Geoff Simpson the award

During the Keysoe CDI dressage show, I used the opportunity to congratulate the president of British Dressage on nominating Geoff Simpson for the “Torch Trophy trust” award that Geoff just received in ceremony in London”. For those that don’t know who Geoff is . He is the man present in every major dressage show , championships, CDIs , etc. If there is a working in arena Geoff will be there . I don’t know if he is actually a BD official or just some one that uses an opportunity to wear latex gloves and stick hands where others will not dare to do. He has two type of latex gloves , the short palm size to inspect horses bits (the one in the mouth) and the full arm length ones that he wears when approaching a rider that blatantly broke the arena working in protocol. You can also recognize Geoff by the fact that he is nearly always DRENCHED SOGGY AND WETT . So I said to OUR president “Well done !!! I suppose with all his hard work over the years it was an EASY decision for the committee to nominate Geoff for the “Torch Trophy Trust “ award , a SMALL acknowledgement for HIS contributions to our sport. “Not really” OUR president replied . “ The awarding body stipulated that the recipient must attend in person on the specified day of the ceremony. We obviously first suggested Charlotte D , but she was not able to attend due to other commitments on the other side of the world. Than we approached her trainer , the guy from Gloucester cant remember his name at the moment , but he was already booked to judge on “America Got Talent “ (they hope he will find one) . Next option was an up and coming Junior Trainer , he could have done any date apart from that particular day , his pupil booked a lesson. So it went through the majority of BD members without successes . At one point the organizer of the ceremony was starting to lose patience and shouted “WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU DRESSAGE LOTS WE WANT TO GIVE YOUR SPORT AN AWARD and you are SO stuck up that YOU can’t find one person free to collect it”. At that moment one of the girls in the office interrupted and said . I looking in the Diary , on this day there is NO!! CDI, Premier league or other major Dressage Event ,Geoff Simpson he is retired from his teaching job he is sure to be free”. The president continued “ I was so frightened that this opportunity to highlight our sports achievements to the public will be lost that I shouted GOOD send Geoff to collect it. Well Geoff , we really don’t care how you came to get this AWARD you deserve it --- CONGRATULATION.