IN 1948 THE OLYMPIC Games came to Great Britain, and with it came the sport of horse trials. It was the first Games since Berlin in 1936 and that it took place at all in a time of post-war rationing was a triumph of human endeavour and a fillip to a country demoralised by war. For the fledgling sport of horse trials — or eventing as it would come to be known — it was to be pivotal, but not with the glorious result the British equestrian cognoscenti might perhaps have anticipated. However, this weekend in August 1948 was to prove the catalyst for a sport in which Britain would lead the world and a competition, Badminton Horse Trials, would inspire generations of riders from all corners of the globe. The result, though, was famously underwhelming… the Country Life correspondent, Colonel Henry Wynmalen, was forced to write that the host eventing team “as a whole was not yet impressive”.
Among the spectators at Aldershot were the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort… Much has been made of the Duke’s dismay at Britain’s poor showing in 1948, but [Colonel Trevor] Horn’s account of the subsequent picnic beside the ducal Land Rover relays, without sensation, that, “during lunch the Duke said it would be an excellent idea if a competition on something of
