The Bill Thomson Bursary, named after Defender Burghley Horse Trials’ founding cross-country course-designer and builder, is being relaunched.
Bill Thomson played a large part in establishing Burghley Horse Trials in 1961, spotting its great potential as a venue, and designed and built its famous cross-country from 1961-1983. This bursary was first established following Bill Thomson’s death in 1993 to help new British Eventing course-designers, course-builders and officials learn their craft, and to ensure the progression of safety developments within the sport.
Adrian Ditcham, Assistant Course-Designer and course-builder at Burghley and course-designer at events such as Boekelo, Belsay and Wellington, will head up a committee to manage the bursary alongside Burghley’s Event Director Martyn Johnson, who is also a British Eventing Technical Adviser, an FEI Technical Delegate and member of the FEI Eventing Committee.
Adrian, who was an early recipient of the Bill Thomson Bursary, says “Bill Thomson was probably Britain’s first professional cross-country course-builder and course-designer, and it is highly appropriate that this fantastic bursary carries his name.
Since Covid, the bursary has been in abeyance, and I am delighted that we are relaunching it. It is really important that we find our course-designers, course-builders and officials of the future; we don’t have enough of them and we need to discover them if we want the sport of eventing to stay strong.
“This is a great opportunity for both current designers and builders and people who might not yet have thought about those career paths to access funding to gain experience and work with top designers and builders to hone their skills.”
Adrian received the Bill Thomson Bursary in 1993, having seen a story about its launch in Horse & Hound. Training with Burghley’s long-serving Clerk of the Course, Philip Herbert, led to the 30-year involvement Adrian has enjoyed with Burghley, and sparked a successful and enduring career within the industry.
Other recipients include Alec Lochore – course-designer for the 2028 LA Olympics – Hugh Lochore, David Evans, Eric Winter and Jonathan Clissold and, more recently, Andrew Heffernan, Guy Herbert, Lucy McCarthy, Lloyd Hunt and Helen West.
The Bill Thomson Bursary will concentrate on two areas:
- The awarding of financial bursaries to candidates to assist them in their training and development in their respective roles
- Facilitating role-specific training at subsidised rates through the bursary.
For further information and how to apply for the Bill Thomson Bursary, click here
