International showjumper Carmen Edwards comes from a multi-generational showjumping family and runs Shropshire-based Edwards Equestrian with his younger brother Will. He has produced a string of exciting horses, including his Bolesworth two-star grand prix winner, Happy Valerie. He shares his opinion on how Britain’s show system is stuck in the past...
We are sticking too rigidly to tradition in the UK and falling short when it comes to making the best of our show system – for either competitors or spectators.
Graham Fletcher pitched some great ideas recently on ways we can revitalise our sport for spectators, such as having a GB versus Ireland “battle”.
These are the kinds of ideas showjumping needs to move forwards, but we’re facing organisation that is resisting change. For me, there should be far greater coherence in our system of qualifiers and finals.
Why do we jump our Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) qualifiers outside, have to jump an open water then have to jump indoors at the final? Then have indoor qualifiers to jump outdoors at Hickstead? It probably made sense once, in the era before surfaces were the norm, but does it any more?
You wouldn’t catch a five-star rider jumping a World Cup qualifier to jump at Aachen. The Nations Cup Final isn’t held indoors. Sometimes you need different horses to do those different jobs.
Is it productive to train young horses in an open space all summer and then expect them to deal with flashing boards and the intense atmosphere of a major indoor show when they are not acclimatised to it? I love HOYS, but we do seem railroaded by history and I think that we need to move with the times.
Change is needed
Our calendar also has too many championships on offer and I think they are becoming meaningless.
Our national championships are our biggest disappointment. You become national champion and go to HOYS, a three-star show. Why can’t the winner have a crack at Hickstead’s King George, or even a golden ticket for all of the four- and five-star international grands prix on British soil?
Other European nations’ national championships have far more prestige. France’s is at Fontainebleau, Germany’s riders get to go to Aachen and Belgium’s national championships are combined with the World Young Horse Championship. FEI Sires of the World is there as well, bringing added attention and attraction. They’re shows people want to win.
Our winter classics are also well organised but lacking clarity. Why is there no meaningful end-of-series final for the grand prix?
The county circuit could also do with a shake-up, including renaming area trials – the classes haven’t lost their way, but the title is old-fashioned. The only county classes that have retained their prestige are the Cock O’ The North and the Royal Highland grand prix.
Why not cut the 21 area trials down to eight with £10,000 to the winner each time? The public can’t really relate to the current system; they need a clearer way of understanding who is “the best” each day of a show.
Ambition needed and new ideas
It’s not too long ago that everyone considered Nations Cups to be the pinnacle, but Jan Tops changed all that in founding the Global Champions Tour (GCT). Because of my upbringing, I would always prefer to jump a Nations Cup at Aachen or Calgary than a GCT, but ask many younger riders and it’s the podium of a GCT grand prix they’d want to be on.
There were times Jan was booed for it, but you have to acknowledge that he moved the sport on to another level and it’s the type of ambition our national sport should model.
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