Mark Phillips: the importance of developing the next generation

Mark Phillips shares his thoughts on the importance of aiding new officials and a possible chance for young British riders at next year’s Blenheim Europeans

Somehow 2024 seems to have been a long year. Maybe it’s the wettest September followed by incessant showers in October!

After a dry Burghley, the European five-star season finale at Pau was not so lucky, as rain all day Friday and Saturday resulted in the course being shortened to just over nine minutes, with going more often found out hunting than at a five-star.

Many riders were trying to pick the best footing for their horses with an eye on next year, rather than the clock. All credit, though, to Caroline Harris with D. Day, who made light of the conditions.

Back in September, Blenheim was fortunate to dodge enough showers so that it could run. On the Monday afterwards, the lake burst its banks and the “coffin” ditch overflowed. It’s been so wet ever since, the team have not been able to get on the ground to clear up.

It’s fantastic news, though, that Blenheim has been able to negotiate a deal with the FEI to run the European Championships next year.

It is hoped Britain will be able to field eight individuals rather than the usual two, as host nations used to, giving future stars a chance to experience a championship early in their careers. Those eight would be doing their best to make the selectors look stupid by leaving the team riders in their wake!

Next generation

The FEI’s Level 4 programme, to try and ensure the best officials work at the five-stars and championships, has been massively controversial and led to a complete breakdown of communication between the FEI and the International Eventing Officials Club. This seems childish beyond belief and is bound for the Court of Arbitration for Sport, unless someone can bring some common sense to the table.

Much more importantly, the FEI urgently needs to come up with a formula for the future so that many talented younger officials can achieve their Level 4, as currently they are blocked out of the top jobs. It would actually be easier to scrap the Level 4 system altogether, but maybe that would cause too much loss of face.

Every cloud has a silver lining though. Because there are so few Level 4 officials, I’ve been brought in to design the Europeans cross-country course next year alongside the current incumbent at Blenheim, David Evans, who does not have his Level 4.

Increasingly, my role on both sides of the pond is in a course-advisor role, helping younger designers with advanced and four-star courses. Hopefully the Europeans will help me extend that hand further.

Multiple reasons

I felt sorry for Ian Stark with his course-designing swansong at Maryland five-star, where Oliver Townend pulled off an amazing clear showjumping round on the evergreen Ballaghmor Class.

Poor Ian, though, only had eight out of 21 finish the cross-country. There is seldom a black and white reason for such a result, but rather a combination of factors. He had tweaked his combinations on what was already a big track, making them a little more intense, as I did at Burghley 2019, with the same result!

Also, there were a lot of older horses, some not fit enough, some riders who started too fast and paid the price later on, plus footing that had been spiked and watered but rode much more tiring than anticipated.

The net result was that the top riders felt it was one of the hardest five-stars they’d ever ridden; so much for me saying that Burghley was the ultimate five-star test!

Scotty’s talent will be sadly missed, but hopefully he can find time to help both his successors and the course-design world at large.

I enjoyed reading Oliver Townend’s column. He has many good ideas and sees more of the sport worldwide than most. I think he may be dreaming, though, about the prize money fund! As 10% of the riders win circa 90% of the prize money, I’m not sure how much support he’ll get.

● What are your memories of the last Europeans at Blenheim? 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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