It means you have to shove your way to the front of the crowd around a given jump when the inevitable few leave after seeing a couple horses go. Or be really tall.
[QUOTE=snoopy;7400867]
YES!!! It is insane. They do have a creche. [/QUOTE]
I think I’m having a language malfuntion because I imagine the OP stashing the kiddos in the manger surrounded by animals…
Honestly Badminton is not the be all and end all. Its a nice event but there are others equally as good. I would never take children on xc day but there is loads to see and do if you go the other days and then I always watch the xc day on TV! My personal preference is going on dressage days. I normally watch the decent people and then catch up with friends and do a bit of shopping.
Personally I think Barbury is by far the best event along with Gatcombe in the British calendar. Great viewing where kids can run around, loads going on and often a better time of year. Barbury is very family friendly.
[QUOTE=mugsgame;7404963]
Honestly Badminton is not the be all and end all. Its a nice event but there are others equally as good. I would never take children on xc day but there is loads to see and do if you go the other days and then I always watch the xc day on TV! My personal preference is going on dressage days. I normally watch the decent people and then catch up with friends and do a bit of shopping.
Personally I think Barbury is by far the best event along with Gatcombe in the British calendar. Great viewing where kids can run around, loads going on and often a better time of year. Barbury is very family friendly.[/QUOTE]
Sorry, this cracked me up. I hope to be THAT decent someday 
[QUOTE=mugsgame;7404963]
Personally I think Barbury is by far the best event along with Gatcombe in the British calendar. Great viewing where kids can run around, loads going on and often a better time of year. Barbury is very family friendly.[/QUOTE]
I love Gatcombe, but it is VERY hilly and again, very difficult to be lugging around very young children. Barbury, although my least favourite of the destination events, is very family friendly with much going on in the ring below the trade stands. You can sit on the hill above the ring and see a lot of xc fences by virtue of the way the course is laid out.
“It is necessary to wait for two horses past before you are close enough to see ANY fence” What does this mean?
You wait at the back of the crowd around a fence and gradually move forward towards the stringing as people at the front move on after a horse has passed through. Usually takes a couple of horses before you can see much. But maybe I am a purist and like to watch closely how the horse jumps. Badminton Park is flat and there are few points from which to see several fences at once, with the exception of the lake and the quarry, which are both very busy places. Even Huntsman’s Close really needs to be seen a fence at a time. Most people walk the whole thing, from fence to fence and don’t like to miss any out. A minority will sit by a big screen and watch their fence (like the water) and see the rest of the competition sitting down.
Willesdon–You left out…the reason the folks watching the big screen are sitting down is…they’ve had so much beer.
Drinking some beer and waiting for people to fall off in the water. Uh huh. Some people never see a thing because they shop for the whole day. Forgot that part.
Oh, and by the way, if you go to Barbary Castle in July you can sit inside the members tent bar and see the whole thing whilst eating and drinking. No walking required!
The availability of beer will make the prospect of hauling children around Badminton a lot more palatable to my husband, so there’s that consolation. :lol:
Reynard Ridge, you are so right about the potty issue. Little boys can pee anywhere. I am sure they are not the youngest of their species to have peed on a tree at Badminton either, especially given the beer.
Thanks all, lots to think about here.
God bless you, Ford. I’d be making hubby stay home with the kids. It’s once in a lifetime! Is he horsey?
[QUOTE=islgrl;7403945]
I think I’m having a language malfuntion because I imagine the OP stashing the kiddos in the manger surrounded by animals…[/QUOTE]
It’s a day care centre for the kiddies. 
[QUOTE=Willesdon;7405611]
Oh, and by the way, if you go to Barbary Castle in July you can sit inside the members tent bar and see the whole thing whilst eating and drinking. No walking required![/QUOTE]
That’s true of Badminton (and Burghley too). OP, you can ALWAYS get seats in the main arena for the XC - there are XC fences in the arena and big screen TVs, so if you do need to stop and rest for a bit but not miss out you can always do that. I’d recommend the members tickets though - the weather can be vile. That way you can leave Hubby and kids in the dry and you can go and do what you need to do.
Are you in the UK already? If you are, you’ll know it’s wet, wet, wet here - and if the course builders can’t get on the course soon, even if it’s warm and sunny by the event - there could be no event.
How long are you here for? As others have said, so many other great events to go to. I hope you’re enjoying your time here
Just an FYI…It has been the wettest January since records began. The West Country is under water. We are in a weather pattern that suggests more rain. I wouldn’t be surprised in the event is cancelled if we continue with this rain. I am sure there is no was they can get the HGVs on the deer park at the moment.
We are here for five months, got here in January and will be here until late May (my husband is a law professor teaching here this semester). Or, he was…it has been a bit of a mixed bag really as he has been here four days when he caught viral encephalitis and spent 10 days in hospital, a good portion of which he was so out of his head he didn’t recognize me. Which is just awesome when you have moved to a new country with a two small children and don’t know a soul. But…my experiences with the NHS have been phenomenal, I must say, as they fixed him up, restored him to his right mind and we’ve been having a quite lovely time since. I could really use a good gallop on a horse, though!
I was wondering if they would cancel it with all the rain. Me heart goes out to the farmers in the southwest, just terrible. And of course much more important than whether or not I get to see the event…I will be fine but my dad is a farmer back home and I know how devastating years like this can be for small family farms.
Oh, fordtraktor, that sounds horrible, your poor hubby - and poor you. I wish I’d known. I live here in central London and would/could happily help out.
How about catching up sometime and if you can leave the kids with hubby for a morning, we can fix up a ride (I have two horses), only one is gallop-able though due to injury, but we can figure something out!
The water is insane, but we just have to hope it doesn’t freeze too. If it floods, then drains, much is salvageable, but little will grow from roots that are flooded and then broken up by the water freezing and expanding them.
You know that in London there are several horse related things to do - visit the Royal Mews, volunteer at one of London’s RDA (Riding for the Disabled) centres, walk down some of the small mews streets imagining what it was like back in the day… Mews Streets are now very sought after but the name means the streets that the horses were kept on - and so were the lowest of the low due to the smell and noise etc. Funny how things switch! Many mews streets are protected so you can really see how they were. There are a number of horse memorials in Hyde park - where early in the morning you can watch the cavalry horses - one to all animals that served in the war - and another to the horses killed in the Hyde Park bombings. Multiple opportunities to see horses on public duty too at the Changing of the Guard and other official events.
You can also ride in Hyde Park - but it’s expensive and the horses always look insanely bored, you’d be much better off coming to ride one of mine
[QUOTE=fordtraktor;7407980]
We are here for five months, got here in January and will be here until late May (my husband is a law professor teaching here this semester). Or, he was…it has been a bit of a mixed bag really as he has been here four days when he caught viral encephalitis and spent 10 days in hospital, a good portion of which he was so out of his head he didn’t recognize me. Which is just awesome when you have moved to a new country with a two small children and don’t know a soul. But…my experiences with the NHS have been phenomenal, I must say, as they fixed him up, restored him to his right mind and we’ve been having a quite lovely time since. I could really use a good gallop on a horse, though!
I was wondering if they would cancel it with all the rain. Me heart goes out to the farmers in the southwest, just terrible. And of course much more important than whether or not I get to see the event…I will be fine but my dad is a farmer back home and I know how devastating years like this can be for small family farms.[/QUOTE]
