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Team Chasing Autumn Programme

M.F.H.A. STANDING COMMITTEE ON CROSS COUNTRY TEAM CHASING

ADMINISTRATIVE GUIDELINES
(November, 2004)

  1. GENERAL
    Cross Country Team Chasing is designed to be for the enjoyment of ordinary hunting and riding people. Thus the course should be within the capabilities of the standard of rider for whom it is designed, both to ride it safely and to enjoy doing so.

  2. THE SPORT
    Cross Country Team Chasing is a mounted sport for teams of three or four persons performing as a team over a cross country course against the clock in a certain defined manner. Normally the time of one team member can be discarded for their team.

  3. SITING
    Before choosing and building a course, the following factors require consideration:

    1. Access and egress to and from the course for cars, horseboxes, administrative vehicles, medical and veterinary vehicles.
    2. Proper medical and veterinary access, including Ambulances and other vehicles, to all parts of the course.
    3. Suitable and proper car and horse box parking arrangements.
    4. The safety of spectators, particularly at likely popular viewing places, the start and finish, the collecting ring, practice fences, etc.
    5. A good viewing site for spectators will generally enhance the popularity and financial success of an event.
    6. The ability, both financial and physical, to construct a course suitable for the type of event to be run.
    7. The importance of siting the commentary box in a position most suitable for best vision for the commentator and his assistants.
    8. The importance and difficulty of setting up the organisation to run properly an event of the chosen calibre. It is vital that there should be no lack of help to administer all the various different functions that will be required to make such an event successful.

  4. CALENDAR OF EVENTS
    The Governing Body will produce a calendar of events for the Autumn and Spring Seasons well in advance. Dates, and postponement dates, should be agreed with the Governing Body. There will be only one Open event each weekend, which is entitled to send two qualifiers to the Team Chase Championship (Open Qualifiers).

  5. OPEN QUALIFICATION
    Two teams will be entitled to qualify for the Championship from each ‘Open Qualifier’, except where four or less teams start (when there will be a maximum of one qualifier). The qualifiers will be the top two teams to complete the Event who have not already qualified elsewhere, provided that they finish in the top twelve places at that Event.
    Any team competing in the 2005 National Championship may only run under the same name as the team that qualified. Three riders must have satisfactorily completed an Open Event since 1st January, 2003. The fourth member must be able to demonstrate that he/she is suitably experienced and capable of competing in the National Championship. At least two of the horses similarly must have completed an Open Event since1st January, 2003 and the riders of the other two horses must be able to demonstrate that their horses are suitably experienced and capable of competing in the National Championship.

  6. PRIZE MONEY
    The level will be dependent on the generosity of Organisers and Sponsors. Winners should not normally receive more than one third of the total prize fund. Larger prize money in Open events should be distributed well down the line. Large monetary prizes are not desirable for secondary competitions. The prize fund for Open Qualifiers must not be less than £800 – although the Standing Committee hopes it will be £1,000 or more – of which a minimum of 35% must go to the winning team (on the basis that national sponsorship of Open Qualifiers is £500 per event).

  7. PRIZES AND MEMENTOES
    Prizes in kind are popular, particularly for secondary competitions. Prizes and rosettes should be well distributed. Where appropriate, a rosette could be awarded for those completing the course in secondary competitions. Prizes in kind can often be sought as sponsorship from local businesses.

    Individual prizes and cumulative team times are to be discouraged.

  8. TIMING
    Very accurate timing is absolutely essential. Only light beams (“electronic timing”) can accurately time fractions of a second and consequently shall be used wherever a class based on the fastest time over the course is to be run. Stop-watches shall not be used for such classes except for use as a back up and to record the time of the fourth horse where problems have arisen (e.g. one of the first three team members missing a flag and being eliminated without their knowledge, etc.).

    Stop-watches are unsatisfactory, but light beam equipment can be hired both from the B.S.J.A. and the B.H.S. (amongst others) who may also provide an operator.

    If a flag start is used, the time beam should be set to start when the first competitor crosses the starting line. The beam shall be set to record the time of the third horse in the team as it crosses the finish line. Therefore, the total elapsed time for the team around the course shall be from when the first horse crosses the start line to when the third horse crosses the finish line. The time lapse between the third and fourth horse shall also be recorded and used in the event of a problem arising similar to that described above.

    In speed classes, the stopping of teams on the course should be avoided if at all possible. However, if this is required for safety reasons then dedicated stopping points shall be provided which are staffed by experienced personnel in radio contact with Control. Stopping procedure shall be given in Appendix A.

    In Open competitions, only one team shall be allowed onto the course at any time and so the stop procedure detailed in Appendix A should not be necessary.

    All Open competitions should be electronically timed and be calculated to 100th of a second. There must be proper visible timing mechanism, so that this can be seen by spectators, competitors and commentators during the whole round – it is important that justice needs to be seen to be done. It is also important to time the fourth horse of a team home, as well as the third, in case of later disqualification.

    Where a bogey time is employed (which is encouraged) it should be based on normal hunting pace (and not other spurious factors) and is expected to be in the region of 450-500 metres per minute.

  9. RESULTS
    Results should be available within a few minutes of the last team completing the course, and prize giving should occur as soon as possible afterwards and certainly within 30 minutes of the conclusion of the event. A large scoreboard displaying results and times is recommended. Competitors and spectators should be encouraged to attend prize-givings, not least as a compliment to sponsors, landowners and organisation. Prize givings should be well-presented and properly audible – they are the showcase of the sport.

  10. OFFICIALS
    There should be sufficient officials to fill all jobs. On a long day, often relief (particularly for fence judges, etc) will be necessary which can necessitate reserves being available. Officials should be in their allotted place on time. It is essential for them to be well briefed and know exactly what is required of them.

  11. COMMENTATOR/CONTROL
    The commentator should be kept well informed about participants and their horses. From a public viewpoint, the chosen commentator has a great influence on the success of an event, and he must always strive to maintain interest, not least by giving up-to-date results, times, other background information and matters of interest. He should also mention Sponsors whenever possible. A knowledge of Team Chasing on a national basis is essential for those commentating on Open Qualifiers.

    It should be remembered that the commentator is not in charge of scoring, time-keeping or collecting correct results. He is in charge of relaying to the public correct information and results fed to him by the Organisers. To this end, the Governing Body will be obtaining Team Profiles for the Open Qualifying teams to send out to Events for the use of Commentators facilitating and streamlining entry forms for Open Qualifiers.

    A Controller is required to run the cross country course. The Controller’s duties are as given in Appendix B and in order to be able to fulfil these duties, at least two radio nets will be required. One net should be for fence judges to report the progress of teams around the course. The Controller shall be able to listen and talk on this net and the commentator shall be able to listen only. A second net is required for administration purposes and is commonly used to communicate with emergency services (unless a third net is used for this purpose). The Controller shall be able to listen and talk on this (these) net(s).

  12. PUBLIC ADDRESS
    The public address system should reach as much of the course and area covered by the event as is possible, and in particular should cover the horse box parking area. The P.A. system should not be used for event administration.

  13. THE DRAW
    Championship classes should be drawn for starting order; in other normal classes starting order may be allotted by the Organisers. If an order of competing is drawn or advertised it should be adhered to.

  14. PRESENTATION OF OPEN QUALIFIERS
    It is recommended that Open Qualifiers should whenever possible take place in the middle of the day (neither at beginning nor end of the day), as competitors often have to travel further.

  15. PROGRAMMES
    All Events should produce a printed or typed programme, produced to the best standard possible commensurate with the classes being run, and containing as much information as it is possible and sensible to give.

  16. TIMELINESS
    It is important for an event to run as close as possible to its advertised or allotted times, which can require considerable additional organisation in a busy period. In the case of competitors, spectators and sponsors, the success or otherwise of a particular event is often partially judged on its timeliness.

  17. ENTRY FEES
    The Standing Committee recommend that for the current season, all Events should charge a minimum entry fee of £100 per team for Open Events, and £80 per team for Novice/Intermediate Events. This can be divided between an entry fee and a declaration fee on the day, if desired, or not. A late entry fee could be added on top, if appropriate.

    The Standing Committee considers that all events should at least cover their own costs (excluding sponsorship), and that all sponsorship monies should be utilised for prize money for competitors, and for the promoter’s profit.

    Clarification of individual event guidelines in respect of entry fee refunds in the event of cancellation or postponement should be made clear in the event schedule.

  18. OBSTRUCTION
    Dogs must be kept on leads at all times and a Notice to this effect should appear in the programme. Small children should remain under the care and be the responsibility of their parents.

  19. SIGNING OF EVENTS
    Routes to and from events should be well signed.

  20. HORSE SIZE
    Except in classes judged on a “Bogey” time, it is recommended that normally horses should be over 14.2 h.h.

  21. LENGTH OF COURSE
    This is controlled by class classification (Rule 22), but as a guide a course of 1½ to 1¾ miles with about 25 fences might be the optimum.

  22. TEAMS ON THE COURSE
    Organisers will have to judge how many teams can safely and prudently be accommodated on the course at any one time. In an Open Championship Qualifier or Open competition it is recommended that not more than one team should normally be on the course at the same time, except in exceptional but safe circumstances. In other classes, it is suggested that two teams on the course simultaneously will normally be sufficient.

  23. COURSE REPAIR
    Better-built courses require fewer repairs on the day. Hold-ups for course repair should be avoided, but too many vehicles all descending on one fence to repair it can also be counter productive in other ways. Often more than one repair gang is required for course repair during an event, and as a guide one 4WD vehicle with two men, materials and tools is sufficient for every 10-12 fences.

  24. THE RULES
    The M.F.H.A. Rules are mandatory and should wherever possible be printed in the event programme. Events can add on their own rules, but they cannot reduce or vary any of the M.F.H.A. Rules. Where the M.F.H.A. Rules cannot be printed in full, there must be a note in the programme that the M.F.H.A. Rules apply to the event.

  25. WEBSITE
    Team Chasing has its own website (run by Mick Hawkins at www.teamchasing.co.uk). Organisers are asked to give full details of their events to Mick Hawkins at the website, and he will try to ensure that these are all included on the website.

  26. TEAM COLOURS
    It is recommend that all Open Teams are encouraged to wear Team colours. Team colours will be mandatory in the Team Chase Championship final.

  27. ACCIDENT REPORT FORMS
    Copies of the Accident Report Form should be given to each Fence Steward and MUST BE COMPLETED FOR ANY ACCIDENT and returned to the Event Secretary. A person can sue for three years after an accident (or three years after they attain the age of 18) so it will be necessary for all completed forms to be kept for five years, or longer in the event of an accident involving anyone under the age of 18.

    Completed Accident Report Forms should also be made available to the Course Inspector when he/she inspects your course the following year.

    Blank forms are available from the M.F.H.A. office.

  28. RISK ASSESSMENTS
    Each event is required to complete a Risk Assessment – pro-forma available from the M.F.H.A. office – which must be available for the Course Inspector to see when inspecting the course.