I was hand walking while they were setting the course the night before and was there when they were discussing the difficulty. The TD agreed that the designer should step it back and so the square oxers were made to be ascending ones. Growing up in the show jumping world, course designers always said the best courses were ones where any pair could have any rail depending on the ride, not ones where everyone had the same jump or jumps down indicating a sticky spot. It was really disappointing for me to see people work so hard over the weekend to get to SJ only to have stops at the second fence (the cobblestone farms fence which was tripping a lot of people up) or falls, so in the future, even though I detest walking to dressage, I’m sure we would all be willing to walk over for everyone to jump on sand if that’s an option (especially if its 90+ degrees every day and even the most fit horses are incredibly tired).
The electricity thing with the fans in the tents could not have been avoided I don’t think since they keep growing and growing each year and was worked out and certainly will not be a problem in the future I am sure.
My only other gripe was that the water was very far away from the stabling and we sure were carrying a lot of it each day. Maybe water trucks behind the tents could have been an option, just for filling buckets?
All in all we enjoyed the event immensely, thought everyone was incredibly nice, and will certainly be going back next year. Definitely worth the very long drive! 
Please, everyone, make sure to fill out the event evaluation at
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Cobblestone_USEA_2013
Also, ONE MILLION thanks to the volunteers, especially our jump judges – some of whom did an ELEVEN HOUR shift on XC day! <3
Yes, thank you to all the volunteers! I know that the Cobblestone community works very hard to put on not only this USEA event, but they also host an unrecognized event and numerous event derbies which is great for us locals to enjoy and get some experience (horses and riders) at!
I really enjoyed the event (despite the awful heat!) and just did the event evaluation. Thanks to everyone that worked hard to make it all happen 
Cool that so many people were there. These are my words on starter:
Dressage was great, even though it was far away there’s really no fixing that. I like how we warmed up inside and then had a smaller warm up outside. The only thing was the outside of ring one, there were tree branches hanging in that I had to duck under, othewise it was great. The stadium map was screwed up. We tried looking at it but it was flipped, upside down, and not even the right course, so we just had to figure it out ourselves. Unfortuanetly I didn’t do cross country, but the course was great and appropriate for the level. I just love the enviroment of cobblestone shows, it’s so cheery and supportive, and for this show it was pink! Really I thought it was a great show. Oh yeah and later on maybe like 4:30 I went to the secretary RV, but there was no one there to help and I needed to ask a question, so I just had to ask someone setting up the dinner. Really it was so much fun!! I think next year there should be some sort of award for the “pinkest” horse & rider pair, and stock up on those shirts! I couldn’t get one and I was so sad because I really wanted one soo bad!
p.s. love the new water jump!
The only thing that could have made it a tad bit easier for us, arriving after 7 p.m. on Friday night, would be to have the stabling assignments posted somewhere… They weren’t given to us ahead of time, or posted on the internet, so when we got there, we had to hunt for our spot within the vast, tented plains! The event itself was AWESOME, my daughter had a fantastic time and the challenging stadium course became a breeze once they got to the BN divisions! If not for a little jig in the middle of her free walk, she might have won her division! haha
[QUOTE=scubed;7089596]
Yep, I was there hanging out[/QUOTE]
Sure, “hanging out” busting your butt on Control all day… :lol :winkgrin:
But I got some pictures, and faybe got some better ones http://seema-thefloridachronicles.blogspot.com/2013/07/pinking-out-at-cobblestone.html.
Yep, I was there! Drove up from TN Friday night to spend the day Saturday and some of Sunday. DH was very pleased with how all the courses rode and is already thinking about the changes he wants to make next year (starting with the novice “out” of the new water- it rode well for the people who rode it appropriately, but there were a few more problems at it than he likes to see). Such a great venue with so many fun people! It was great to see everyone (and dance my butt off at the competitor’s party!).
[QUOTE=faybe;7091801]
Yep, I was there! Drove up from TN Friday night to spend the day Saturday and some of Sunday. DH was very pleased with how all the courses rode and is already thinking about the changes he wants to make next year (starting with the novice “out” of the new water- it rode well for the people who rode it appropriately, but there were a few more problems at it than he likes to see). Such a great venue with so many fun people! It was great to see everyone (and dance my butt off at the competitor’s party!).[/QUOTE]
We thought the XC course design was wonderful and definitely up to par for each level, so please tell him thank you! The Training course had 4 combinations as well as a corner to house bending line that was related and could have been A/B. The Novice horses that had bad jumps/stops coming out of the water seemed to be the ones who were staring at the in of the water and losing impulsion on the approach. They couldn’t get going again once they were in the water and this resulted in the out riding badly. I thought it was a great Novice question though!
SJ on the other hand was not designed and did not ride as well…hoping this can be fixed for next year as our group left feeling a little defeated after a pretty good weekend otherwise!
