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The beginning of May saw our busiest and most exciting time of year, Badminton Horse Trials. After a very challenging start to the 2018 eventing season with many cancellations it was great to be at the biggest and best 4* event in the world and also enjoy some bright sunshine.  As always the Horse Trials Support Group had our members marquee just a stone’s throw from the main arena, offering members a great place to meet friends, watch the action on screens, enjoy good quality food and attend several events put on by the Committee. 197 members took up their Badminton passes this year which represents the majority of our membership – it was wonderful to greet so many of you in the marquee. We hosted a number of events throughout the four days of the event which included:
   
  Photos © Fiona Scott-Maxwell
 Laura Collett with the many prizes from our raffle We would like to thank our members and guests for their generous support at these events over the four days.
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Last weekend our second training Scholar for 2018 Laura Collett headed to Chatsworth International Horse Trials to compete on three horses in the CIC3* - Dacapo, London 52 and top horse Mr Bass.
Laura and Mr Bass were competing in the first leg of the Event Rider Masters series. 
Photo © Fiona Scott-Maxwell
Laura and Mr Bass scored a personal best in the dressage and were leaders after the first phase on a score of 25.3. Laura was quick to directly thank the Horse Trials Support Group for the additional training her scholarship funding has allowed her to secure.
On Sunday Laura headed into the show jumping as overnight leader and last to go, but unfortunately had four faults with one fence down. The show jumping proved tricky with only nine of the 39 competitors jumping clear and within the time.
Photo © Fiona Scott-Maxwell
Heading into cross country everything was still to play for as at Chatsworth the time is incredibly influential. Laura and Mr Bass jumped a lovely clear round with just 6.4 time penalties to finish an excellent fourth place.
Photos © Fiona Scott-Maxwell
Although Laura was a little disappointed to have four faults in the show jumping, the key thing about this run is that it was a really good preparation run for the 4* event at Luhmuhlen in just over four weeks time.
Redpath Ransom was a little tense with the atmosphere heightened as it always is on Friday afternoon. Alex said ‘Both my boys tried really hard on their dressage. Zagreb performed a consistent test for a competitive sub 30 score. Redpath Ransom’s nerves got the better of him and the tension prevented him from picking up good marks’. We saw Alex again on Friday evening along with fellow scholar Laura Collett as they were presented with their Training Scholar awards at our Cross-Country Preview Evening. Their humour was well received by the crowd, who valued their insight into the course.
Saturday dawned bright, we bumped into Alex walking the course and he was happy and looking forward to the day. Zagreb was early out on the course and stormed confidently round, unfortunately breaking a pin at Fence 18. It was great to see them through the finish with a smile.     Alex & Zargreb - Photos © MDR Photo The great sadness of the afternoon was the catastrophic injury to Redpath Ransom on the flat towards the end of the course - until then he had given Alex an amazing ride around the course with Alex really getting the crowd cheering at the lake. Our heartfelt sympathies go out to the entire team.         Alex & Redpath Ransom - Photos © MDR Photo Alex bravely presented Zagreb for the second horse inspection on Sunday morning. Simmone and Heather had Zagreb looking fantastic and he passed with no problems. The show jumping course caused many problems and was very tight for time. Zagreb jumped a great round for just 4 faults and the crowd appreciated Alex’s obvious pleasure with his horse.  Photo © Fi Boughton Overall, it was not the Badminton the team were hoping for but we are delighted to hear of new horses joining the team in the coming weeks and look forward to the yard visit to meet them all in June (keep an eye on Facebook and here on the website for more info).
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