We had such a fabulous time at Bede Events’ Belton International Horse Trials last year that we just had to come back to the UK and do it all again! But this year we are starting the season early with the first Bede Events competition at Oasby near Grantham in Lincolnshire from 12th – 15th March. With over 1,000 entries across the board in BE90, BE100, BE100 Open, Novice, Open Novice, Pony Trials, Intermediate and Open Intermediate official events plus training classes on Sunday, this going to be an action packed few days!
There are a host of great riders having a hit out at Oasby including Bill Levett who said in his recent blog that it is “one of my favourite early season events as I feel the ground is always excellent and the courses well built and perfect for a first run of the season”. Bill has his WEG mount Shannondale Titan in the Open Intermediate I on Friday; other riders to watch in this class are Jodie Amos and Wise Crack, last year’s Britannia League winners, Ireland’s Aoife Clark and Vaguely North, rising British stars Gemme Tattersall and Izzy Taylor and Andrew Hoy riding the talented but tricky Lanfranco
Andrew is also riding Algebra, Nat Blundell’s previous mount, in the Open Intermediate Section H, another class packed with big names such as Mark Todd on Leonidas, Piggy French on Seapatrick Dark Cruise, Oliver Townend on Cooley SRS and Caroline Powell on Stellor Seaurchin. Nick Gauntlett will be giving the Australian thoroughbred El Grado a hit out and Bella Innes-Kerr is down from the chilly north with her up and coming horses.
But of course it is not all about top level riders; Oasby is designed to be an early season event for all levels and suitable for first time runs over flat ground through one valley. Course designer Stuart Buntine has varied the course from 2014 – a quick look at the relatively simple course layout shows why our video guys love doing these courses!
British Eventing accredited coach Sue Colley will be available to walk the BE90 and BE100 courses with riders on Friday and Saturday evenings at 5.30pm, providing the perfect training opportunity for less experienced riders and, with Friday not only falling on the 13th but also Red Nose Day, Bede Events are aiming to raise as much money as we can for the charity Comic Relief. If you’re heading to the event, take some spare change to keep the ‘bucket shakers’ happy or you can visit my.rednoseday.com/sponsor/teambede to donate online.
We’ll certainly be on the lookout for your favourite eventers ‘looking funny for money’ wearing their red noses and Nicola Todd will be standing by to capture them on camera and bring us some updates. We will of course be videoing all riders on the cross country every day so there will be some great footage coming up – if you see Paul out on course, make sure you say hi!
With only a few showers forecast it should be a great way to blow the cobwebs out over Stuart Buntine’s cross country course and we’re really looking forward to our first, of many, British events for 2015
Order or view videos from Oasby1 here
View our 2015 UK XC video calendar here
All photos courtesy Nicola Todd
