Skipton (2) Horse Trials

Here's the first of my entries on the events that I've been going to in order to practice the equestrian side of my photography.

I went over the Skipton on Saturday for the horse trials there.  They were running BE100 and BE90 events on the Saturday.  It was a lovely event, with a really nice atmosphere, and well organised.  It was lovely to see a lot of spectators there, and the organisers making the weekend into a real local event.

As usual at the one day events I got a look at all three elements of the sport; dressage, show jumping and cross country.

The cross country is possibly the element that most people are familiar with, and that which is associated most with eventing.  I thought that the course at Skipton was lovely to watch (not being a good enough rider to even consider riding a cross country course, I'm not qualified to comment on that!); it made good use of the farmland that it was set into, with the competitors crossing through wooded areas, water, and through exisiting gates.  There was a big hill towards the middle of the course as well, and if you were to stand at the top of it you could see a lot of the course.

The only problem came when I was sitting on the ground at fence 13 in the afternoon - I was waitng to try and get a shot of the next competitor going over the fence, and all of a sudden they came absolutely charging through the gate at a massively high speed!  There were no strings to mark the course at this point, and as I was sitting down I was feeling particularily small and vulnerable to being trampled on!  The way of the course meant that the horse looked at me as it came through the gate, and seemed to be coming right for me, before straightening up and getting over the jump.  There was a very scary moment though where I thought the rider wasn't going to be able to turn him, and he was going to end up on top of me!  They did get over the jump, though.  Even the fence judges remarked on how fast they were going though!  I did manage to get a shot (just!), but it wasn't my favourite, so I have used it to play around with a silhouette idea...

So that was this week's event. I'm kind of planning on heading off to Hartpury next Sunday for the international eventing there, but that trip is dependent on a few factors, because it is based around 2 and a half hours drive from where I live.