British Dressage is delighted to release plans for three new championships for the 2018 season – a summer Music Festival, a Bronze Championship and a Silver FEI Level Championship.
The Music Festival will bring members a second annual championship for freestyle classes to aim for. At Prelim there’ll be sections for Bronze and Silver, for Novice to Inter I all three sections will have a championship and then for Grand Prix, there’ll be Silver and Gold. Eligibility criteria for Grand Prix Silver will be included in the 2018 rules.
There won’t be a regional ‘semi-final’ structure for qualification as it will be based on rankings, similar to the system successfully in place for My Quest, based on points accumulated. ‘Music points’ will be allocated on scores achieved purely for qualification towards the championships and one National League will run per level/section. There will be regularly updated league tables on the website so members will be able to keep an eye on their ranking.
The top 20 horse and rider combinations at each level and section (15 at Grand Prix) will qualify for a championship. The qualifying window will be 1 December 2017 to 18 June 2018 and we’re looking to host the Championship in the middle of August.
As part of our championship review, we felt that Bronze riders needed a second championship to aim for alongside Petplan Equine Area Festivals so they’ll have a new Bronze Championship to run the late May Bank Holiday weekend in conjunction with an FEI Level Silver Championship. These riders also only have one Championship to aim for as Regionals only run Gold sections.
The Bronze Championships feature Intro to Inter I (including Advanced – riders eligible for Bronze or Silver PSG can compete) while the FEI Silver will run PSG, Inter I, Inter II and Grand Prix. As mentioned above, criteria for Grand Prix Silver will be included in next year’s rules.
Qualification for both will also run on a league table basis so as not to add further rounds (and expense) on the route to the championships. The qualifying period will be 1 September 2017 to 30 April 2018. Again, the tables will be regularly updated on the website to track progress.
The championships will be two tests over two days (preceded by an optional warm up test) with the highest combined score over both tests becoming Champion at each level.
Tender documents have been sent out to our organisers for them to put themselves forward to host the Music Festival and the joint Bronze and FEI Silver Championships. We’ll be announcing the successful venues in due course. We’ll also be seeking sponsorship for both so if you, or anyone you can think of, might be interested in supporting them, do let our Commercial Manager, Jo Aldridge, know.
The current plans for the championships are in the documents below for you to read in full:
• 2018 Music Festival
• 2018 Bronze and FEI Silver Level Championships