Scotland’s Blair Castle to host 2015 European Eventing Championships
Britain will host the eventing European Championships in 2015 at Blair Castle.
The German venue Aachen, which ran the 2006 World Equestrian Games and has a multidiscipline festival of sport every summer, bid to run a “European Equestrian Games” in 2015 including eventing, dressage, showjumping, driving, vaulting and reining.
Aachen won five of the six disciplines, but horsesport’s international governing body the FEI awarded the eventing championship to Perthshire venue Blair Castle.
“We received extremely strong bids across the board for the 2015 European Eventing Championships,” explained Catrin Norinder, director of eventing & Olympics at the FEI.
“Blair Castle has hosted the FEI Young Rider European Championships twice in the last five years and will now be in a position to continue the London 2012 legacy, inspiring new generations of international riders.
“We are looking forward to working with the team at Blair Castle on what will be a very exciting Championship.”
Alec Lochore, event director of Blair Castle, told H&H: “It’s a tremendously exciting opportunity for the growth and development of the sport – especially to fight off strong bids from other good countries. It is very positive for both eventing and Scotland.”
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This will be the first time Blair has hosted a senior championship, although it has run two young rider Europeans in the past six years, in 2007 and 2011. The event director is Alec Lochore, currently the eventing manager for the 2012 London Olympics.
The host nation at a Europeans can field 12 riders rather than the usual six, so this will provide a brilliant opportunity for Britain to try out more up-and-coming combinations at senior level.
The last senior European Championships in Britain was at Blenheim in 2005, when the team won gold and Zara Phillips and William Fox-Pitt picked up individual gold and silver.
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Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.