Scores? anyone know if there is a problem at Great Meadows. No scores are showing and I thought that some people also rode on Thursday.
They are showing scores but they seem to be from a previous year.
I was surprised at how few people where at Great Meadow yesterday for the 3* and 4* XC. I’d bet they didn’t even get close to 10,000. Going by the general admission parking it was probably well less than that.
The course was interesting. The riding was fun to watch. The footing was pretty good although it seemed the landing side of some of the jumps was getting deep despite a lot of gravel being thrown on it.
From the general admission spectator viewpoint, I would not call it spectator friendly. They are heavily invested in the VIP experience with tents everywhere. There are places along the course where you should be able to see a lot but the VIP tents block the view.
Large sections of the course where not roped off and there were no mowed galloping lanes. So trying to determine where horses were running and where they were not was a challenge. At one point my wife and I, we’ve been to a lot of events, were walking alongside the big arena. We never crossed a rope or a sign or anything and then almost got run over by a horse. Luckily we weren’t in the vicinity of a jump or it could have been a real problem.
I asked an official where we could get a course map and she didn’t know. I saw the officials house and walked in and I figured I’d asked for one. There was no one there and I looked around until I found a pile of course maps and order to go. I helped myself to them.
Later on, we were walking along a lane that I knew was a galloping lane just from seeing where the last jump was and the next one. we came across a group of pony clubbers and told them to be on the lookout for horses since this was a galloping lane. The kids told me it wasn’t and then about 30 seconds later here came a horse on the course.
I liked the course. I think it was a good challenging course that rewarded good riding but would penalize sloppy riding or poor decision making. I wish they would move the date to the fall. But most of all, I wish they be more cognizant of the fans experience there and not just the VIPs.
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We rented a tent near the start box (it cost $125) and the rest of the tents (3) near us were empty the whole weekend. We borrowed the shade from empty tents near showjumping and did the same for empty tents directly across from the last water complex, giving us a view directly across the first element in. We were in that spot for about 45 minutes. There was nobody in any of the tents there.
Nobody seemed to care and we were unobtrusive (on foot, didn’t carry anything). I agree, not many spectators at all. We were up from NC to watch a friend (Ema) go. I did not walk the whole course, too darn hot and I hate standing in the sun.
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