Event riders angry over wasted trip to Auchinleck Horse Trials

The organiser of Auchinleck Horse Trials has told H&H she is considering whether to run the event again, after heavy rain resulted in a last-minute cancellation.

It is the fifth time the Ayrshire event has been cancelled since 2002.

On Friday, 20 April, British Eventing (BE) reassured riders that Auchinleck was going ahead. But torrential rain in the early hours of 21 April forced the cancellation.

Organiser Aly Boswell said : “One rider wrote on our website, ‘I won’t ever make the journey again’. You are damned if you do [cancel] and damned if you don’t.”

But event rider Matthew Wright – who made the 6hr drive to Auchinleck from South Yorkshire – told H&H he thought the call could have been made earlier.

“I’ve wasted £450 of diesel and one of my horses has missed his last run before Badminton,” he said.

The weather also meant that Hambleden, Oxon, was abandoned after one day of competition.

This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (26 April 2012)

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