Don’t miss out. See you in Cardiff!

Wow, what a frantic few weeks. Forgive the silence, but I’ve been full on with all the arrangements for Sunday. The good news is that we’re in great shape and you can be sure of a terrific competition. Our riders are really up for it and I know it’s going to be an intense battle for first place. If you haven’t bought your tickets yet, it’s not too late, but you’ll need to get them in person from the ticket office – just click on the ‘Buy tickets” link on our home page for details. Don’t miss out. See you in Cardiff!

I have now discovered what happens if you put your brain in a microwave! There is action now on every front, I think that it is all now down to detail, but have we got time to cross all the 't's?

We had a really good meeting with BETA yesterday, I am really excited about developing this partnership going forward. We will be working with them to deliver a trade stand area at Cardiff this year. Looking forward I am sure that together we can do some really exciting things promoting British Trade abroad and at home.

The trade area at Cardiff will be on the lower tier so that stall holders will be able to see the action from their stands! It will be a bit like being around the main arena at a big show! Plus when shopping you will be able to keep an eye on the action. We look forward to some great stands and we are even looking at a Christmas market to do your shopping!

Next week I have Pierre Michelet and Di Boddy coming over again to have a final plan for the course. It will be critical that we get this 100% right as we have such a short time to put it all in. I really look forward to seeing it laid out. before they come I will have to do a lot of painting!

This weekend we have a stand at Your Horse Live, do come an visit us and see the new MUSTO outfits. we will also have some merchandise on display. There will also be a chance for you to buy tickets on the stand, I think there will be some great deals to be had.....do pop in to see all the news. I think that I have been summoned to help on the stand on Saturday, I look forward to telling people about this event.

I seem to have run out of time to add last week. With all the excitement around it is difficult to find time to add to this blog. I spent two days at Cardiff sorting through TV and logistics. I have had the first draft of the story board through for the titles of the TV programme. It certainly looks the part, very up to date and carries through the great colours of the logo.

This week looks to be painting week for all the jumps. The rain is not helping much, but we will get them all under cover and set about a mass paint. We have built the podiums for the judges, so now need to sort logos etc for them.

It was very exciting to announce that Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and Arlene Phillips are to come and help with the judging of the dressage. They will certainly bring a new element to the judging, Andrew with his musical background and Arlene with her dancing credentials and her thoughts on the choreography.

Lots more press to announce in the coming weeks, keep your ears and eyes on the web site so that you stay abreast with all the announcements!

Meetings tomorrow regarding Health and safety. In this world that we live in we have to ensure that all boxes are ticked. This is not a side that I enjoy, however we must not avoid it. It will be the first visit of the H&S steward, I am sure that it will be OK, but we will need to walk through all the days activities.

It will be simpler than a normal event as the space is so compact. There will only ever be one horse competing at a time so will not have to worry about all the different phases, however it is a very different situation. The warm up areas are all below the stadium, one is outside adjacent to the stables, but the final warm up area is actually beneath the stadium.

We have to ensure that there is adequate access for all emergency services at all times. The trot up will happen in the bus lanes under the stadium, and the stabling will be situated where the lights for the pitch are normally stored. The team at the stadium are being great about us taking over the place, they could not be more accommodating. However, every so often they raise their eyebrows at some of my requests!

I also have a meeting with the TV production crew. They would like me to put out electric posts on the pitch for all the jumps. I think with the new relay this week it might be pushing it, but we will see. I hope by tomorrow night I will be more up to speed with some of the technical areas that we have on the list to cover. I know that they want to install a time delay camera so that they can track the transformation of the stadium from a rugby pitch to an event course in the space of 10 hours. It will make for very interesting viewing I am sure!

We have just finished all the new jumps for Cardiff. It has been quite a marathon to get a whole course built from scratch although I have yet to see the bank as this is being built elsewhere.

Fixing these to the ground has been a difficult operation as the pitch at Cardiff is all palletised so we are unable to use spirafix screws. There was a lot of discussion but we have now decided on a solution. All the jumps are built with a pipe inside them, which once filled will weigh between 800 and 1000kg. When in position we will fix a metal 'rake' like fixing on the side to stop them sliding. They will then become very solid.

It will mean that there is another job to be done on the Saturday evening, someone will have to go around filling all the pipes, however there is a good fire hose handy!!

The next job will be to paint them all. We have a final practice run on the 13th when Pierre will fly across to finalise the exact position. We will then grid reference the area so that on the Saturday evening it will be very easy to pin point the fence positions quickly.

I am off to the stadium for two days this week to discuss TV and logistics. We are very excited about the TV production, the feedback from Sport tel at Monte Carlo was good. We had someone out there selling the event to channels all around the world. It appears that we will have very good coverage. The aim will be to get coverage from London to Cape Town and Melbourne to Beijing!

Later in the week it will be logistic planning, a day meeting to pull together the plans for the day. It will then become very real as we will be into the last 30 days.

You need to get your tickets booked as this is going to be a really big day

Well if activity is a sign of a successful event then this is going to be huge. Our office seems to be running hard with phone calls emails and correspondence. I think that it is all is really starting to take shape.



I am now in the middle of writing confirmation letters to all the officials who are coming to help, trying to explain to them their roles and tasks. It is really quite difficult as there is no blueprint for this event, as it has not run before so it is all very, very new. What is making it more exciting is the fact that we have only one night to convert the stadium from a rugby pitch to an event course.



I hear on the radio that they are having to relay the pitch because of the problems they are having! They haven't seen anything yet! I was at the stadium just after the Welsh International Football and all the controversy surrounding it then. I said to the stadium manager that I was surprised that he had not said to the press that the pitch was in great shape compared to what it would look like on the 1st December!



It is so lucky that the pitch can be replaced as easily as it can. What a wonderful venue.

Rider's Galore

I am just on my way home from an exciting day in London. We had invited many of the Express Eventing riders to a briefing and photo shoot. I am sure that the inhabitants of 80 Victoria Street were very surprised to see the world’s top riders populating the foyer at lunch time in their boots, breeches and hats...it certainly held up passers by!



Looking around the room I realised what a fantastic group of riders we have coming to compete, I do not know when there was such a formidable group last competing in the UK. There were European, Olympic and World Medalists, winners of Badminton, Burghley and Kentucky, plus World Cup winners and the leading riders, on the FEI rankings, on several occasions. It will be such a fantastic opportunity to see all these riders competing, especially when you can see them over every jump from one seat.

The big excitement was the announcement that Tina Cook will be competing at the event. I have always been a big supporter of Tina, her performance in Hong Kong was fantastic. We are really excited to have her riding; I wonder which horse she will choose?

The photo call was fun. The photographer got all the riders lined up on the stairs, started clicking away only to have Vittoria, who had got lost in the upper reaches of Cardinal Place, arrive and force a re shoot!



I am sure that you will have seen the photos in The Times and The Telegraph, it was great fun, and the riders all entered into the spirit of things. I hope that they are now starting to get the feel that this event is happening very soon. We have a determination to create a greater awareness of the sport, pitch it into the regions of other leading sports, and create an excitement and desire to be part of this new format. We have riders that work each and every day striving to be the best in the world, however when they get there quite often they find that there is little recognition of their achievements. We hope to be able to start to change this.

Why should the leading footballers, cricketers or tennis players receive such acclaim when in this sport riders put their lives on the line and get almost no recognition? We need to create some personalities, let the public know what and who they really are, this way we will start to create a real following.

Photos done it was time to meet the press, The Telegraph and The Independent along with the Horse and Hound were there to ask questions, find out more of what was to happen.

On the way home I reflected just what we were trying to achieve, one of our goals is to create better awareness for Eventing and bring the sport to the people instead of taking people to the sport. We expect people to get in a car, drive out of town, park in a field and walk miles around a field to see a horse jump a fence every 4 minutes....in Cardiff we offer everyone the chance to see all from one seat, under a roof, and in the dry! I think that today we made a big step forward, it is a long time since the sport had a full page in The Telegraph (launch day) and a half page in The Times (today) for the right reasons.