For most of us we cruise the papers, see an advert for an event, send away for the schedule, enter and pitch up on the morning after receiving our start time. Easy? Yes for the rider.

Northern Equestrian, based at Richmond Equestrian Centre (REC), held its first affiliated one-day event of the season on May 14-15. More than 600 riders filled in schedules for this impressive event, which attracted riders of all levels with various classes held. The Novice and Pre-Novice were divided into three sections with 294 competitors entered on the Saturday. Sunday saw the Intro and another Pre-Novice class with a further 341 riders. There is always the non-turn up contingent at any event, but this seemed to be covered by the late entries at REC.

Stephen Place the owner of Northern Equestrian and event organiser asked for my help with cross country (XC) fence judging, which I was glad to give. This was the eye opener I needed for the background work required to organise such a large-scale event. Experienced British Eventing Technical Advisor Janet Plant advised 42 fence judge volunteers at a briefing held at 8.30am on Saturday. One of her duties was to make sure that we knew what we were doing. Experience showed, we all came out confident with the task ahead of us.

More than 30 official organisers were called upon to get this event off the ground, that is not too mention the vast legion of other people, including the Cleveland Army Cadet Force whose job was traffic flow, and show jumping assistants. Special thanks go to my stepfather Lt Col Christopher Jarvis and to Capt Steve Foster, without whom the cadets would have never made it for the day and whose presence was invaluable, and to every person who helped - too many to mention.

Every XC fence had a sponsor and two judges, some armed with a CB radio directed to the commentary box and Andrew Spalding, the XC controller for the weekend, to relay course activity for him to keep flow of horses steady.

The XC course, designed and built by Bill Watt, proved to be a challenge to some riders, particularly in the novice class - the largest of all the classes - with some eventful happenings. Fence five, the boat house, caught out many riders and quite a few fallers.

For a beautiful straight forward fence I came away thinking that some of the riders who entered the Novice section should really practise more Pre-Novice events first. As I was told, there is no disgrace in dropping to Pre Novice or Intro for the sake of your horse, to gain both his and the rider's confidence.

Eleven dressage judges including Northern Horse's Penny Marriner, started the riders on their way for the day under the eyes of Chief Dressage Steward Fran Blane, before they headed out to the show jumping ring held in the Olympic-sized outdoor arena, which was officiated by an army of volunteers. The great course, built and judged by Keith McVittie, proved to be no problem for most competitors, warming them up nicely for the XC task ahead of them.

Stephen Place had a busy weekend ensuring the event was running smoothly. He said: "I have been eventing for more than 15 years myself, but organising an event is a very daunting task, although it is fantastic to put something back into the sport that I have enjoyed for so long.

"I can't thank Susan Foster and Judith Hodgeson enough; they did so much to help me make the weekend a success. It is very difficult to sit there and not be able to compete myself, but my hat goes off to all those who did and I hope they all had a very enjoyable day. There will be changes on August 20-21 for the next event at certain fences, and we hope to see as many competitors return for another great weekend."

The weather had been very kind for both days. For once the going was good with no rain to spoil the ground or day. Events like this prove that eventing demand is as strong as ever, and if Stephen can produce such a high quality weekend, his future as an event organiser is very rosy indeed.

Published: 03/06/2005