DIRECTOR'S BLOG 2009

Tim Henson, the Festival of British Eventing director, will blog every day this week leading up to the event.

Today we begin the countdown to the Festival of British Eventing, presented by the British Equestrian Trade Association, in earnest.

Last autumn we had a 'wash-up' meeting to discuss last year's event, and the planning for this year started in October. Our first planning meeting, with all the heads of department present, was held in January, and we make steady progress from then.

I arrived on site at Gatcombe 10 days ago, and marked out absolutely everything on the field, measuring everything and making sure it would all fit into place.

Everyone else - all the contractors - arrived this morning, all wanting decisions and information from me. I must have answered my phone more than 50 times today! But I've been here for 15 years, and have built up a good relationship with everyone we need to make the Festival run smoothly.

I've been checking that all the tentage is in position, that the skips for the stables are in place, that the generators are here and working, that the plumbing and the electrical systems are in, and that the telephone exchange works.

British Eventing brought in their safety fence today - it's fence five again, and it records all manner of data and has cameras attached to film how it is jumped.

We have a briefing for all the fence judges, crossing stewards and radio operators today at 6.30pm, and after that we hold a cocktail part for 350 people - all the officials and volunteers who help with the cross-country in a marquee next to the main arena.

The weather's been fantastic today - a good drying day with lots of wind and some sunshine - and conditions could not be better. But we're due for a downpour tomorrow, so I might not be in such a good mood after I've got wet all day!

Well, we finish the day with sunshine and lightness in our hearts - we didn't have much rain! We were very lucky and got away with showers instead of a deluge.

The preparation for the Festival of British Eventing, supported by the British Equestrian Trade Association (BETA), continues.

Today we had more marquees put up, furniture delivered, tradestands are starting to be built, we put the flags and flagpoles up and built the entrance arches for the public.

The dressage arenas are being erected, and shavings and rubber mats were delivered for the stables.

The sponsors signs around the main arena and on the cross-country course were put in place, and I've started to mark out the car parks. The collecting ring and signage for the Burghley Dubarry Young Event Horse classes, which take place on Friday, also went up.

We had a riproaring cocktail party last night for all the volunteers in the Hamptons International Garden Club, on the lower side of the main arena. It's a bigger marquee than before with a central bar, which creates a great atmosphere. And Ollie Bush, our entries secretary, provided superb food - I think everyone ended up eating enough for a meal, not just nibbles.

I also went and saw the Princess Royal and ran through the timetable for the weekend with her. The event runs literally in her back garden, and she's onsite all through the weekend and really enjoys it.

Best of all, the forecast for the rest of the week is for the weather to improve. But however much rain we have, we'll be fine. Gatcombe is so free-draining, and has never been cancelled. It's more usual for us to be slitting and spiking hard ground at the moment than to be wearing our wellies - I remember once, 10 days before the event, having to start irrigating the main arena just to get it to look green, not brown.

The ground's great at the moment and, although of course I could be happier - I'm an event director, and we're a bit like farmers - it's all looking good so far!

We've had an extremely good day today at Gatcombe. It did rain overnight, and we had to shut the site for a few hours this morning to let it drain, but it was full steam ahead after that. The forecast from now on is fantastic, and the ground is in great condition - it'll be perfect jumping going.

Today we put all the garden furniture out, put the commentary box for the main arena up, the loos - always the most essential bit of any event - and mowed the car parks, the collecting rings and the main arena.

And the very famous Gatcombe shirts have been delivered - made by Joules, we hand out 1200 of them to helpers and organisers. The programmes have also arrived, which is exciting.

The stables open tomorrow morning. Sheila James has been our stable manager for as long as we've had stables, and she's very good at keeping the peace!

I've been in contact with our cross-country course builders, David Evans and the Willis brothers, and we'll have a drive-round with Mark Phillips at 2pm tomorrow to check everything.

Our 'mini menial tasks division' have been out in force, cleaning, polishing and helping where required. These are 14 children, mostly the offspring of long-term helpers, and it's great to see the new generation of the 'menial tasks division' now getting involved. The original squad were Peter and Zara Phillips and their friends, but they are all grown up now and the job has moved down an age group.

As we get nearer the start of the event, our minds turn more to the competition and away from the minutiae of setting it all up. The entries are fantastic - all of Britain's senior team for the forthcoming European Championships in Fontainebleau, a big French contingent, loads of Irish riders, and those crack Antipodeans the Fredericks, Andrew Nicholson, Caroline Powell and Mark Todd, among others.

William Fox-Pitt has been phenomenally successful at Gatcombe over the years - he's got nine horses entered over the weekend. Who'd bet against him picking up at least one more Festival title?

It's been an interesting day, and the event director (me) is exhausted - but still smiling. The site was perfect until we had a shower of rain at lunchtime, which made getting the final tradestands etc in quite hard, but we're nearly ready to go now. There are one or two areas where the water sits, despite the ground being so free-draining, but overall I'm not worried at all, and the forecast - if we can trust it - is good.

In fact, I think we've been lucky. Mike Tucker called me earlier and where he lives at Tetbury, just five miles away, they had far more rain than we did.

The Pony Club show jumping and the Burghley Dubarry Young Event Horse classes start at 9am tomorrow, and the dressage starts tomorrow morning as well.

I've been checking off the final list with the course-builders, admiring the green state of the track as I go -Gatcombe is so often brown and baked in the sun that it is a delight to see it looking so lush.

I've been up to the dressage arenas to see that they are absolutely ready. Our long-suffering dressage steward Malcolm Waite and his wife Sarah are doing sterling work. They've sourced all the writers and other helpers, and re-jigged the times again and again as riders drop in and out.

All these people, like Malcolm and Sarah, who volunteer to help at a big event such as the Festival of British Eventing have to be self-starters and be prepared to get on with it, and we really couldn't do without them.

The main arena looks fantastic, and the course is up for the Pony Club tomorrow. How lucky they are to jump in such a great setting.

And the tractors will be ready and waiting from 6am tomorrow to pull lorries in if they are needed. It's better to have them as a pre-emptive measure than to have to go and get them when someone gets stuck, which holds up everyone and causes delays and frayed tempers.

There are 40 or so horseboxes in the lorry park now, and only five or six had to be pulled on, which is a good start. There are horses in the stables, and we're all set for the Festival to start in the morning.

My day commenced at 5am, when I looked out of the window to see two roe deer on the lawn, which was rather a nice way to start. We did have some rain overnight, but it's been a beautiful day since, and the going for the horses is superb. The mud has gone, we've rolled everywhere and it looks perfect.

The tractors were ready and waiting at 6am, but we only had to pull a couple of lorries in. And it's a big relief that the public traffic was able to get in and out on its own.

We had a great crowd, which was really pleasing. As I write this, the Pony Club are still show jumping they've all had a terrific day.

I toured round early in the morning, making sure everything was working as it should. Weve had one or two very minor hiccups, but nothing more than you'd expect.

The Burghley Dubarry Young Event Horse classes have gone well, as has the start of the dressage - William Fox-Pitt and Andrew Nicholson are in the lead in the two advanced sections, while Sam Griffiths is at the top of the sheet after the first day of dressage in the Dodson & Horrell Novice Championship.

The cross-country course has been inspected by the ground jury and is now open, and riders are walking it. It's similar to recent years, with an extra loop added because of the HSBC FEI World Cup qualifier, but the beauty of modern-day portable fences is that there is plenty of scope for using familiar obstacles in different ways.

The riders seem happy - we've altered the layout in the lorry park a little, and when people have been used to a certain set-up for 27 years, changes are always problematical, but it doesn't take them long to appreciate the improvements.

There's a British Eventing EGM this evening - I don't know what that's about, though.

And we're all set for a big day tomorrow - the advanced sections and the novice championship go cross-country from 10am, and we're expecting a massive crowd.

We've had an excellent day here at Gatcombe. The show jumping started at 7.30am, which caused the usual teething problems - if you start an event at 9am, it's much easier to get everyone into place and ready to go thaN it is for 7.30am, so there was a bit of rushing about.

But you see the true colours of an organising team shine forth in adversity, and if I ever forget to do something, by the time I've remembered, it's already been done by the team.

It was a beautiful day, and the forecast is the same for tomorrow. We really do have one of the best sets of competition conditions we've had for years, and the best ground I can remember.

It's just beginning to firm up in the main arena, but we've rolled it and moved the jumps to take in the best going for tomorrow. The cross-country course has been changed over for the Smith & Williamson Intermediate Championship, as has the show jumping. The scoreboard panels have been reversed, because we can't fit all the classes on in one go, and sponsors banners have been moved as necessary.

Later on, we'll go through the car parks and check any vehicles left behind for security reasons.

It's now the official event drinks party, a big reception which rolls in to a cash bar and party, which is a great opportunity to meet and talk to people, but if I'm in bed later than 10pm it'll be a miracle!

I'll be onsite before 6am tomorrow - I have to be, otherwise I'd start the day behind the motion and you never catch up then.

The day has gone very swiftly, but after the uncertainty of the week it's been lovely, and people have been very complimentary.

Clayton Fredericks won the Dodson & Horrell Novice Championship and his fellow Australian Bill Levett was second. An interesting combination at fence 11, the HSBC Corners, caused a bit of a stir in the advanced classes, but the course tested riders and horses in equal measure and safely produced a good result, which is what we are aiming for.

The crowd has been massive - let's hope we have an even better day tomorrow for the climax of the Festival of British Eventing, the Smith & Williams Intermediate Championship and the HSBC World Cup qualifier, which also incorporates the British Eventing Open Championship.

We have now come to the end of the Festival of British Eventing, and I ve left Gatcombe. Yesterday was an extremely busy day, but an exceptionally good one.

We had such a big crowd that we nearly ran out of car parking spaces, the rain stayed away and there were lots and lots of happy people. It was very flattering to meet people who hadn't been to Gatcombe before who said how marvellous the event was and how easy it was to park near the action, etc. Obviously all the frantic paddling beneath the surface isn't noticed.

But that is exactly what we are supposed to be doing, creating an event which people can access easily and enjoy. Mark Phillips is always keen that we do not forget why we run Gatcombe, to put on a great competition for everyone, from officials to helpers, spectators, sponsors, guests, owners and riders. The event started because Princess Anne and Mark wanted to take their turn at holding a competition in the sport out of which they have had so much fun and pleasure. That is why Gatcombe is such a great event, running something like this purely for profit will never work in the same way, have the same atmosphere and the same enjoyment for those who are involved in it.

I managed to see most of the sponsors during the day, and they seemed very upbeat and pleased to be involved, which bodes well for the future.

It ended on a glorious Gloucestershire evening, and at 8pm we stopped work, had a quiet drink in the office and then everyone from Mark downwards went for food and drink in the pub.
Every event has a great team behind it, but Gatcombe really does have a set of people who feel they are included, which makes for a great spirit.

This morning everything was stripped out of the site, which is quickly turning back into a field. There is a lot of litter collection, the portable fences are carried out, the string and signs come down, the tentage is taken away along with the food units, catering equipment and furniture, the phone system is taken out, and the Land Rovers are collected. Finding all the keys of the golf buggies is always a test.
The ground is harrowed, rolled and slitted, and the footings reseeded.
Events are built up in stages, like a jigsaw that requires each piece to be in place before the next one is put in, whereas derigging happens all in one go.
I hope you all enjoyed it, and see you all next year!