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New hosts for major dressage shows after venue steps back

Becky Murray Becky Murray

    • British Dressage (BD) has announced a series of venue changes for major Scottish summer dates.

    The Scottish Championships for BD members (12-14 June), Area Festival (17-19 July) and the summer regionals (8-9 August) had been due to take place at Rockrose Equestrian, in Haddington, near Edinburgh – but BD has confirmed that owing to a “change of organisation personnel” at Rockrose, the venue has “unfortunately had to withdraw” from hosting these events.

    “Following this disappointing news, the BD team at head office, in consultation with the rules and fixtures committee, has been working hard to reallocate the Area Festival and regional championships to new venues on the originally planned dates to minimise disruption to members’ competition plans,” said a BD spokesperson (1 April).

    “Thanks to the co-operation and flexibility from other BD venues in Scotland, this process has been completed swiftly.”

    All three fixtures will continue on their original dates; the Area Festival will take place at Netherton Equestrian, Perthshire – with an additional day on 16 July – and the regional championships at Bogenraith Equestrian, Aberdeenshire. The Scottish Championships will run at Highfield at Howe, Fife.

    “We appreciate that some members will be impacted by the change in geographical location for these fixtures. However, due to the short timescales involved, it was important to allocate based on the original tender applications we received and select venues that have run major dates previously, with a proven track record in organising these events and providing the required standard of facilities to meet our competition criteria,” said a BD spokesperson.

    “BD would like to thank the organisers at Netherton, Bogenraith, and Highfield for their support, as well as our members for their understanding. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Rockrose Equestrian for their support of BD over the past decade and we hope to see them hosting again in future.”
    On 31 March James Cunningham at Rockrose Equestrian thanked the dressage organising team at the venue, including the South East Scotland Dressage Group, Liz Anne Dobson and the current committee of Harry Payne, Linda Faulks and Sarah McLean, for “all their help and for running these shows so well for me over the last 10 years” – and all the volunteers.

    “Whether you were a judge, steward, test sheet runner, scorer or a scriber. Without you, championships wouldn’t take place. I’d also like to thank BD for giving Rockrose the opportunity to run these championships over the years too,” he said.

    “This doesn’t mean dressage at Rockrose is over. There will be a revised programme and there will be dressage here every month going forward, with a variation of affiliated and non-affiliated days.”

    Mr Cunningham said once dates are finalised these will be updated on the Rockrose Facebook page.

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    Becky Murray
    Becky Murray

    H&H senior news writer
    Since joining H&H in 2018, Becky has covered a broad range of equestrian news including welfare matters, veterinary studies, FEI Tribunal hearings and road safety campaigns. She has also interviewed top riders including Scott Brash, John Whitaker and Ian Stark, to name just a few. Becky’s reporting has taken her to Canada for Spruce Meadows and France for Pau five-star, as well as the Royal Highland and Blair Castle International Horse Trials closer to home. She was also a key part of the remote reporting team for the Tokyo Olympics and the Europeans.
    Becky Murray

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