Last week Lady Whiskers and I took the caravan for our annual chill-out at an equestrian three day event. For the past three years we have visited Blenheim Palace but this year we chose Burghley House. The camping was pleasant, although with different amenities and possibilities to those we have previously enjoyed. For example, if you wanted 240v power you had to bring your own rather than paying an arm and a leg for the convenience. On the other hand, the Golf Club restaurant was open to us for the duration.
Our holiday normally goes something like this: Day 1. Arrive and set up caravan, check out what is happening. Day 2. Shopping. Day 3. Dressage, shopping, walk the cross-country course. Day 4. Walk the course again watching the competition. Day 5. Show Jumping and more shopping. Day 6. Pack up, drive home, unpack, discover there is nowhere to put the shopping.
Saturday 5th September was the Cross-Country day, which is my favourite bit. Dressage is interesting enough until I have seen three horses do the same dance, and Show Jumping is fun when they reach the finalists. I managed to capture some video at each obstacle on the course over the five or six hours we were walking around (having already walked the 6.5 Km course the previous day to examine all the jumping routes and options).
Getting my excuses in early: The video was shot with an unsupported hand-held camera – a Fujifilm Finepix S1 – set on “auto”, amongst a crowd. I had to grab the shots as and when I could get a view, often without knowing the rider’s chosen route. This is my second attempt at video with this machine, and I had problems with the two zoom buttons, occasionally hitting one while trying to use the other. It’s also my first ever use of video-editing software, which I used to trim the absolute worst and to put the jumping efforts in the correct sequence around the course. There’s still some fairly dodgy stuff there but mainly where it was all I had of a specific obstacle.
I beg your forgiveness. I will invest in a monopod for future events.
General Whiskers' semi-historical wanderings 
Horsing around, I see.