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British Eventing returns to Barbury

27-03-2025 Jan Perrins

The Barbury Castle estate saw a welcome return to British Eventing at the weekend with three days of competition, showcasing some of our top riders, including Laura Collett, David Doel, Tim and Jonelle Price, Tom McEwen to name just a few.

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Badminton '25 - early bird ticket offer closes at end of March

19-03-2025 Jan Perrins

  Badminton 2025 is nearly here, taking place in early May beytween 7 - 11th.  One difference for this year - all tickets must be bought in advance as there won't be any tickets sold on the gate this year.   There is the 'early bird' advance ticket discount available, but that...

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Rockley's Will Rawlin delighted by Badminton debut

16-05-2024 Jan Perrins

New Zealander Caroline Powell pulled off a shock victory at the Mars Badminton Horse Trials at the weekend, after Tim Price and Vitali and William Fox Pitt and Grafennacht, who were in first and second respectively, had a number of fences down in the showjumping.

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Rockley's Will Rawlin ready for first Badminton appearance this week

07-05-2024 Jan Perrins

Will Rawlin describes himself as “absolutely fine” as he faces his first ever appearance at the Mars Badminton Horse Trials, which begin on Wednesday. The 30-year-old first timer, based at Rockley, said he is not overthinking the competition, regarded by many in the sport as the pinnacle in the eventing calendar,...

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Olympics target for David Doel and Galileo Nieuwmoed after success at Burghley and Badminton

06-03-2024 Jan Perrins

David Doel’s past two seasons, with his star horse Galileo Nieuwmoed, are the stuff that most event riders can only dream of. A sixth place at his debut Badminton Horse Trials, eighth at Kentucky and runner up at Burghley are the highlights - but for him this is not quite...

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Three retired racehorses, trained by local riders qualify for the horse of the Year Show

10-09-2023

Three former successful racehorses, stabled and trained now at Overton Manor Farm (and owned by the White family) in Wroughton have qualified for the Horse of the Year Show at Birmingham’s NEC in October. Trained by the ladies who will be riding them, the three horses will be competing in the...

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Bishopstone's Greta Mason looks forward to this weekend's Badminton

04-05-2023 Jan Perrins

  When Greta Mason drives through the famous Badminton gates for her debut appearance this week it will be a culmination of a three-year plan. Greta and her 16.1hh gelding Cooley for Sure (Murphy) moved to base themselves with former Badminton winner Rodney Powell at his Bishopstone yard in 2020, with a...

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Rabson Manor - a popular equestrian cross country course and training centre is to close

25-02-2023

Rabson Manor, a popular BHS Approved Facility which offers a wide variety of cross country fences for grassroots training is to be closed so we understand, because increased insurance and running costs have made the business unviable. The show jumping and dressage arenas will also close with immediate effect. The owners of...

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Larkhill point-to-point - back on Saturday 21 January - Now postponed until 28 Jan

10-01-2023

Weather has forced the postponement of this meet by one week - it will now take place on Saturday 28 Jan. Military point to point organisers say they are ‘immensely grateful’ to Defence Secretary Ben Wallace for saving the Larkhill Racecourse from closure. The Point to Point racing season sees the...

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Marlborough's Tim and Jonelle Price achieve third and fourth places at the first Burghley Horse Trials for three years

04-09-2022

Marlborough based eventing power couple Tim and Jonelle Price have finished Burghley International Horse Trials in third and fourth place. Tim and his ride Vitali took the prize from HRH Princess Anne at the event.

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An apprentice’s diary from the World Equestrian Games 2014

 

Marcelo Tosi & Eleda All Black - trotting up for the judges [Photo copyright Nico Morgan Photography.)Marcelo Tosi & Eleda All Black - trotting up for the judges [Photo copyright Nico Morgan Photography.)Imogen Hellawell (known to all as ‘Immy’) is based at Marcelo Tosi’s Woodland Farm stables in Marston, near Devizes, and is working for her Advanced Apprenticeship in Horse Care and Management with Haddon Training, who are based in Marlborough.  Her Apprenticeship programme has been specifically tailored around a professional eventing yard.

“Throughout the programme Immy has been a dedicated learner who has shown a passion for working with horses. Immy demonstrates an extremely high level of quality in her work and a strong commitment to the care of Marcelo’s horses. Getting the opportunity to groom at WEG 2014 is incredible, knowing Immy Huggy would have been turned out beautifully.”  Alex Plank, Haddon Training Assessor.

Marcelo Tosi is a Brazilian event rider. He was selected to represent Brazil at this summer’s World Equestrian Games (WEG) in Normandy. Imogen went to WEG as his groom with his horse Huggy - more formally known as Eleda All Black. [Photo of Tosi & Eleda All Black copyright Nico Morgan Photography - see more at his website.]

Imogen kept a diary of her time with Team Brazil for WEG 2014:

Packing, packing, packing
We started the trip to WEG on Saturday, August 23. We spent the day packing the truck not just for our horse, but for the other two team horses as well. By the time we were finished the truck was pretty full!

On French soil 
 We then set off at 7.00 am for the ferry in Portsmouth which was two hours away. When we were on the ferry, we did the final check on the horses (giving more hay and water) ready to leave them for the night. We arrived in Caen, France at 7.00 am. Once we left the docks we stopped to give the horses water and more hay. After a one hour drive from the docks we arrived at our base. We unloaded the horses and settled them into their stables.

The grooms' bunksThe grooms' bunksFinding our feet
We spent the most of Sunday, August 24 unpacking and getting the stables organised, in the evening we took the horses out to stretch their legs. Myself and the other grooms went to discover the groom’s accommodation, which was small but very comfortable.

Hustle and bustle
Monday and Tuesday were mostly the same:  the horses went for dressage training and then to  graze. The venue was becoming very busy with the other teams arriving.

Let the games begin…Wednesday, August 27

Marcelo and Huggy had an arena familiarisation.  This is where they could work in the warm up arena beside the main arena.  In the afternoon we had the first vet inspection, so before that I spent the early part of the afternoon plaiting and making the horse look beautiful!

Thursday 28th August

In the morning we had our dressage test, so I had to plait the horse up and prepare him for the test. Our horse did a reasonable test which we were all pleased with. In the afternoon we had one other team rider doing their test, so I went to watch it with the rest of the Brazilian team.


Friday, August 29

Today was a day off so our horse just went for a short gallop and jump just to prepare him for the cross country the following day. The rest of the day we spent a lot of time grazing.

 Our last team rider did an amazing test on Friday, putting him into the top 20 after the dressage.


Saturday,  August 30

Cross country day arrived with very wet ground, we were lucky to be ninth out on course!! The horse was taken for a light hack to relax him and stretch his muscles in the morning. I spent this time preparing the kit so I was ready to meet them at the finish (water buckets/ sponges/scrapers/spare shoes/grease/rugs etc.)

Then it was time to go cross country, I was full of nerves as the first horses hadn't made it home. Our horse came home finishing strongly! It was time to get him washed off and cooled down - this was a real team effort getting water on and off him.

When Huggy was cool enough we took him back to the stables to be iced and to rest. For the rest of the day I helped the other Team Brazil grooms with their horses at the finish, as they had helped me.   In between I kept walking and icing my horse.

In the evening it was crazy busy as we had to get all the equipment packed up, ready to leave early for the main stadium for the show jumping the following day.

Cross country day was a real team effort as everyone helped everyone! Our Chef d'Equip made sure us grooms had what we needed from food to information about the next day, and our vet gave the best care to get the horses ready for the next day.

The Brazilian riders rode all three horses home safely, so we had a team for the next day!


The showjumping arenaThe showjumping arenaSunday,  August 31
The alarm went off at 4.30am. We had to get the horses ready for an 8am trot up. My horse was a bit stiff so we took him for a long walk to loosen up.  Then we did another lot of icing. I plaited him up and prepared him for the last vet inspection, we arrived half an hour early to give them a good walk. My horse trotted up very well and passed the vet inspection, as did the other two team horses!


After the trot up it was a mad rush to get the horses loaded and ready to leave for the hour drive to the main stadium. We settled the horses and organised the equipment we needed.  At 12.45pm the riders had an arena familiarisation in the stadium, so that the horses could see everything before jumping with a full stadium of 22,000 spectators!!

Then it was my boy’s turn to jump his round. He had 3 poles down but we were very happy with him as he tried his heart out for us. There were only 13 clear rounds, so it was a course that caused a lot of problems.

Huggy in retirement Huggy in retirement When he finished it was a bit of an emotional moment as this will be his last eventing competition, as we are retiring him now. Everyone was very happy with the results as the team finished 8th out of 18 teams.

Monday, September 1

We arrived home Monday lunchtime, Huggy has now started his retirement in the field.

It was a successful WEG both for the team and Marcelo - and me.

Huggy has been an amazing horse for us, he has had an impressive career: winning team Bronze at the Pan AM Games 2011, competing at Burghley Horse Trials CCI 4* and Pau CCI 4*, the London 2012 Olympic Games and now a World Equestrian Games, he fully deserves his retirement!


 ________

 


No sooner was Immy back at the yard, than she was asked to accompany one of Tosi’s horses on its journey by air back to Brazil.

The Brazilian eventer Marcelo Tosi has been based in  Britain since 2010.  The 44-year-old has a degree in animal science and is a director of the Agromix Animal Feed company.

He was assistant trainer to the Brazilian team for the Athens Olympics in 2004.  He then based himself in Belgium for six years.  He rode for the Brazilians at the London Olympics.

In 2011 he won team bronze at the Pan Am Games in Mexico.  He now trains with Nick Turner, Mark Todd and dressage rider Anna Ross-Davies.

Eleda All Black, owned by Bronwen Jones and Iain Greer, is a 17 year-old British bred gelding.

 

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Grand National hope The Druid's Nephew highlights James' success story at Cheltenham

James - in the green jacket - leads in The Druids Nephew (photo courtesy GJ Multimedia)James - in the green jacket - leads in The Druids Nephew (photo courtesy GJ Multimedia)Just three years after his first ever contact with a racehorse at the Greatwood Charity, near Marlborough, James Paget led in a Cheltenham Festival winner - not many get to fulfill a dream like that. 

The horse he looks after at Neil Mulholland's yard, The Druids Nephew, had won the Festival's Ultima Business Solutions Handicap Chase (Grade 3) with Barry Geraghty aboard.

 “Before I went to Greatwood," James said,  "I had never had any contact with horses, but as soon as I walked through the gates I knew that I wanted to work with horses for the rest of my life.”
 
James attended Greatwood’s Get Going programme during the summer of 2012. Via the Princes Trust, he came to the charity from the Amber Foundation, a residential charity that offers a fresh start to homeless unemployed young adults and helps them gain employment and accommodation.
 
"I was living in a hostel when I met someone that had been to the Northern Racing College (NRC) - my ears pricked up and I thought that may be something I would like to do.  Also when I got talking about racing one of the members of staff at the hostel informed me that he used to be a jockey."

"Through the Princes Trust I went to Greatwood where they gave me the opportunity to apply to come to the NRC on their 12 week residential foundation course.”

After successfully completing Greatwood's Get Going programme and gaining an accredited qualification in ‘Basic Care of Horses’, James was then given a place at the NRC: “My first week was really interesting and I liked the fact that they had you doing everything from mucking out to riding within the first week.  I’m not so keen on the mucking out but when I rode for the first time it makes the mucking out well worth it!"
          
After completing 12 weeks at the NRC, James gained more qualifications and subsequently went on to secure full time employment and now has a career within the racing industry - working for Bath based trainer, Neil Mulholland.  

James is going from strength to strength and is in charge of Festival winning The Druid’s Nephew who is now vying for the most illustrious prize in National Hunt racing with an entry in the Crabbies Grand National next month.
 

Greatwood’s ‘Get Going’ innovative intensive educational programme develops key workplace skills for NEETS (not in employment, education or training), who may have struggled at school, have been in care, are long-term unemployed or have been in trouble with the law.  Get Going is an intensive British Horseracing Education & Standards Trust (BHE&ST) accredited course and provides an introduction to careers with horses and the horse racing industry with an Entry Level 2 Award in Assisting with Basic Care of Horses

GJ Multimedia

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European Eventing Championships: Great Britain's juniors in bronze position - Chelsea Pearce is in eleventh place

Great Britain's junior eventing team had good cross country day with five of their six riders going clear and inside the time. 

This put the British team in bronze medal place after both dressage and cross country stages.

And the team is less than one show jumping error behind the second placed team - France.  The German teram have led since the first day - having put in impressive dressage scores.

The championships are being held at Monteliberetti - at Italy's Military Equestrian Centre.

After the dressage stage of the Junior Championship, Marlborough's Chelsea Pearce was lying sixteenth out of the 42 junior riders.  But after 'a superb' cross country round, she has moved up to eleventh position. 

She is riding as an individual.

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New Zealand eventing looks for a UK-based manager

As we have reported, the Marlborough area is home to most of New Zealand's top-performing event riders.

Now, with some changes at the top of the sport, the High Performance Director of Equestrian Sports New Zealand is calling for expressions of interest for someone to take theUK-based role of High Performance Manager (Eventing) for 2017-2018.

"The High Performance Manager will be a key part of the Eventing High Performance Team which is tasked with delivering a world-leading eventing high performance programme that produces repeatable and sustainable successes at Olympic and World Championships." 

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The Queen watches Wiltshire PCSO Annabel Twiddy and Donnerbolzen's winning rounds

PCSO Annabel Twiddy & Donnerbolzen PCSO Annabel Twiddy & Donnerbolzen A Wiltshire Police Community Support Officer is celebrating after displaying her show jumping skills to the Queen while competing in her first ever police event at the Royal Windsor Horse Show. 

Riding her horse Donnerbolzen, PCSO Annabel Twiddy, of the West Swindon Neighbourhood Policing Team, represented Wiltshire Police,and beat off competition from 98 others to win individually.  

Her individual performance put PCSO Twiddy's team into sixth place out of a total of 33 teams. 

"All three members of each team jumped, and then the top 12 teams went into a jump off in the afternoon where Her Majesty The Queen came to watch."

"Our team qualified, and I was put forward to jump again," she said.
 "I've now been invited to represent the UK Mainland forces in Guernsey in August. Our team has also qualified for the Forces Equine Championships." 

"It was a true honour to present Wiltshire in front of the Queen, and I am so proud to have ridden for the force. I can't wait to do it again soon."

Annabel started with Wiltshire Police as a Special Constable in May 2013 and five months later joined the control room as a dispatch assistant and 999 call handler. In January 2015, she began training as a PCSO before joining the West sector team. 

A keen horse rider, she represented England Under 18s in show jumping: "I have ridden since before I could walk."

"I used to compete and breed horses full time but when the recession came around, unfortunately I had to sell all my horses bar one, which took me from 13 to one."

In 2015 PCSO Twiddy found Forces Equine who organise teams and various events for serving officers. This enabled her to compete in a mixed police team, with officers from Avon and Somerset and Derbyshire. 


She asked to be allowed to represent the force and wear a Wiltshire Police uniform:
"Permission and uniform was granted - I had a special PCSO tunic made for me and I was issued with a hat band and badge for my riding hat." 

 She is currently in the top three of the Forces Equine Champions League.

Annabel and Donnerbolzen...watched by The Queen.Annabel and Donnerbolzen...watched by The Queen.

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Nigel Bunter puts Barbury Castle Estate up for sale - future of International Horse Trials and Alan King Racing in the balance

The main ring at the International Horse Trials with the cross country course beyond it - and sheep on the downsThe main ring at the International Horse Trials with the cross country course beyond it - and sheep on the downsThe Barbury Castle Estate - owned by Nigel Bunter - is for sale.  The estate - on the Marlborough Downs just north of the town - is home to leading racehorse trainer Alan King and to the annual Barbury International Horse Trials, which is one of the country's premier eventing competitions.

It will be the second time that Alan King has had the ownership of his yard and the gallops change. There will also be some uncertainty about the future of the Barbury leg of the Event Rider Matsers competition.  The venues for the 2017 series are due to be announced next month.

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