Barbury International Horse Trials will go ahead this July - under new management
Despite the Barbury Castle Estate's change of ownership, the Barbury International Horse Trials will be going ahead this year - and they will be under new management. The dates for the 2017 event are confirmed as 6-9 July.
The four-day trials will be run by the Event Rider Masters (ERM) organisation which last year started a revolution in the sport of eventing - bringing to it much bigger prize money, live streamed television coverage and some Formula One-type excitement.
Last year Barbury was the venue for the third leg of the inaugural ERM series and will be on the ERM schedule again this year - the premier competition among a plethora of classes at various levels and standards.
ERM are planning to expand their series into continental Europe - their full schedule of venues will be announced towards the end of February.
The previous owner of the Barbury Castle Estate, Nigel Bunter, was very involved in every detail of the organisation of the horse trials. It is a major logistical exercise with temporary stabling for a thousand horses and with arrangements for security, safety, medical and veterinary provision, water, power and loos - not to mention the complexity of programming so many competitions and classes running in parallel.
Holly Farr, who has run the competitions for several years will continue as the Event Director
Marlborough.News understands that while Barbury Castle Estate's new owner, businessman Chris Woodhouse, wants its equestrian emphasis to continue - including Alan King's Barbury Castle training yard, the point-to-points on Barbury Racecourse and the International Horse Trials - he does not want to run events himself. He officially becomes the new owner on February 1.
Two of the eventing team for the 2016 JCB Champions Challenge versus a team of jockeys - a fun part of the Barbury International Horse Trials which the
Barbury 2016: St James's Place's James Bellamy and Penny Bunter present the CIC3* prize to Australia's Christopher Burton For the past ten years years the four-day trials have had the Cirencester company St James's Place Wealth Management as their title sponsor. It is a sponsorship that St James's Place's chief executive, David Bellamy, describes as a 'collaboration' - and this expected to continue.
Nigel Bunter started the Barbury Horse Trials in July 2005 as a one-day event. The following year 'International' was added to the title and they became a three-day event. As the number of entrants and classes increased the trials expanded to the full four days.
Last September, when the Estate was put up for sale and the future of the Horse Trials was in doubt, Lockeridge based eventer Andrew Nicholson, speaking to Marlborough.News, gave 'full credit' to Penny and Nigel Bunter for developing the trials so successfully: "It's always well supported and it's a beautiful venue. It's the best cross country course for spectators to view."
Nicholson, who has won the premier class at Barbury five years running, said then that the event would 'sadly missed' if the new owners did not want it to continue: "The whole area round Marlborough benefits from the trials - especially restaurants and hotels."