Eventing Grand Prix course
| Eventing Grand Prix course gets a new look Starters include four previous winners |  |
Course designers Kelvin Bywater and Robert Lemieux have produced a track to truly test the courage, speed and technical ability of horse and rider combinations.
Kelvin has put two time-saving short cuts in the first eight show jumps, while "out in the country" - actually Hickstead owner Douglas Bunn's garden - Robert has introduced...
- The Bunn Leisure Brush and Carlsberg Beer Garden - a related combination of three fences comprising a V-shaped brush, a large bench seat and a stack of beer kegs
- The Gastro Gold Sheep Pens, a new complex of hurdle pens - alongside one filled with sheep - and two five-barred gates and finishing over a hedge and bank.
- The BHS Trakhener - a large timber over a very large dry ditch which is normally jumped in the DFS Derby.
But the course still includes some of the crowd pullers, including the Derby Bank, the Irish Bank, the Devil's Dyke (jumped in reverse) and the Hickstead Lake.
Starters this year include four previous winners, Irish showjumper Shane Breen and event riders Mark Kyle, Gary Parsonage and last year's number one, Emilie Chandler.
Eventing challengers include Australian Stuart Tinney, who won eventing Gold at the Sydney Olympics eight years ago, Household Cavalry riding master Major Richard Waygood, Eddie Stibbe, who has ridden in more three-day events than any other rider, and two riders who have had to withdraw from the British Olympic squad this year, Lucy Wiegersma and Oliver Townend.
DFS Derby winner Ben Maher, Hickstead specialist Jane Annett and Trevor Breen - brother to Shane - are among the showjumping specialists aiming at the "gift" of a Ford Ranger for a year and £13,000 prize fund.
Added on: 14/07/08. Views: 251
Voices for Horses offers news, articles and videos from third party providers unless otherwise stated. We do not endorse the views expressed or content and make it available to you only as a service. All news items, articles and videos are copyright of the authors, film makers and original publications.
