Oliver Townend: ‘What the sport of eventing needs to thrive’

Oliver Townend shares his thoughts on collecting rings, a new owner’s award and prize money in eventing

When you’ve made your living in a sport for 25 years, it is easy to take aspects of it for granted. But sometimes I am shocked by the incredible venues we have in eventing, and am reminded how lucky I am to be part of it.

The area in which I grew up had nothing like that, and it is only because of horses and eventing that I have had the chance to see these amazing places.

I’ve been to some brilliant events recently, from Cornbury Park to Allerton Park and Little Downham. I haven’t been to Allerton for more than 10 years, and it was good to relearn what a fantastic place it is. It has space, varied terrain and is well suited to be a top-level one-day event. It needs supporting – and a date that doesn’t clash with Blenheim.

My novice and BE100 horses will have come on so much from their experience of the terrain and the surroundings – it made me realise how little of that sort of thing they have seen, and how different Allerton is to many modern one-days. It is a great shame it no longer has a national advanced class – I don’t know whether this would suit the landowners and organisers or not, but what about giving it Chatsworth’s date and having a four-star there?

Cornbury had the atmosphere in the evening that good events used to have, with everyone socialising together in a relaxed way, which is something that has been lost from the sport for some time.

Allerton, Cornbury and Little Downham all had something different to offer in the calendar, and had good entries. Eventing definitely can work, but at the moment there is a hugely unsettled feeling throughout the whole community. Events are dropping like flies, and the atmosphere between riders and volunteers, for example, isn’t as good as it should be.

Something that must be sorted is showjumping collecting rings. We are so lucky to have some amazing people who regularly volunteer to run these tricky parts of an event, and they know what system works best at most venues. But British Eventing’s guidelines advise keeping to given times – which just doesn’t work.

You only need one person to have a puncture or one dressage judge to be late and the whole thing is thrown off balance and results in a very frustrated volunteer shouting for numbers that aren’t there and an awful lot of tension.

What works is writing your number down when you get there, with a space every five horses for riders with three or more horses. This allows riders with multiple horses to get through their day more efficiently and means that amateurs know they will have five, a maximum of six, horses until their round. For everyone’s sake, this needs to be the system used everywhere.

A leading owner’s prize

Why don’t we have a leading owner’s prize? Let’s reward and champion this vital group and give them something to compete for. Nobody has a problem with JP McManus being leading National Hunt owner most years, because everyone in racing understands how lucky the sport is to have him.

We are regularly losing owners to the likes of racing and showjumping, and we need to give them something to keep them interested. It doesn’t have to involve huge sums of money, but surely a really nice trophy, a magnum of champagne and a sponsored holiday isn’t that hard to organise?

Up the money

I’m becoming increasingly embarrassed by the prize money that is displayed on the likes of EventingScores with the final results of each event. It’s no good anymore saying that we just don’t have the sponsors – we have to think outside the box.

Eventing is already too expensive, but no one questions the addition of a start fee or abandonment fund fee. So why don’t we have a prize-money fund, where £10 or £20 is added to the entry fee for every class? This fund might need to run for a season to gain momentum before it starts paying out, and we need transparency as to how much is in it. It’s got to be worth a discussion, surely?

● How do you think prize money should be funded? Write to hhletters@futurenet.com, including your name, nearest town and country, for the chance for your letter to appear in a forthcoming issue of the magazine

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