What is The Festival?

What is The Festival of British Eventing?

The Festival of British Eventing is one of the toughest one day international events on the circuit. The best of the best compete here, looking through the roll of honour is like a who’s, who of the eventing world.

In 2018, The Festival of British Eventing will hold 5 championship classes, The British Open, Intermediate, Novice, Amateur Novice and new for 2018, the Retraining of Racehorse Championship. There is no other event in the calendar that showcases the sport of eventing better than The Festival of British Eventing.

One Day Eventing Explained…

A One Day Event is just that – it means that each horse and rider combination must complete the 3 phases of the event in one day – Dressage, Show Jumping & Cross Country – although, due to the number of competitors here some competitors will do their dressage one day and the Show Jumping & Cross Country the next.

Dressage Show Jumping Cross Country

Dressage

Dressage is the first discipline that will test the horse and rider’s ability to work together. The test includes a set sequence of movements to be preformed and the combinations are judged on balance, rhythm, suppleness, obedience of the horse and the harmony of the rider throughout the movements.

Movements are scored out of ten with the total being added up and converted to a penalty score meaning the lowest dressage score leads the competition going into show jumping and cross country.

Show Jumping

The second discipline attempted by the combinations is the show jumping phase. It consists of one round of jumping over fences that can be knocked down, the round must be completed within a maximum time allowed. The penalties for show jumping is as follows: 4 faults for a knockdown; 4 faults for a refusal; 3rd refusal means elimination.

Cross Country

The most exciting part of the One Day Event is the cross country where riders must negotiate a course of approximately 30 timber built solid obstacles within an optimum time. Cross Country is designed to test the bravery, stamina, speed and technique. It tests the all round ability of the combination.