Hopetoun Horse Trials pull grassroots competition
In a further blow for Scottish eventers the organisers of Hopetoun Horse Trials have pulled its grassroots competition from the British Eventing (BE) calendar.
The event, which was due to run from BE80 though to novice on 25-26 July, has been cancelled because it is no longer a “viable option for the Estate and Bede Events to run”.
The organisers of Central Scotland Horse Trials have agreed to step in and host a replacement event at Dalkeith Country Park in Midlothian that weekend.
Hopetoun International will still run from one-star to three-star in June (25-28).
Stuart Buntine of Bede Events said: “Unfortunately the increased requirement to keep the park free from stock for the extra five weeks makes a significant impact on logistics, this plus the challenge of taking the Bede Ltd team north makes the event increasingly difficult to run.
“We would like to thank everyone who came to this fixture previously for their support.”
Dalkeith organiser Bruce Edward said that is was “great” to be able to use the “fantastic site” twice this year.
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“Sadly the downside is that this news comes because of the loss of another event in the region, ideally we would have liked to have a new one added for members in Scotland,” he added.
The loss of Hopetoun comes after it was announced last August that one of Scotland’s longest established venues — Auchinleck —had been axed from the eventing calendar due to its patchy running record.
BE’s Mike Etherington-Smith told H&H at the time that the decision had been made in order to find an alternative venue that could “provide a more reliable fixture for the membership”.
Aly Boswell, who ran Auchinleck at her home in Ayrshire for 30 years, said last summer that she hoped “BE would manage to think again.”
“It is a great sadness for Scotland. It really is a nice old-fashioned well-built course and I have had hundreds of responses from people about its cancellation,” she added.
Boost for Scottish U18s
The family of four-star eventer Charlotte Agnew are helping Scotland’s U18 eventers by offering three new awards.
Two riders will receive the Charlotte Agnew training bursary, which will provide £150 towards training with a BE accredited coach and a jacket.
One of the bursaries will be awarded to the winner of an U18 open novice accumulator, with points being awarded at all Scottish ONu18 events. The other Bursary will be given to the rider who accumulates the most points at BE100.
The family are also offering The Little Beau trophy — named after Charlotte’s junior, young-rider and four star ride — which will be awarded to a rider, registered on the programme and competing at either BE100 or open novice, who stands out as having shown exceptional horsemanship or sportsmanship during the year.
Fore more information visit: www.britisheventing.com/youtheventing
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Sophia Heath joined Horse & Hound in July 2013 having previously worked for the Daily Telegraph's Olympics website, CNN International and Omnisport. A Durham graduate with a Masters in journalism from City University, Sophia has evented, showjumped and hunted. Sophia left Horse & Hound in early 2015 to join an international boating website.