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Dear All,
We hope that you are all staying safe during this unprecedented and difficult time, and we send our best wishes to those of you who have been affected by the coronavirus. We are all longing to get back out eventing, but at the moment we do not know what the rest of the season holds for us. Following the sad cancellation of Badminton a few members have been in contact regarding potential refunds of 2020 subscriptions. The HTSG Committee will be considering the various options once a decision has been made regarding the running of Burghley Horse Trials, so we appreciate your patience in this matter. Please note that we have already accounted for VAT on the membership and paid over the donation element to World Class as previously advised. We will be in touch with you all again in due course, and in the meantime please do take good care of yourselves and your loved ones. If you can, take a look at the Virtual Eventing competition which is being run to raise funds for NHS Charities Together. As ever we value the members support greatly, especially at this difficult time. Best wishes, HTSG Committee
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Badminton 2019 was once again another incredible event for the HTSG, especially as our fundraising events raised over £3000, more than doubling the total from 2018. These funds will go directly to supporting the British team heading to the Tokyo Olympics. A big thank you to all those members and guests who came to the marquee and brought raffle tickets and bid in our auction.  Amazing collection of raffle prizes As you’ll know the British riders had a successful event with Piggy French winning her first 5* and making it the 100th British 5* winner ever. In total 6 of the top 10 placed riders were British which is fantastic news for our teams going forward towards the Europeans this year and Olympics next year.  Piggy French & Vanir Kamira - 2019 Badminton Winners Our marquee was the usual epicentre of activity at Badminton with riders, trainers, world class teams and of course our members coming in to have refreshments all week and of course our infamous pre-cross country breakfast. We organised two events this year, our now traditional cross country preview evening on the Friday and an evening of comedy with Rory Bremner following the cross country. Our cross country preview evening panel The cross country preview proved to be very popular again this year with the marquee full with members and guests. On the panel were HTSG Ambassador Laura Collett, former Badminton winner Pippa Funnell, Team GBR Performance Manager Dickie Waygood and Badminton course designer Eric Winter. In addition to this we had Diarm Byrne of EquiRatings picking out the ones to watch and where he thought the event could be won and lost. As usual, committee member Spencer Sturmey did a great job of compering the evening. Following the cross country on Saturday evening, members and guests joined us for a very entertaining evening of comedy with Rory Bremner, who also acted as auctioneer for our fund-raising auction. Rory is a big equestrian fan with his daughter competing regularly and he brought us some very topical and hilarious impressions, including President Trump and Oliver Townend. Rory Bremner and his impressions... Throughout the event we ran a series of cross country course walks with Yogi Breisner, Ginny Elliot, Spencer Sturmey and Irish rider Joseph Murphy, all of which were very popular and well supported. About the Sunday course walk HTSG Chair, Ginny Elliot said:    Both HTSG Ambassadors, Alex Bragg and Laura Collett were competing at Badminton but neither had the best of times unfortunately. Alex was disappointed with Zagreb’s dressage score of 31.7 and on Saturday morning he made the decision to withdraw and reroute to another event and now heads to Chatsworth in the Event Rider Masters this weekend.    Alex Bragg and Zagreb Laura and Mr Bass started Badminton as one of the favourites and didn’t disappoint in the first phase with a dressage score of 27.6 to be in eighth place before cross country. On the cross country Laura and Mr Bass had a brilliant round, jumping clear with 17.2 time faults. Everyone in the HTSG marquee was thrilled to have witnessed this success. Sadly, as members arrived for the trot up on Sunday morning, they learned that Mr Bass had been withdrawn. Laura said: “I can’t quite believe I’m having to write this. Mr Bass was totally awesome jumping clear round the toughest track he’s ever seen but sadly he has sustained an injury. My special boy will be given all the love and care in the world to nurse him better. He’s my horse of a lifetime and my best friend. We will be back fighting.”       Laura Collett and Mr Bass All at the HTSG wish a speedy recovery to Mr Bass. Laura will be joining Alex in the Event Rider Masters this weekend on hot favourite London 52 so we wish them both the best of luck. Members who can’t be there can tune in to eventridermasters.tv to watch the livestream. The next big event is Burghley and members are now able claim their members passes. You should have all received an email from The Ticket Factory detailing how to claim yours online. Any problems let us know. If you came to see us at Badminton and would like to give us some feedback, positive or not please do contact us via social media (links below) or via our contact details. Don't forget to keep an eye on the website and social media channels for all the latest eventing updates and news. All photos taken by HTSG Committee Member, Michael Rogers © MDR Photo Below you can read our latest members newsletter. All the information on our Badminton Marquee and Events are available on the website.   Membership subscriptions are now due for 2019. We are pleased to confirm that we have kept the subscription prices at the same rate as 2018 despite costs for running the marquee at Badminton increasing for 2019. Subscription prices are £240 for an individual and £290 for a joint membership. You can find full payment details and both new / renewal forms on our membership page.  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.
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).
Badminton 2017 is just around the corner - full details on what events HTSG members can enjoy can be found over on our dedicated Badminton page.  |
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