Minchinhampton is just one of the beautiful villages close to Gatcombe Park
Set in the stunning Cotswold countryside Gatcombe Park is gearing itself up to welcome over 40,000 visitors this weekend as the much loved ‘Festival of British Eventing’ gets underway. As those visitors, with picnic’s packed and labradors in tow, make their way to Gatcombe driving through typical English villages with wonderful names like Minchinhampton they can be sure they will be going home with great eventing memories as they will be able to watch many of the worlds top riders compete. In the past couple of months the whole of Britain has enjoyed some wonderful weather and this weekend it looks set to continue. With temperatures forecast to be around 23 degrees with a mixture of sunshine and cloud the Pimms will no doubt be flowing …
But before we get too carried away lets take a look at who has been doing what at Gatcombe and which riders are looking forwarding to competing there this weekend.
Tim Henson is the Director of The Festival of British Eventing and has been busy in the last couple of weeks with the finishing touches for the event. In a recent blog Tim said “The Estate has cut a good crop of hay, which has left it all looking beautifully neat and tidy, and although a good dollop of rain would be most welcome (what a difference a year makes!), the team on the ground has the relevant plans in place to work on the going should we need to do so. The machinery is all booked and the guys are ready to spring into action.”
Captain Mark Phillips checks out the course at Luhmuhlen before this thoughts turned to Gatcombe
As well as being the Organiser of the event Captain Mark Phillips has been the cross country course designer at Gatcombe for several years and passed on his thoughts on this years event to Sam Lloyd (from Lloydbell Productions).
To hear what he had to say CLICK HERE
Since it’s first event back in the 1980’s Gatcombe Park has always managed to have a family feel to its event despite the size of it’s venue and as joint organiser Peter Phillips (son of Captain Mark Phillips and Anne, Princess Royal) recently commented that is something they try hard to promote. “We know we can provide world class sport by attracting the best riders in the world to come to Gatcombe. But for those people who aren’t really interested in the equine side of things we have around 100 trade stands at the event, along with lots of arena entertainment going on so there is plenty for everyone.”
Chris Burton and Graf Liberty on their way to winning the CCI* Tattersalls last year -
they now head to Gatcombe in the British Open Championships
The Festival of British Eventing runs four classes with the highest of these being the British Open Championships. Australia is well represented in this class with Andrew Hoy (Cheeky Calimbo), Bill Levett (Shannondale Titan), Lucinda Fredericks (Flying Finish), Christopher Burton (Graf Liberty) while Sam Griffiths plans to ride both Happy Times and Paulank Brockagh. However the class will certainly be hard fought with British riders Kristina Cook (Miners Frolic), William Fox-Pitt (Neuf Des Coeurs) and Pippa Funnell (Or Noir De La Loge) to mention just a few who will be keen to keep the winners trophy in British hands. Then when you throw Andrew Nicholson (Avebury, Nereo and Viscount George), Mark Todd (Ravenstar) and Jock Paget (Clifton Lush and Clifton Promise) into the equation you can be sure this class will provide those thousands of spectators with excitement from start to finish!
Paul Tapner will also have a busy weekend with two horses entered in the Smith & Williamson British Intermediate Championships, one in the British Novice Championships and two in the Advanced section, while Matt Ryan, Bill Levett, Sam Griffiths and Lucinda Fredericks also have rides in other classes.
AEL will be at Gatcombe Park from 2-4 August for this year's Festival of British Eventing providing full coverage for our 4* members
