Personal notes: Royal County of Berkshire's tough competition and a cold wind!

Tina Fletcher and Hello Sailor
win the BS Business Partnership
International Stairway final

The last county show of 2010, is the summer really over already? Judging by the cold wind blowing at Royal County of Berkshire and the requirements to pile on the layers, I'd say so.

At the show, which I was covering for Horse & Hound, both Steve Williams' BS Business Partnership International Stairway and Rivar Ltd Area Trial tracks were a tough test on those tackling these final competitions of the season.

The big-jumping tightly-timed courses looked nothing to Tina Fetcher and Lady Harris' Hello Sailor, who jumped them both with ease. They won with the fastest double clear in the trial, just nicking 0.03sec from Tracey Priest and Calle, who spectators would have been forgiven for thinking they had in the bag after their fast, foot perfect round. But, Hello Sailor has a massive stride and was able to cover the ground just that bit more quickly.

Tracey Priest and Calle, runners up
in the Rivart Ltd area trial

After winning the trial on the first day, Tina had decided to jump her Alltech WEG partner in the Stairway as Lord and Lady Harris were visiting, along with their grandson Phil Sadler, again putting in an effortless performance. A good send-off before the gelding flies out to WEG on 26 September.

Seven of the 17-starters in the Stairway were either eliminated or retired. However, chatting to the course designer afterwards he told me: "It worked out as I thought it would. While it was not ideal [that so many struggled] it was a true test for this final."I believe in building courses that create forward movement which can be progressed on through a course. The time was tight, but only if the horses weren't going forward all the way round."

Lance Whitehouse and Transmission,
runners up in the Stairway

Lance Whitehouse seems to be getting on very well with Transmission and finished runner-up in the Stairway. He was the only other rider to finish without touching a pole, but gained a total of five time faults to Tina's two.

Two wins and strong performances during the season with Opportunity B gained Helen Tredwell the BS Buisness Partnerhsip International Stairway League title and £10,000 worth of ranking points, while Phillip Miller's good results in the series with Univeau gained him a HOYS wildcard.

Unfortunately, I witnessed one rider's connections being rather rude to Angie Murray of Silk and Stem, who was acting as collecting ring steward for the main arena. He had blamed the knocking down of fences in the six-bar by his associated horse on the fact that the next riders were being asked to enter the arena as the preceding one was jumping, the same as it had been for all in the class. He decided to take out his disappointment on poor Angie.

My question to this gentleman would be "what would have happened if the horse had made round three when the entire remaining field were not only in the ring, but working in over a fence right next to the line of jumps?"

Fortunately Angie is a tough lady and took it in her stride, but that's no reason for it to have happened. On the whole, competitors are generally polite to stewards, many of whom are receiving little on no financial reward for their time. But, all it takes is for a few raised voices or snide comments to make a steward question why they do it. When things like this happen, is it any wonder they are so hard to find?

I think a fitting punishment for persistent offenders would be for them to steward a numbers on the board 150-starter class, in the rain with no relief for a loo or tea break, and 150 grooms/riders/connections asking the same questions repeatedly for hours, as most of our well-seasoned stewards are more than used to and still manage to raise a smile.

Show jumpers heading to the ring

With a busy timetable in the main ring, Angie Murray was having to make sure the collecting ring was clear before the show jumper came up their walkway. The system worked well and prevented carriages, hounds, motorbikes and the jumping beasts from becoming embroiled in a collecting ring catastrophe. However, they did look rather like a wild west posse as they travelled up to the ring en masse.

I stayed to collect the results for the back ring and the weather continued to get colder, winder and colder. Although it was sad to say goodbye to the county circuit for another year, I couldn't have got back to my car quicker and looking at the weather forecast, I'm rather pleased my next outing to Arena UK will be mostly indoors!