Where horses meet houses
THINGS may have changed since the days of spectators wearing bucket hats and sitting on straw bales in front of Badminton House in Gloucestershire, but the gracious backdrops that form the British eventing season’s USP and create an evocative pull for ambitious riders are very much still standing.
The Range Rover Sport may have replaced the Dodge Coronet and the helmet and Lycra the bowler hat and elephant-ear jodhpurs, but, for seven decades, the world’s most famous horse trials have been taking place in front of splendid country houses with cross-country courses that thread through the undulating topography of ancient parkland planted with majestic trees. How pleased would the 10th Duke of Beaufort be to know that Great Britain is the current Olympic, World and European champion in eventing for the first time since 1972? After all, he started Badminton in 1949 to give home riders the edge at Olympic Games.
How pleased would the 10th Duke of Beaufort be to know that Great Britain are Olympic champions?
The great houses of Burghley in Lincolnshire,
