Apassionata

• Rating

My boyfriend bought me VIP tickets as a birthday present and we accompanied his parents to this event, where we sat on one of the tables right next to the manege show area. The VIP ticket (priced over £99 each) included a buffet meal - however, the meal was anything but a buffet. The small portions of 'canape' type food was inadequate to be classed as a 'buffet' - there was only a limited amount of items on each table - which shouldnt be the case when its a buffet. Our group had specifically not had any lunch that afternoon as we were expecting a decent sized buffet to go with the expensive tickets purchased, hence when we saw what pathetic amount of canape food was provided on each table, we were left extremely hungry at the end. Extremely unsatisfying and I think the price charged for the VIP experience is very overcharged and a real rip off. The show itself was very disappointing also. There was no upkeep with the story throughout and when speaking to other people, they were left very confused most of the way through the performance as to what was going on. The riding performances were dragged out, and it seemed 80% of them were dressage based with the odd exciting piece with the fire jumping and the saddle mauvering. I have seen a few of these horse performances in the past (at Horse of the Year show, Olympia, and Spirit of the Horse) and I thought this was the the poorest of them all. I find it hugely insulting that this event has been named 'Show of the Year 2010'. I would say dont waste your money going to this event as the ones at Horse of the Year show/Olympia or Spirit of the Horse is so much better