2021 Season update

Everyone will by now know that very sadly Badminton 2021 is off.  Fox-Pitt Eventing had obviously been living in the hope that it would be on and it would give us something exciting to aim for, so now it is off we are all feeling rather flat.  It is a real kick in the teeth for sponsors and owners to lose a second Badminton in a row, god willing everyone will stay on board.  Harry Mead and I had a very good chat with Jane Tuckwell and Andrew Tucker and they explained Badminton’s situation very clearly.  It was good to hear it from the horses mouth, however I can’t help thinking there could have been a way of running it.  It hasn’t been banned by South Western Public Health, and it hasn’t been cancelled because it was running behind closed doors, and Harry and I really felt that there could have been a way of getting Badminton village, Beaufort Hunt and rider co-operation to really make it happen. However we have got to get our heads around it not happening and I very much hope that other leading events don’t follow suit as a slightly straighter forward way out.

I think Team GB are now quite worried about Olympic preparation particularly if we lose Bramham and Chatsworth, so I really hope the sport can galvanise some excitement to get everyone ready for Tokyo and hopefully a full autumn season.  It is hard to believe that we are in March and we are looking forward to events at Blenheim and Burghley in September, they will come but they feel like an age away.

My team of horses are really well – bursting at the seams and dying for an event.  We are very lucky to have the elite events at least to get them out to, and hopefully in some decent conditions.  However I have just heard today that Cirencester Park is not happening because of lack of entries.

I am still hoping that Kentucky is a possibility and that travelling there remains straight forward with the EHV’s impending explosion. 

I will introduce my team of horses for 2021 at a later stage.

My ground team are in place for 2021, Jackie is now backed up by Emma Henry.  We have a new Lexi from South Africa, she arrived in January.  We also have Eva from Norway who is starting tomorrow.  They will be backing up Rowan and Belle, and we are very excited to have a very decent team in place.  As you know Adam left in January and is now heading off to Tom McEwen, so we wish him all the luck and look forward to seeing him out and about. 

One very exciting bit of news is that Jeep are hanging in there and as I email the lorry is being given a good facelift.  It was looking a bit tired around the edges and hopefully it will soon look brand spanking new!