Eventing Spring Carnival at Thoresby Park 2025 XC Videos
“It's a little bit flattering having the standard of rider that I do have here” said Stuart Buntine, cross country course designer and event director for the 2025 Eventing Spring Carnival at Thoresby Park, taking place from 27th – 30th March.
The standard of rider is indeed high across the classes with the top seven ranked eventing riders in the world competing. The feature class is of course the Lycetts Grantham Cup CCI4*-S (Section G), the first international competition on the 2025 British Eventing calendar which starts with the first section of dressage on Thursday afternoon.
This section is packed with big names including the three Paris 2024 Olympic gold medal winning combinations, Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo, Tom McEwen and JL Dublin and Laura Collett riding London 52. Back-to-back winners in 2023 and 2024, Emily King and Valmy Biats return to try and make it three in a row and New Zealand combinations abound with Tim Price riding Falco and Vitali, Clarke Johnstone riding Rocket Man and Menlo Park and Jonelle Price riding Hiarado and Grappa Nera, just to mention a few.
Running alongside the Grantham Cup is the BEDE CCI4* Section H, which also runs dressage on Thursday and Friday, showjumping on Saturday morning and cross country on Sunday afternoon. This too is packed with great entries including Australia’s Kevin McNab on Faro Imp, Badminton-bound Samantha Cesnik riding Graftango and Lissa Green riding Go On Biats.
New Zealand’s Tayla Mason with her two homebred horses that went so well last year is also in this class along with another Kiwi Badminton entry in Jesse Campbell and Cooley Lafitte.
“Well, this year we're reversing the track, so that gives you lots of new ideas because ground comes up at you in a very, very different way” Stuart told us in our video above (apologies for the sound quality).
“The reason we reversed it was, for the last three years, the lawn, which is where all the big questions and excitement is, came up very quickly, came up around Fence seven, eight and nine. So, by reversing it, it'll come much further into the course, so the horses will be much more ‘in the zone’, if you like.
The downside is the water comes up quite soon, so the water is quite early, but the first water is quite straightforward. The second water for the four-star is a bit more difficult, so it's got a whole new feel and it's going to be quite exciting”
Thoresby will feature some new-style deformable fences this year which will no doubt have the riders talking, but are the next step on the eventing safety roadmap says Stuart (find out more about the Deformable Frangible Fences at Thoresby here) and the push for more frangibles on cross country is being supported by the Georgie Campbell Foundation, as her sister, Jo Williams, told us.
The event also hosts a CCI3*-S, CCI2*-S, Advanced (including Advanced U21), Intermediate, Open Intermediate (including Open Intermediate U21), Novice and Open Novice (including Open Novice U18) so there is plenty happening!
An Eventful Life is filming all competitors on cross country and bringing you daily reports. Plus keep an eye on our social pages for updates throughout!
