Kate's corporate banking background (no, not this bank!) has helped in the negotiatations for the leasing arrangements required to get Tonimbuk back on track
Kate Wallis, President of the Tonimbuk Horse Trials committee wasn’t daunted by the car park of knee high weeds that greeted her when she first came to look at the Tonimbuk Equestrian Centre last year. It took many months of negotiation to enable the horse trials, which has been run here for approximately 18 years but missed running in 2014 due to the purchase of the entire facility by Hanson Quarry, but this didn’t faze Kate who works in the corporate environment and could deal with the lease arrangements that had to be put in place.
Originally the lease was put in place for 2015 only but the future looks bright with the large conglomerate Hanson hopefully extending the lease for future years and, even though there is the plan for an access road for the quarry trucks in future years, this can be worked around so that the event can still take place. We caught up with Kate Wallis and Ewan Kellett, the new cross country course designer, to find out more about the preparations to run this year’s event and plans for the future of Tonimbuk Horse Trials
Kate Wallis
