CLICK HERE for recent team photos.
Scroll down for information about what team competitions there are.
Team Managers
Rachel Dyer (dresage) for Team Managers see Contact page or
Emma Thomson (jumping) email hawleyridingclub@hotmail.co.uk
Charlie Perks (jumping)
The Riding Club year now runs from January to December and you can only compete for one per winter/summer season and then for the next twelve months.
Teams
Hawley pay half of all team entry fees.
You may not be aware, but when entering team events, team managers have to submit a preliminary fee to Stoneleigh (Riding Clubs headquarters) stating how many teams/individuals they are planning to enter. This deadline is nearly a month prior to the competition. Once this is done, we are bound to pay the show organisers for those entry fees whether or not we eventually run that number of teams.
Therefore we are asking team members to think carefully about the level at which you wish to compete, and the date in question, BEFORE confirming your interest to team managers. We all have last minute lameness /illness/lorry disasters, but Hawley will take a dim view of team members who drop out at the last minute simply due to lack of planning, leaving the Club to pay for their entry. This also lets down remaining team members and deprives others of the chance to compete. If you make a habit of this, we are sorry but you will not be asked to compete for Hawley again.
Rough costs of each team competition are on the downloadable fixture list. Amounts shown are after deducting the half Hawley pays. Costs cannot be fully accurate as we often get the schedules late in the day.
Did you know...?
Your horse's vaccination history will be checked back to when he had his last course of primary injections - NOT just his annuals. If he's missed one by even one day since then, you'll have to start again.
Did you know...?
If you qualify at an Area Qualifier, British Riding Clubs can fine or ban you from future competitions if you fail to turn up to compete at the Championships!
Competitions in Brief
Keep an eye on these pages as there are numerous team competitions including the below main ones:
Festival of the Hunter
This includes hunter trials/showing classes and the final in June at Aston-le-Walls. There are no showing qualifiers, you enter the Championship directly. Please contact team managers for details of classes but they include Show Hunter, Working Hunter etc. The hunter trials this year are changing format and will be run as a Challenge: a round of showjumps and straight onto the cross-country. There will be a separate combined training competition.
Dressage
The Area Qualifiers are usually in June and the highest placed teams and individuals qualify for the Riding Club Championships. These are held at Lincoln Showground on the first weekend in September. There are Novice teams (who ride prelim tests) and Open (a range from prelim - elementary). Run alongside this qualifier is the London & Southeast championship which is Prelim in the qualifier and Novice in the final (held in October). There is also a "Rural Riders" competition which involves six riders in the dressage arena at once! As well as Dressage to Music and a new Winter Qualifier on 18th January 2009 - register your interest for this now!
Eventing
There are Novice, Intermediate and Open competitions which are run under one-day-event rules. The Championships are at Offchurch Bury in Warwickshire in August. This is run on a two-day format for Novice and Intermediate and three-day for Open. The London and Southeast is a smaller local competition with a qualifier in August at 2ft6-2ft9 and the Championships in October. There may be one or two showjumps higher than the heights shown below, but I have also given an idea of how the levels compare to BE from previous years' experience.
Novice height is 85cm (2ft9) - just under BE Intro standard
Intermediate height is 1m (3ft3) - just under BE100 standard
Open height is 1.10m (3ft7) - usually somewhere between BE100 and BE Novice
Be aware the Championships are usually bigger than the qualifier.
Show-jumping
This follows the same format as the dressage, with qualifiers in June and the Championships at Lincoln in September. There may be one or two fences slightly over the heights specified.
Novice height is 80cm in first round (2ft6)
Intermediate height is 95cm in first round (3ft)
Open height is 1.10m in first round (3ft7) - from experience the first round is usually quite kind and more like 3ft3-4.
There is also a Teams-of-Three competition held at Hickstead in July. One team member competes at each height - Novice, Intermediate, Open (which is 1.10m). There is also an Indoor Showjumping competition for Novice teams in February 2009 - to qualify for a final at Hartpury in April.
In 2007 we also sent a team to the Blenheim Horse Trials Showjumping on 6th September which will be a Derby this year.
The important stuff - Money and vaccinations!
Members are only asked to pay half of the Organisers' fees for team events - the Club will pay for the Riding Club fees (we have to pay BRC at Stoneleigh for every team we enter). However, for anyone who qualifies for the Championships, we will pay your entry fee and assist you in whatever way needed, including finding you sponsorship for transportation/stabling costs.
In return, we do ask that members make a commitment to attend the Championships if they qualify, as it can be disappointing for the other members of the team. More to the point, British Riding Clubs can take action against any member failing to attend the Championships by banning them from competing in the future!
Finally, it is your own responsibility to ensure that your horse is vaccinated in line with FEI/Riding Club rules AND that both horse/rider are eligible for the relevant competition. Vaccination rules are not easy and are available on the Membership Info section of this site.
