Once again an amazing experience at Blenheim Horse Trials. Something for everyone. Both 4*L and 4*S provided great competitions with plenty of well known names taking part. Well run and the XC course looked fantastic. My only slight niggle is a lack of any sort of seating round the Bladon and Hensington rings.
Wonderful day
Much improved
Better catering choices
Printed programs
It’s a shame the screen in the pavilion was not switched on until later. Otherwise most enjoyable
Great time but a shame there was only one screen and you couldn’t hear any commentary, no tannoy near and the dog agility, which was great fun, had an extremely loud commentary!
The disabled viewing was taken over by able bodied when it rained
Great event , wonderful team throughout the event and hospitality , large variety of refreshment stands and shopping to enjoy all the ones we visited were staffed by pleasant knowledgeable staff. Easy access and egress from the venue. In the hospitality we missed the all day tea and coffee, the round tables (we had a party of 7 so round is better) and less importantly but nevertheless still noticeable the complementary glass of bubbles when we arrived, all of which make a great day fantastic as it has been in previous years.
Overall a great event, exciting cross country and show jumping but marred for me by the lack of information. No programs were available , very few maps sited around the site and everything processed through the app. or spectators having to take photos on their phones of the running order and map of the course. Spectators should have had warnings to make sure phones were well charged before coming as it was very easy to run out of battery before the day was out! Thought it was all a little amateurish, sorry, not what I expected from an event such as Blenheim Horse Trials.
Really like this event - used to love it when it was smaller and less commercial but I suppose it has to move with the times .... and make a profit in order to continue. Generally, a really friendly event, although one of the male car park attendants has no common sense - making my son in law (on crutches, with a broken, newly operated on leg) go to the bottom of the disabled car park with a fair old way to hop rather than letting us park nearer the mobility scooter side (where other cars were already parked). On the Sunday, a young blond girl, helpfully, actually told us (without asking) to park near the area where you collect mobility scooters and where the little buggies park. Thank goodness for someone with some common sense. Again, relating to mobility issues, the buggies running to and from the car park are great but it would be good if the buggy drivers had a central call system so that you could ask one of them to radio in to send a buggy to someone needing it. (The man I asked was great as he completed the "ferry" he was already doing and then went to collect my son in law (whose arms and hands had become extremely sore! He was waiting at one of the official collection points, but none of the buggies were going there to collect passengers)). It would help if some of the buggies went to the other collection points, not all lining up next to the Pavilion.
I think may be it is good for one of us to have mobility issues on occasions .... we see what other people face on a day to day basis!!!
So ... on the whole, this is a great event with things for the whole family. My grandchildren loved the hawk displays, the Shetland grand national and the Portuguese riders, and I found Jonty's display and story inspirational .... and it is good to see him doing so well.
One small criticism ....PLEASE .... can you ask a "proper" ice cream seller to attend ... the Whippy stuff is terrible! (Glad there are more food sellers than that first year after Covid!!!).
Relaxed atmosphere for dressage; wonderful shopping
Overall the event was very good …
However one or two things in my opinion missing to make the event complete ..
The main item missing was the availability of an event program!
Yes , you tried very hard to make the Blenheim event ‘APP’ workable and give the information. But the lack of signal especially when awY from main arenas/trade stands was no existent! Therefore keeping track of riders etc was impossible.
Ticket purchase in the first instance was easy & website good to follow for booking. However we were sent both printable tickets at ‘home’ and through the post .. making your sustainability options negative!
The tickets we did print at home for the Show Jumping seat allocation .. did NOT have a QR code on them so the stewards
were unable to scan the ticket ? But they did let us in !!
A little more homework needed to iron out these few creases ( especially helpful to those who do not not have phone/ipad/computer usage would be greatly appreciated
Friendly,good shopping, but no programmes expected to get app, not good, couldn’t see it cause too bright and didn’t want to keep staring at my phone,was a print out of running order if you knew where to get it
Super weekend, great staff and service
Been to the horse trials a couple of times and have enjoyed it a lot. Did have good weather both times so I think that helps as it's very open. Only thing I would say is that you don't get entry to the Palace with your ticket and if you want to purchase separately it's an expensive ticket especially for families. Did really enjoy the competition though and facilities were good