2019 European Eventing Championships for Young Riders and Juniors at Maarsbergen
There is no point in letting a great cross country course go to waste so the team at Maarsbergen Horse Trials decided to put on a top class training event when their International event had to be cancelled
Due to Covid-19, the International event that was due to run at Landgoed Maarsbergen in the Netherlands on June 18th – 20th was cancelled but the organisers had an idea to run a different sort of event last weekend instead
Maarsbergen Horse Trials hosted the 2019 European Eventing Championships for Young Riders and Juniors and it seemed a shame to let the beautiful cross country designed by Eric Winter go to waste this year. Plenty of volunteers were also keen to help a hand so, although the usual international event could no go ahead, the event organisers decided to host organize the Topsport Trainings Driedaagse (TTD) in collaboration with the Dutch governing body of the sport, the KNHS
The main aim was to help the Dutch eventing riders prepare for the re-start of the season with a training event in a competition environment. The various national coaches of the pony riders, Juniors, Young Riders and Seniors who ride at International level were invited to train at the event with combinations riding their dressage test on the Thursday, a show jumping course on Friday and tackling Eric Winter’s cross country course on Saturday.
Experienced international eventing riders such as Tim Lips, Elaine Pen and Merel Blom took part in the CCI2* and 3* training event and, although spectators were not allowed, the event was also a chance for grooms, officials and even team veterinarians to keep their hand in and participate in an event environment
The course at Maarsbergen runs through some beautiful woodland – check out how it looked for the training event below
