It was really odd having Evergreen somewhere new! What did you all think of the new location? Did anyone show there?
Sadly there was a pony who escaped the braiders and the property and was hit by a car over the weekend. Sad deal and hopefully they will fully secure everything in the future if that’s possible.
Went to the Grand Prix on Saturday night. I wasn’t really impressed with the new venue. Parking was horrible and it was VERY dusty. Maybe I am just old and grouchy, but I loved the show at Carnation. It was sad to see the big jumpers and hunters on sand when they had all that lovely grass available for use.
I head about the pony, so sad for everyone involved. 
I agree about the dust, we were constantly watering our barn aisle to try and keep it manageable.
for those of us out of the loop, where was it. Use to be the EC was well publicized in the mainstream press.
The sign for the old Carnation venue is still along the main road.
you can file a report / evaluation with the usef
https://www.usef.org/documents/competitions/CompEvalForm.pdf
[QUOTE=kbrethauer;7708050]
Went to the Grand Prix on Saturday night. I wasn’t really impressed with the new venue. Parking was horrible and it was VERY dusty. Maybe I am just old and grouchy, but I loved the show at Carnation. It was sad to see the big jumpers and hunters on sand when they had all that lovely grass available for use.[/QUOTE]
Ah the footing at carnation was atrocious. I miss the old days when it was in Marrymore park.
I heard some really positive things about the new venue and some bad. All in all it is a learning experience for everyone the first few years at a brand new location. I agree it would have been nice to see everyone on grass, but the cost to make a grass ring sutible for the big jumpers is significantly more then the cost of sand footing.
I loved the new facility despite the feeling of living in a construction zone. I hope they make all the rings all weather footing. Grass is pretty but expensive to maintain and expensive to show on. The view from the hillside of the gran prix was amazing. Very sad about the pony. My hope is that they make a covered arena or two and B and C shows can be held there in the off season. It is nice to imagine that NW can have a facility that rivals Thunderbird so we don’t have to fight the border folks to get in or out!
I remember the Classic when it was at Gold Creek Park. The first one was seating in your car at ringside. I didn’t like it at Marymoor. The footing was hard as a rock, and it echoed as the horses cantered along, and the stabling was so incredibly tight you were on top of each other. Carnation was lovely.
I went out to the Gran Prix to watch, and later talked to people who had showed there over the week. Basic consensus was that the venue will be terrific when it is done. It’s going to be huge, and really beautiful. This year it was just a taste of what is too come. They maybe should have waited a year in hindsight.
A friend reminded me that they showed in one of the first shows when Thunderbird introduced its new location, and it rained continuously. The footing was terrible, and the venue wasn’t even to a point where it had any shelter, and the judges judged from a car parked on the berm, with the windshield wipers going so they could see the horses! Now look at it! It’s a terrific place to show.
Things improve. The owners of the Carnation site are putting in the new one. It should be spectacular when it’s done.
I didn’t make it to Evergreen this year (still waiting to have them put my division back in), but everything I’ve heard from friends who went has been positive regarding the facility. The general consensus seems to be that it’s going to be a fantastic show park when they’re done (or even just further along). I would love to have the option to not cross the border to get to big classes for at least a few months out of the year.
The footing in Carnation was terrible. Came home from the GP ring last year with two horses with extremely bruised feet. One with full pads and silicone packing, the other unfortunately not padded (though it clearly didn’t help my GP horse). To be fair to the show, I don’t think anyone expected 2 months of zero rain prior to the show. But even during the show in the years prior, the footing was all over the place and inconsistent at best. And Marymoor was a convenient location, but the footing was never quite right there either.
I think grass is extremely difficult to do unless you’re a facility like Thunderbird where you run year round shows and can afford to do what they’ve done. And from everything I’ve heard, that sounds like the plan moving forward. And I have to say that if I’d realized they were running the GP ring on the all-weather footing, I would have given some consideration to skipping a week of Tbird to do Evergreen instead. I like the consistency of footing a lot more than the inconsistency of grass in this area (Tbird aside).
My heart goes out to the owners of the pony. What a horrible and tragic accident. It’s one of my biggest fears at many of our show locations.
[QUOTE=Jazzy’s mom;7707797]
Sadly there was a pony who escaped the braiders and the property and was hit by a car over the weekend. Sad deal and hopefully they will fully secure everything in the future if that’s possible.[/QUOTE]
Incredibly sad about the pony. He had an adorable rider taking care of him all week. It got out of its stall, not away from the braiders. I was stabled literally next to the kid.
[QUOTE=LovesHorses;7708977]
Incredibly sad about the pony. He had an adorable rider taking care of him all week. It got out of its stall, not away from the braiders. I was stabled literally next to the kid.[/QUOTE]
That is what I heard as well. Do you know if the pony was hit on SR 522, or the road right in front of the show grounds? I was told 522 and I can’t see how that is possible.
[QUOTE=Jazzy’s mom;7707797]
Sadly there was a pony who escaped the braiders and the property and was hit by a car over the weekend. Sad deal and hopefully they will fully secure everything in the future if that’s possible.[/QUOTE]
How awful!!!
I don’t think anyone expected 2 months of zero rain prior to the show
cant imagine why since anyone familiar with Puget Sound Country knows that our dry season is Mid-may through September.
You cannot throw water on turf 2 weeks prior and expect it to have any resilience or ability to hold up. Good grass footing is a year round proposition.
[QUOTE=Jazzy’s mom;7707797]
Sadly there was a pony who escaped the braiders
The pony didn’t escape the braiders, it got out of its stall, had nothing to do with braiders. Very sad thing to happen.
The pony was hit on 522, a fair ways towards Monroe, almost to Fred Meyer. Gigi and her family are great people and the pony was the sweetest.
My horse was showing there this week, and while he did okay (was tired and hot by the end of it) some of the other ones in the barn did get quite footsore. You could definitely feel and hear horses cantering by.
The hillside for watching the GP was fantastic. The setting is great and when it is done we will hopefully have another great show venue in our area!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=734331691739&l=11067f0bd6
showed all week
We were there all week with 7 horses showing in multiple rings. The GP ring is not sand, it looked and rode like GGT footing with sand. Two of the horses showed all week in the GP ring and were happy. It did improve when they started rolling it each day. The grass rings were okay, some held up better than others. The low jumper ring was a mess by Friday night, so management moved the entire ring to new grass. Biggest complaint was the lack of shade for spectators and exhibitors in the extreme heat (for WA) and the dust. The water truck came by several times a day to keep the dust down - nice effort. The worst was the footing in the barn aisles, chopped/mashed asphalt.
As said already, if the developers do not run out of money, it will be a terrific facility. They tried very hard to handle all the problems that come up at a new venue. I wish them the best - we need this facility in the NW.
