This Thursday, the 25th of August will see the Blair Castle International Horse Trials return for another year of full-on eventing and horse-riding action. The event which runs until Sunday 28th of August will feature international and Grassroot eventing alongside a variety of shows.
After the disruption of the pandemic the Trials returned last year in the glorious August sun, with some restrictions in place, but this year there will be no restrictions and bumper numbers of riders registered.
With the changes in restrictions Nicky Townshend the Assistant Director for the Horse Trials explains what will be different this year: “Everyone’s really excited to be back to normal and have a full experience. So, we’ll have all of our usual entertainment, so we’ll be able to have our Caeli on Thursday evening and our Disco on Saturday evening which all of the people staying on site really enjoy, and the slightly different catering options as well without the social distancing indoors we can offer some different food and drink offerings which were really excited about.”
The Horse Trials will be supporting two charities this year in the British Eventing Support Trust and the Equine Grass Sickness Fund, Assistant Director Nicky Townshend explains the work that both these charities do: “British Eventing Support trust do some amazing work with riders who have been injured or having mental health issues and it can be in all sorts of different ways whether it support when they’ve been injured and had a fall and had some life changing injuries or whether it’s something they are working through with some mental health struggles.
“So that’s really important, and I think the rural community can be quite isolated so that’s something that’s really important to us as an eventing community, and we’re also supporting the Equine Grass Sickness Fund which is a nationwide charity but particularly important in Scotland, that there’s a disease that effects a lot of horses and ponies and doesn’t have a known reason for it happening or a good treatment plan. So, there’s a lot of research going into that.”
Adding: “We’re happy to be able to support two really good charities this year.”
The gates open to the Public at 8:30am on each day except Saturday when they open at 8am. There is no specific end date as it depends on when the competitions finish. Thursday sees the eventing get underway with the CCI1* through to the CCI4*’s taking part in the Dressage events with shows taking place elsewhere.
Friday sees a blend of Show Jumping, Dressage and Cross County, with Saturday and Sunday featuring more Show Jumping and Cross Country.
To find out more about all the action that will be taking place across the four days of eventing action visits: https://www.blairhorsetrials.co.uk/