National Capital Horse Trials Association

By now, everyone will be busily planning their eventing year and will probably have noticed that the calendar looks a little different this year. To understand why, it is best to explain to you all how the calendar evolves and why it has changed.

• NCHTA is part of Eventing NSW, and the organisers of all NSW events get together and try to arrange them in some reasonable order.
• The primary idea behind creating a calendar is to plan events so that horses can qualify for the major competitions of the year, namely Adelaide 5* and Sydney 3DE. Clubs that run FEI events get priority in the calendar, and then national events fill the gaps.
• NCHTA’s spring event has been an FEI event, which was ideal when Adelaide was in November, and our national event runs in the first part of the year.
• Dates for FEI events are determined around August of the preceding year and submitted to the FEI along with the booking fees.

In 2024, the September event suffered low entries as Sydney* ran an event the weekend before (this date wasn’t confirmed until 5 weeks before the event and there was no way to move at that point). This was not ideal, with NCHTA running at a significant deficit (the costs of running an FEI event are high; accommodation and travel costs for the officials was close to $22000). When the calendar was being planned for 2025, and Sydney had the weekend before NCHTA’s allocated date in March, attempts were made to reschedule.

NCHTA runs events at Equestrian Park, and that calendar is also complicated with several other clubs’ bookings needing juggling with their disciplines’ peak bodies. Thanks to ACTSJC for being adaptable, NCHTA was able to change the date to the first weekend in April. The only catch with this weekend was that Eventing NSW required an FEI event to be run in the lead-up to Adelaide (Wallaby Hill had previously been allocated that weekend).

The committee of NCHTA have always tried to remain true to our mission statement:

NCHTA is committed to providing a first class environment for all levels of riders to compete, from EvA65 to the 4* level, aswell as training clinics.

Therefore, the decision has been made to run events with our FEI event (EvA80 to 4*) in the first part of the year, and our national event running from EvA65 in the second. We realise that this is disappointing for riders who had been looking forward to having a 65 start in the first part of the year, but hope that you will understand that we are unable to run 7 classes XC at an event for the following reasons:

• Lack of room on XC for that many courses
• insufficient flags for all the jumps required
• insufficient room to park everyone.

NCHTA will still run a mid winter day, with a commitment to run the pairs fancy dress as we know how this is a highlight for many, and we love seeing riders enjoying themselves.

We also have a clinic with Sam Lyle booked for the 15/16 February,

We hope that this help answer some of the questions.

2025 is going to be a very different year, as it will be our first without Ben Smith. He has left us with a legacy of a terrific XC course, and are determined that many events will be held in the future.