Area Festival Championships: Rescheduled classes

Due to the heavy rainfall at Arena UK that resulted in the flooding of the outdoor arenas prior to the Petplan Summer Area Festival Championships, four classes on the first day of competition (Wednesday 2 October) had to be rescheduled. British Dressage is working with Arena UK to facilitate the issue of refunds to those members affected.  Each refund is being reviewed on a case-by-case basis, as some of those members affected still competed in other classes and accepted alternative booking arrangements.  We appreciate your patience and understanding while this process remains ongoing.

It is important to emphasise that the initial decision to postpone the outdoor classes was not taken lightly and at 0800hrs on the Tuesday morning the arenas were in good order and fit for competition.  At this point, only showers were forecast for the rest of the day.  From 1000hrs the rain became much heavier than expected; in a short period of time this led to localised flash flooding and overwhelmed the brooks surrounding the venue. This resulted in the arenas being submerged in water, which meant that we had no option but to reschedule the outdoor competition to the weekend.

The team at Arena UK worked tirelessly throughout Tuesday night and Wednesday to clear the excess surface water on the outdoor arenas, to allow competition to go ahead as planned from Thursday 3 October onwards.  They should be commended by all competitors, as without their herculean efforts the rest of championships could not have gone ahead.