Posted by jamie hawksfield
on January 20, 2009, 6:10 pm, in reply to "Re: CHANGE OF DIRECTION FOR PARHAM"
80.177.171.108
Re the change of direction of the course. I wont bore you with all the complications we have had at Parham over the last year which you could write a book about but the decision to go the other way was influenced by two things. Firstly the man who owns the land that made up the first 300 hundred yards of the old course threatened not to allow us on this year and we simply couldnt take the risk. That meant that we have to now go pararrel with that stretch of course on the inside which is part of the Rugby Club. If we had started on the rugby club land it would have meant vehicles having to go across the rugby pitches to get to the start and that aint possible.In addition I would prefer horses to cross this part of the course uphill rather than downhill and the next bit of the track past the oilrig which is the firmest part of the course will also ride better uphill.
Secondly we have many people say to us they wont run their horses at Parham because of the downhill start and finish. Alan Taylor is one I know who will stand up and say it would be a much better course left handed so now that we have portable fences lets see how it goes. It will mean the first 4 and the last 2 fences will be uphill and the crowd will also be able to see the start and the finish, which will also be uphill.
This isnt change for changes sake - it has been forced on us so lets give it a go. I would love to ride it the other way round......!!!
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