British Eventing Show IWD Special: Season Plans, BE Prepared & The Road to 2026

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tax door now. Okay listeners, welcome to the Fresh Eventing Show in partnership with Zipra

products. Delighted that several products have teamed up with me this year to bring you the

Fresh Eventing Show on the podcast. We're going to take you behind the scenes. We're going to

have loads of big rider guests. We've got some really interesting angles to bring you in terms of

insights behind the scenes at events as well. Rosie Williams will be with us giving us the

inside line on all things Fresh Eventing too, and we are kicking things off listeners with an

International Women's Day special because this Sunday it is International Women's Day

and we are celebrating three powerhouse women in the sport of eventing. I don't actually think I

could have asked for a better panel today. So the CEO Rosie Williams, we have five star winner,

one of my favorite faces on the circuit. Gemma Stevens and organiser, extraordinary,

Lordweslow, we are delighted to have you all with us. Gemma, I'm going to start with you if I may.

As your water been, you are fresh from not so sunny Spain. Yeah, winter, I'm not going to lie,

has been challenging this year. It's been very, very wet as we all know. It's rained and rained

and rained. Went to Spain to try to get away from the rain and it rained even heavier and harder

on my head. So yeah, winter has been really challenging this year. I think for everyone,

I think as well, from a point of view of business, it's really hard as well because we had such a long

hot dry summer last year, the hay prices, hayless prices, straw prices are through the roof. So

so yeah, I'm not going to lie, winter this year has been tough financially and with the weather.

So I'm looking forward to coming out of winter into spring, getting going and going eventing again.

I can't lie, it's been tough. I have to say, I mean, you're jumping sort of eventing trip out

to some of the sunshine tours. Always look like a lot of fun. I always get serious envy over the

sunny skies and, you know, having a nice glass of wine. It all looks very sophisticated and enjoyable.

And actually, this year, it looked flipping wild. Gemma, to be honest. I mean,

in wild wild. I honestly, the amount of storms we had, like rain, like

biblical monsoon rain all day and the winds were insane. I mean,

Anselusia has basically, is basically underwater. They've had landslides,

rock slides, roads are like disintegrating, like it is actually crazy.

But luckily, the last sort of five or six days were really nice and sort of the last three days

were actually really lovely and, you know, lovely and sunny and even quite warm. We sort of had

22 degrees. It slightly made up for it, but we were pretty scarred by then. The horses all jumped

really well though. We have covered that bit off air before we started and very much ready for

the start of the season. Rosie, what does the off season look like for you? How have you been,

how has life been behind the scenes at HQ? Well, anybody who works in sport knows that there

was never an off season. But the off season is actually nearly harder than the season because

you're planning, you're getting ready, you're changing rules, you've got governance structures to do,

you've got negotiations to go through all of that stuff and you've got review from the last season.

So it takes us a month to really get through all the data and stuff from the last season.

We're already talking about rule changes and structural changes and stuff for the delivery in

27 now. So we're starting to really pre-plan and it's the first, I must admit it's the first time

in my tenure here where I'm starting to feel like we are getting to not ahead of the game at all,

we're not ahead of the game at all yet, but we're taking steps through 20 snits to be ready for 27.

So when, you know, Gemma and Tim will get actually riding and running their, you know,

racing around, I'm head down planning for 27. My work is harder in the, in the off season,

is in the season because in the season you become reactive and you're doing what you have to do,

whereas in the off season you're just working head over heels to try and get stuff planned.

It feels like it comes around very, very quickly every year in terms of if you finish the season,

you're already for the break, you kick your fingers, off we go again, Laura. Bell say,

are officially four star hosts this year, you took up the mantle and hosted four star last year,

but it's very much a fixture in the calendar this season. How does the,

the winter months, how do the winter months look for you in terms of preparation and changes

at the park in advance of this season? It's been really busy because I suppose last year was,

I don't quite know actually how we achieved doing two events, sort of almost backed back,

and when I look back on it was kind of like giving birth to twins twice, but in a very short

space of time, and it's sort of, I've already forgotten the horror of it, but anyway, we did it.

So then over the summer and over the autumn and the winter, what we've done is we've taken stock

and thought, right, now we're going to be a proper four star event, we've got to actually

step change the whole operation. So we've worked really hard, we've completely changed our website,

we've been looking at how the event steps up big time. So new layout for the event,

focusing much more on the visitor experience and how visitors arrive at our event and then move

through it, new activities for people to do because with any big event, if you're wanting to make

it viable, you've got to deliver other things and you've got to attract the public. So things like

family fun trails, new, we're sort of celebrating the county of Northumberland in terms of food

and local brands and the shopping experience, and we have changed across country course again,

and we've moved out where our hospitality is, we're introducing something called the Belsay

Briefing, which is a chat stage, and we've got a massive charity initiative, which is going to take

the form of a demo masterclass every day. So we've got huge things happening, lots of different

stuff, and it takes ages to set it all up, and we're just kind of going into now the marketing phase

of it, and hoping to get bums on seats because I've done lots of very scary things which

involve a lot of money being spent. We're looking forward to it, we're very much looking forward to it,

we'll talk about it in a little bit more detail, perhaps later on in the show, before we dive into

the season preview element of this episode, we wanted to really not our heads to International

Women's Day, which happens every year, March the 8th, it's a global day that essentially celebrates

social, economic, cultural, political achievements of women. It's very much a day that marks a

call to action for advancing gender equality, and I wanted to have the conversation with the three

of you very much as a discussion in terms of three incredibly successful women in their own rights,

as business owners, as athletes, and really get an insight into actually what being a woman in

the sport for venting means to you. So first of all, a venting is one of the few sports whereby

men and women do compete on equal terms, Gemma, you see that we can, we can't. What does it mean to

you? We've always competed against men of all ages, and so to be totally honest with you, I don't

think about it on a day-to-day basis, or even on permanent competitions, I actually found the

enough, I know we're talking very much about a venting, but I actually noticed a bit more in

show jumping at the very top level, it is definitely a bit more male-oriented at the five-star level,

and I've noticed that a little bit in the last couple of years that a lot of the podiums

are very, very male-top heavy, which makes me want to do it even more. But I think in a venting

it's actually much more level, and I think to be honest with you, we just get on with it,

we don't really think about it, whereas just as good as they are. Do you think, and this is going

much deeper than sort of a venting as a whole, but we just get on with it, I feel like that in a way

is something that lots of women would agree with that sentiment, Laura, would that be a first step?

We got out of doubt, I mean I think that obviously I'm involved in other worlds apart from

a venting, and quite often in that world I'm sitting around a table, which is I'm the only woman,

but I've been doing that for so long, I don't like Gemma says, you don't notice it anymore,

but I think women just do, we are practical, we're generally pretty hardworking, and we just, you know,

get on with it, as you say. Rosie, on your journey through lots of different sports,

how does the environment in a venting compare? I think it's really interesting, and I've obviously

I've been in quite my male dominated sports, rugby and stuff, but I don't feel it as much as

I think I probably did early in my career, and I think I was very sensitive to it early on going,

oh, hang on, I'm the only girl, they're treating me like that just because I'm a girl, and actually,

if I really reflect properly on my career, I think sometimes I wasn't the best in the room,

and I wasn't the best in the room, whether it was male or female, you know, and my approach

that I took early on in my career was probably pretty aggressive because I was trying to be

the only girl in the room, like that's also my nature too, which is slightly a problem for me,

but I'm now way calmer about what I am responsible for, a collaboration is what gets success,

I think, in sports environments, I was just on a I was on a call with Fence Judges today,

like doing Fence Judges training while I've been doing the training, but there's 135 people

on this training thing, and I'm the vast majority of women, and it's a nice, friendly environment,

right? The sports environment tends to be a little bit more aggressive when you're working in a male

in dominated environment, there's more aggression, but I've always been able to hold my own in that,

so I've not really found that a challenge, doesn't mean that it's right, but I think, and it's

really interesting, just watching the women's rugby world cup this year, the world has changed

for women in sport, right? It has massively changed, we've got maternity policy, we've got major

sports that have always only ever been played by men, that have got maternity policies, they've got,

you know, women can take time off, they can do that, I mean 78% of our

eventing, British eventing members are women, right? 93% of our young youth program,

are women, are female, and 60 something percent of our board members are female.

Would have dealt with the room differently if I had a few more advocates in the room with me,

because I was the only girl, a woman, you know, I think I took the fight, and actually

in hindsight, if there'd been three more young women in the CEO room at the time, it might have been

easier, but that's time passed now. It's something that in in eventing, we have seen huge success,

and it's really interesting, Gemma picking up on the jumping piece, because top level jumping is

much more male dominated, but in eventing, I think there was a time, sort of just after the

Tokyo Olympics, whereby world European Olympic titles were all held by women, a lot of the five

star titles were all held by women at that stage, like the men were a minority, which was brilliant

to see in terms of women holding their own in the sport, and we do in eventing very much see

a much more equal split in terms of success. As role models in the sport, Gemma particularly,

I know, you know, you've got a huge fan base of young people, people that are in eventing,

who do look up to you. What message would you give to other younger girls, other women in eventing

today? I think it's really important for young people these days not to get to

bog down with social media, and what everyone else is doing. I think everyone gets really obsessed

with, he's doing this, she's doing that, so I need to be doing this. Actually, it's really important

to say true to who you are and what you're doing. Yeah, and it is very easy to make it look glossy,

it's very easy to make it look, and actually sometimes you don't necessarily want to broadcast

some of the lows on social media as well, but I think it's really important and I think

as role models in the sport, there's some really, really good people that do do that.

If I put something of my children doing something particularly feral on social media,

there's quite a lot of other people that like thank God, it's not just me.

And actually, that leads me on, nicely to my next point, which is in eventing in particular,

we have taken again for granted that we have had moms competing at the top of the sport,

you know, women with young families, older children for a very, very long time, and it's always

been that way. Take a moment to appreciate that because it is a lot, lot harder than it looks,

and yet in eventing, we do very much take it for granted. We see top-level riders with families

and, you know, Ross Cantor just had a baby plan is to be back for Bablington a few short months,

you know, to now prices made very, very quick turn around in the middle of the season,

eat for clock, but the list goes on. There's plenty of big name riders who have children come

back to compete very, very quickly in the sport, and actually as a top-level athlete, that is

an incredible feat on its own. Absolutely huge. Let's go into 20-26 as a season because it is

around the corner. Listen, as we're recording this last week in February, it'll be going out

a first week of the season. It feels like it has come round in a flash. Gemma, I want to ask you,

first of all, start of the season. It's all laid out in front of you. How do you go about planning

your season? You've got a team of horses. You've actually got double the logistics to juggle

because you've got the jumpers now as well. Where do you start in terms of your organising for the

year ahead? Yeah, so what I do is I have my top horses with their reins, so I put that in the diary.

Okay, so I've got two horses going to Bablington, so that's straight in. That's the most important

thing. So then I, there, then that, my priority. So then I work back from there and I work out

their plan. Then the next one's down. I work out their plans. So I've got, for example, two for

Brahman and two to go to the Royal Jump in France, all four star longs. So I then work out what they

need to do and they fit in around the Bablington horses. And then the other horses all have to fit

in around those. So I've basically got those six. And then I've got two seven year olds. The

seven year olds have to fit in around those horses. So I always work out my top ones, work back.

Then the next ones work back. Next ones work back. Does that make sense? And then the jumpers at this

point in my career have to fit in around that. And it seems to work. I have jumpers that are very,

easy to pick up and put down. And if they need to do more, then I have luckily some great

local riders that can step in if they need to. So yeah. So that's how I plan my season. And at the

moment, I've not gone past, I've not gone past the Derby show. So Brahman and then the Derby.

I will then do the same thing for the autumn. You work out your main aims and work back.

Well, important is it to be reactive, to be fluid because we all know we sort of end up on

a plan A, B, C, D. But honestly, we're normally on Z by week two. So I mean, literally, you have to be

so available in your mind to just change and deal with it. And if something goes wrong, you get

balleted from somewhere, you miss a run because once, didn't it so for something happens, you've

got to just take a breath and think it's not the end of the world. It's always another day

we'll deal with it. We'll find somewhere else to go or we'll go cross country schooling or we'll

go show jumping. It's always thinking of trying very hard. I'm getting a look from my husband

right now, not to get stressed and to like you say, stay fluid and deal with the problem.

If you like, Gary, if you're listening, I can clip this segment of the podcast, send it to you.

And then in the season when Gemma is cursing things going on, you can play it back to her.

Yeah, yeah, he probably will.

Yeah, there are, for sure, there are times when it is very stressful if you end up missing a run

or whatever happens. But I always have to remember, actually, it all works out in the end and

what's meant to be is meant to be. And I guess it's keeping to a degree the element of fun and

the remembering why we do it, which is because we love our horses. Horses at the end of it come

fast and foremost. Rosie, I want to pick up on the Be Prepared campaign. For anybody who hasn't

seen the campaign, can you just give us a bit of an overview of it before we go into a few of

the more sort of detailed driven points? Yeah, it's, it's fab, right? It's an, we've done it internally,

Jenny and Dull and the coaching team and the marketing teams have all just worked endlessly to try

and get it up and running. It's a program where that we're hoping that we're going to build on

at the moment. It's about being, see the pun, being prepared to go eventing. It's open to anyone,

if you're going to go to the Tony Club riding club, Cratswell Club, come to BE, whatever.

It's all about helping people get ready to actually turn up and be at an event. What you have to

do for your fitness? How do you look after your horse? What are the rules? What's the right

rep to? All of those things that actually are quite sort of a bit, that there must be really

daunting, but it's, it's all about making sure that eventing is a really open environment for

somebody to turn up to. So we just want to open all those doors. The coach has done a great job.

These loads of winter staff, these loads of people fitness and we're going to keep adding to it.

I mean, I was at the officials conference on the weekend and a couple of the officials have

said they're really happy to do video snaps for people to understand what the official does.

So yeah, and it's a great program and there's loads of stuff that resources for people to

just be a bit more prepared and a bit and hopefully make eventing a really

fun, inclusive place that people want to come. I'd like it to end up to be

what I would call an Atlas or an Atlas to how to navigate eventing. We had some great

discussions. I've showed it to the FEI recently and they're loving it and we've

we've undue blocked it, you know, the Guising Australia and New Zealand and America can now connect.

We've done the work and like why wouldn't we share it? Because absolutely, we care more about the

eventing community in the world rather than it just being stuck off. But it's eventing.

Ultimately, it's about supporting grassroots preparation, which strengthens the future of this

board as a whole. Ultimately, being prepared feels, I mean, it's the headline of the campaign

listeners. So you're going to hear that a lot and I think the preparation bit is key for me because

ultimately preparation builds confidence, Gemma, regardless of what level you're competing at,

whether you're going to Babminton, whether you're going to your first BEAC or Babminton

grassroots, whatever it may be. If you're prepared, you're more confident. If you're more confident,

you will make better decisions. Gemma is a rider who's competed at different levels as a young

rider and now on the the world stage. How important is that? Because you you see it, you know, when

there is so little margin for error. And ultimately, it can make all of the difference whatever level

you're at. I always, I will always talk about preparation and, you know, leaving no stone untanned

for, you know, for those big ones. I very much like to think that I concentrate on the ones that

I want to be competitive at and the events leading up to that are stepping stones. And it's all about

those top ones and peaking at the right time and really thinking about all the preparations

from rider fitness, force fitness, so nutrition for both of us. It's making sure that my team is

all happy and on-song and working together because that's just as important as well because if

they're not happy, then, you know, things are going to be missed. You know, it's all important,

you know, right from the beginning to be prepared. And I always say to people when they come

for lessons with me, it's all relative. It doesn't matter whether you are competing at 80 centimeters

or you're preparing for Babanzin or you're jumping, show jumping, 70 centimeters or you're

jumping, 160 Grand Prix. It's still good to be prepared in your mind with the horses, with everything.

And yeah, just have everything or all your ducks in a line, which is not always easy.

And sweet, sorry, just switching it back to International Women's Day, I've done an interview with

Steph Bailey who's doing a whole pile of research about women, menopause, female menopause

and stuff like that. And actually, there's a whole pile of research that actually says women stop

competing in sport at a particular age because they lose their confidence because they don't,

they're not prepared well enough to actually get over that confidence tip for today.

And so hopefully, this hopefully to prepare program will help.

I think it's a really, really brilliant resource that will grow. And I think one thing

is really clear, any member feedback, anything like that, if people, if there's something people

really want to see, like send it in, let the team know because it is very much going to grow. Laura,

as an organizer, ultimately, you want people to come to your events and have a great time.

You want them to enjoy the experience. Don't get me wrong. Things don't always go entirely to plan,

but you want them to go away with smile on their face, smile on the horses face, and look forward

to coming back the next time. Hopefully, be prepared is going to give them really practical tools

that can improve their experience so that when they do come to an event, they're ready to go and

have fun and it helps build their enjoyment of this sport as a whole. Absolutely right. And actually,

one of the things that Rosie and myself and other organizers have discussed about be prepared is

educating, and this is particularly important for a lot of people who are new to

eventing about the ground and ground conditions. And are they and their horses used to

experiencing different ground conditions? So is that mud through the winter so that

beginning of the season can often be quite, can be quite muddy conditions, can be quite

wet, as we know. And then we might get a very dry period where the ground is a lot harder,

but you need to prepare your horse for all those ground conditions. Roadwork is incredibly

important, hardening off their legs. And some of these things I think have got lost over the last

few years where more and more people possibly don't have access to good hacking in open countryside,

get lots of different ground experiences, they do a lot of arena work. So that was one of the key

messages that we wanted to get across in the be prepared program, particularly because it also

links in with the whole sustainability of our sport. And yes, we want to provide good ground

conditions for people, but there's a limit to how much organizers can do with the ground in a very,

very dry summer. We saw that last year, we worked together with BE to use more machines to work

with the ground, but people have to be realistic about, you know, or we can prepare the ground

to a good level, but with a sustainable outcome, because we are a sport which needs to think about

climate change and sustainability going forward. So there are so many different pressures on

organizers, and we need our competitors to be educated about those pressures, because it's a

huge thing when we're dealing with all of these things. Can I pick up on one of the other sort of

key points that I know BE are really keen to promote throughout 2026, and that is very much

working collaboratively with organizers, with riders. Crazy, from your perspective, first of all,

just talk to us a little bit about what that looks like and how you can balance lots of different,

but everybody needs different things, don't they? Ultimately, what my work as an overall thing

does not work necessarily for individual events, riders, organizers, how do you bring everybody

together collaboratively? What's going on behind the scenes to make that happen? Look, I mean,

it's hard work, right? And it's not hard work because people don't want the ultimate goal.

Everybody wants success at the sport. One of the things I see about this sport is there are,

it's hard to get people out of the today for them to think about the future, the long-term future.

Of the sport, not for us. The work we've got to do now isn't to build the sport for now.

It's to keep the sport going for, you know, 20, 30, 40 years time, right? And I totally understand

how riders, particularly pro riders and organizers, there's a viability issue. And that's a really,

it's a very fine line from the business point of view. As a national governing body CEO,

my job is to say, well, actually, okay, I can take on what you know need, what you think you need

now or what you need now. But my job is to make sure that we've got a future as well. And how do we

do that? It's open dialogue, it's listening, it's, it's, and I am in a bit of a moment where I'm

challenging a bit of the norm, you know, we've always done it like that. So we're just going to

keep doing it. Well, we're not going to survive if we just keep doing things the way we've done,

we've done things. And that goes for a lot of sports and a lot of activities in the arts and,

you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of pressure on everybody at the moment about viability.

So, you know, we can continue to do what we've done, but, you know, that's been going like this

for youngs. So we can either be brave. And this is the thing that I find the most difficult

about my job. There's not a lot of people who want to be brave with me. There's not a lot of people

who want to go, actually, we're just going to change it. We just got to change it and hold on.

It's not a criticism if it doesn't work, but we've got to change something. And it's not,

there's not a criticism of the people. It's just, it's just hard work, you know. So I think,

you know, there's some brave stuff that we've got to do and just change a little bit here and there.

At the end of the day, what we can't do is lose the essence of the community and the essence of

all those amazing people who love eventing and love their horses and love the challenge and all that

stuff. I do not want to mess around with that. Some of the models and some of the the stuff that

we've got to do around needs to change probably, but that's the biggest challenge, I think,

is taking the bros step. I think race is right and there's an enormous amount to do and I'm

working quite closely with Rosie on quite a lot of these things because I happen to be co-chair

of the British Eventing Organizers Association. So I work quite closely with Rosie and I work

quite closely with the event writers organization and the event horse owners association. And as

Rosie's touched on, everybody has so many different pressures on their area which they see

as very important and we have got to bring everybody together and there have got to be some brave

decisions made. But as I always say, it's the way you tell them and we just have to bring these

things in so that people understand them and that they are coming in together and it's a huge

challenge. And Rosie's doing, you know, she's in a very difficult role, but she's doing a brilliant

job and there's a lot of support behind her, but there are lots of conversations that have to

happen to make these big changes and it's, you know, it's tough when you've got a sport with so

many stakeholders and the sheep turning slowly, but it is actually turning, you know, and I feel

very positive about where we can get to with being a little bit more creative, being a little

bit more open, being a little bit more collaborative with everybody and actually really listening and I

think probably what British Eventing hasn't done well enough in the past is educate everybody,

riders, you know, all the other challenges that people face and I think we're going to do a bit of

that of this year. So from a, from a bee perspective and organisers perspective, you've both put

what's going on across really eloquently and I think a lot of that is understanding and education

to a degree. Gemma, from a riders perspective, obviously you guys have a lot of different

pressures as, you know, ultimately these, this is your career. There's a lot of different stakeholders

even from a riding perspective of professionals, armatures, competitive armatures, you know,

there's a whole range of people and interests and stakes even just in that conversation as riders

as a whole. How important is it for everybody to be pulling in the same direction? You've seen

the sport through lots of different ups and downs over the last few years, what will take on it?

Yes, it was amazing actually listening to you both. Rosie, that was really interesting listening to you

then. It's nice to hear that changes are being made and that you're pushing forward for change

because, you know, I felt very much that in the last, you know, sort of going back a few years,

you know, it was very difficult to make changes. Everyone was very, very set in their ways.

British eventing has got to be made done like this and it was, you know, always, it still makes me

so sad to this day that, you know, the event rider masters can carry on. I know it wasn't

completely to do with British eventing, but it was all very much a similar situation.

And yeah, it's brilliant to hear your take on it and it's very refreshing to be fair.

And yeah, if you ever need any support from me, I'm right behind you.

And we all need to be pulling in the same direction because it is the most wonderful spot.

And, you know, I have to say that a few years ago, I was this close to giving up and moving on

because I just felt that it was going so downhill. It was so difficult all the time.

But I really feel that there's been a turn in the last sort of year to 18 months.

And it would be interesting to see how it goes this year. And I, by personally,

I'm definitely feeling a lot more positive about the sport and about it moving forward in the

right direction. So there's lots and lots of different layers to it. Let's be honest, Rosie and

Gemma are going to be having a good chat tomorrow because now Rosie and Gemma talking on a

recorded podcast that actually she's very willing to help anything she needs is going to happen

right. Before we wrap this show up, we've got a new segment for the brist eventing show and

partnership with Zebra products for 20, 26. And it is in the zone with Zebra products. And basically,

we're going to be putting some of our guests on the spot to give us some top tips on various

different subject matters as the season progresses. So I'm going to start with a five-star winner.

She has won a huge amount, not only in eventing, but in jumping as well. Gemma Stevens,

can you please give us your top three tips to get the season off for this school start?

Okay, well, we've spoken a lot about this, but being prepared is super important. So my first

top tip is to be prepared, not only for your own self, but for your horse and for whoever is around

you, being prepared. Second is making sure that you have all of your equipment checked and

where you want it. So whether it's going to be in the lorry or whether it's going to be in your

tag room, wherever it's going to be, you have it all. And that you've checked that it is safe

and not going to break on you because we've had a long winter of a lot of damp. And thirdly,

make sure that you enjoy yourself. Okay, Gemma, love those. Before I put you all on the spot,

we've got some questions that have come in from the listeners, which is another thing that we're

going to be doing this year. We really want to hear from you guys listening. If you've got any

questions for any of our panels, we'll put the question box up in advance of the recordings. But

Gemma, just sticking with the zebra product theme for a second, having just finished off

in the zone with zebra products for the very first time, there are as far as that you've worked

with for a little while, in particular via Veradis. Can you tell us a little bit about why Veradis

work for you? Yeah, literally because they are the best. I know I obviously use the product,

but to be totally honest with you, I use the product. So I truly believe that they are the best.

They have every single type of boot that you'd ever want for your horse, extremely protective

lightweight, air flowing, the overeats boots are fab, the cross country,

eventing boots are fab, the show jumping boots are just amazing. There's a lot of research

behind them. So yeah, they're the bees needs to be honest with you. All the jumpers and all the

event horses use them all the time. They're the bees needs. You won't get a better testimonial

than that school year. Gemma, thank you very much. There we go. Right, putting you on the spot with

some questions. Gemma, there's a question that has come in for you. What is the plan for the horses

this season? You've obviously picked up on Babmonton, Bramham and Rural Jump. Who are the horses going

where? Can you give us the inside line? Yeah, I'm sure, Ken, I'm planning. So I have Tilly King,

which is really exciting. So he's stepping up to his first five star. And he is full brother

to Tilly Knight, who we all know is the five star. And Pena, over the last

half of many years it's been. So it will be super exciting if I can actually manage to get both

of the horses to Babmonton in one piece, two full brothers that are both homebred. So yeah,

really exciting. So they're campaign, they're actually going to go to Cronenberg and

Thorsby for their preparations for stars. And then I've got lovely Flash Cooley and Cooley Part

Muse going to the Royal Jump event in France for four star long. And their preparations will

be mixed between Cronenberg, Thorsby and Bird Market. Also, I have Belsay in there as well

for some of the younger ones coming up through four star and three star. And then I have Tilly's

Jester and Tilly Morning, the clone, hopefully going to Bramham again with those preparation events

in mind with them as well. So yeah, we've got some really exciting horses. It's taken me a long time

to get my string back up to what it is now, but I think I've got probably the most exciting bunch

of horses I've ever had. There seems to be serious strength and depth now, and it's very cool to see

them coming through to the sort of the four and five star level, particularly those young Tilly

horses that we will watch up through the levels. I've got a question for you, Gemma.

Oh, your event horses. How many of them are not?

Cooley Part Meers, Ash Cooley and looking Tilly. So I've got eight event horses for this year,

for me, I have some five year olds, but we don't count those because I can't cope with camping

five year olds. So I have eight, I don't want to fall off. I have eight and three of them are

not chestnuts. Okay, more than I thought there would be. Right, on that note, perfect. Okay, one

has a state of venting has asked biggest piece of advice for us as we head into our first ever

season of B. Well, that is very exciting. S.J. venting. Okay, one big piece of advice from Udora.

Be prepared. Yeah, Rosie says be prepared. That is very true.

Dora, one piece of advice, what should they do? Come to Bell say.

Come, well, I'll be. I like a list. I like to have a list in my lorry with all the things that

I need to take eventing each time I go, whether that's for a grassroots event or an

up to intermediate or going into national and I've got different lists in my lorry for what I need

for each type of event. And you can download some templated lists that are based on Gora's lists.

Everyone loves a list. I'm a big fan of a list. Oh, a bit of fun.

Oh, yeah, well, this is just it is it is a sport. There's a people who do this into their profession

and I get it. But for S.J. venting, coming first time, come along, have a laugh, ask people,

there's really, really friendly people everywhere. So just if you don't know what you're doing,

just ask someone and actually really friendly, even if we look like we're really concentrating,

often we, I think, I know people have said this to me before because sometimes I don't realise

I'm doing it. I look grumpy, but I'm not grumpy. Ask me stuff. So don't be scared,

head, ask away. I will attest the fact that Gemma, even when she looks grumpy, isn't grumpy most

of the time listeners. So you'd be totally okay to ask her. Are we fine? Question for you, Gemma,

you're walking the course at Badminton. The lake is particularly tough. You want to go and ask

somebody's opinion, which rider do you find in the lorry park? Oh, good question. That is good question.

Love, I love Rosy. Rosy is brilliant. And the other one actually that has helped me before

Chanel. Chanel, sorry. Okay. Because they're quite practical and pragmatic and they give you the

answer you want. Yes, and when I'm umming and areing about science, it's like, why are you

umming and areing just do that? There we go. Chanel for us Rosy can do both excellent choices.

Right. Laura, this one's for you. It could be somebody setting me up for a fool to be quite

honest because I've no idea where this is going to go. Can you tell us more about Bob, please?

I can. Bob is a miniature wirehead daxan. He has he he arrives in our house at Christmas time

and he is sort of making a sneak appearance in most videos we're doing about Bell

Say at the moment. It's kind of a bit of a running joke between Catherine Austin, George,

you wouldn't myself. There we go. We're a bit Bob obsessed. Okay. If you're Bob obsessed,

you want to go and see what we're all the fuss about. Go and look at Bell Say social channels.

Right. We're going to have to wrap it up because this show is an absolute marathon,

so we will get to more questions next time. Listeners, please feel free to send them in.

Anything that you want to know will pop the question box up, send a

pressure venting a message directly to myself or the decorating steam message directly as well.

We'd love to hear your thoughts. Right. Rosy, Laura, Jama, I don't know about you guys,

but I am so ready for the start of the season now. I'm looking forward to it all kicking off

and we've got loads to look forward to. It's a world championship year as well. My last question

to each of you, who wins the world championships in 2026. We're just going to finish with a name

and that will individual individual who will be the world champion 2026.

Well, Rosy, canter. I'm just going to say Tom McEwitt, Laura. That's such a difficult one.

I'm going to go Rosy. Two votes for Rosy. One for Tom McEwitt. It isn't

that's for women's day. Sorry, Tom. Sorry about that. I'm going to, I'm finding it very hard to

look past Michael Young in a home championships in Arkansas. I was going with a woman.

I was just going with a brick like Amity. British. I mean, I went for a foreign male.

I'm going to land. What a waste of footage. On that note, listeners, that draws as to the end of

the first British eventing show presented by several products for 2026. We've got tons of

exciting guests in the pipeline. We've got loads of great topics going to take behind the scenes

of British eventing and we want you to come along for the ride with us. Make sure you get involved.

Ask the questions. Have some input as well. We want to hear from you.

But for now, Master, thank you to Rosy, to Laura to Gemma and to you guys,

for Tunian and of course to zebra products for their support of the series by for now.

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