Former worldwide showjumper turned horse producer Rowland Fernyhough shares his ideas on the “mockery” of HOYS qualification and suggests a doable answer…
As I see it, the qualifiers for Horse of the 12 months Present (HOYS) are an open invitation for folks to control the system.
The newcomers, Foxhunter, grade C and expertise seekers finals are essentially aimed on the similar cohort of younger horses. However regardless of this, all ages of horse are permitted in all of these finals.
If the foundations restricted the newcomers to seven-year-olds and below and Foxhunter to eight-year-olds and below, it could at the very least convey the courses someplace in line.
It will additionally assist to cease horses who’ve competed as much as CSI2* overseas however don’t have the winnings on their data, which is making a mockery of the system.
Presently, superior eventers are even eligible – it’s treading on a number of younger horses and giving them no likelihood.
The timescales for qualifying are additionally too lengthy, which means that some horses have gotten their double clears 18 months earlier and are method forward of the category.
Once you issue within the top of the fences within the second rounds, you find yourself with a contest that bears no resemblance to the spirit of newcomers and Foxhunter courses.
The format of the second rounds additionally makes little sense. It’s pointless to have three rounds when it nonetheless turns right into a gallop to qualify. There are sometimes 100-plus within the class competing for 2 HOYS tickets, which may take greater than 5 hours to guage.
How is it truthful on the horses? And if horses have to leap a newcomers and a Foxhunter second spherical, and perhaps even a expertise seekers on the similar present, that’s eight rounds, which is an excessive amount of.
HOYS qualifiers: a possible answer
Qualifiers ought to be lower to 2 rounds however with the numbers restricted by permitting horses one try at qualifying, as a substitute of 4, with three tickets obtainable at every regional.
Three of the finals at HOYS are held over simply two days, which can be asking an excessive amount of of younger horses who’ve certified for a number of championships.
As well as, I don’t consider that the expertise seekers and Foxhunter finals ought to be 9pm main-draw courses; they by no means had been in my day.
As for the grade C ultimate, ought to it actually have a place at HOYS? We see a number of older horses in each this class and the expertise seekers.
If a 12-year-old horse nonetheless isn’t grade A, they’re both not a really proficient horse or our factors system is relatively flawed.
Why not exchange the grade C and expertise seekers with a county present sequence for grade As, the place three horses qualify for HOYS instantly, making a ultimate made up of 24 horses?
I feel that this may assist to rejuvenate the county present circuit and improve the possibilities of getting extra horse and rider combos prepared for Nations Cup contests and grands prix.
Good horses are being produced
The gold and stairway leagues are a path to the worldwide courses at HOYS however the numbers that really get to leap are miniscule. I consider that cash put into this sequence and subsidising appropriate combos to go overseas could be a greater use of this funding.
Good horses are being produced on this nation, however that is regardless of the system not due to it. We have to have a system in place that improves the requirements, relatively than lowers them.
● What do you consider Rowland Fernyhough’s options? Tell us at hhletters@futurenet.com, together with your title, nearest city and county, for the possibility to your letter to look in a forthcoming problem of the journal
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