An Eventful Life will be filming all competitors on cross country at Gatcombe (1) - find out more here
It finally seems as if the weather is on our side and, fingers crossed, all is looking good for a weekend of eventing at Gatcombe Park
Not only is the event held by the kind permission of HRH The Princess Royal at her home at Gatcombe Park, Minchinhampton but The Princess Royal is also the joint course designer with Pattie Biden for the classes at Novice (Saturday) and Intermediate levels (Sunday)
The Intermediate classes on Sunday, which include two Intermediate, three Open Intermediate and one Advanced Intermediate classes, are packed with big international eventing names but particularly it seems, Antipodeans emerging from the depths of winter.
Chris Burton brings the 2016 Burghley winner Nobilis 18 for his first big run since Aachen last year, Quality Purdey, Bahira M (who won the Intermediate here at Gatcombe (2) last year) and Polystar I while Sam Griffiths has reclaimed his team of horses for 2018 and will be competing the Blair Castle 2* winner Gurtera Cher, Badminton bound Paulank Brockagh and Billy Liffy on the Sunday
Paul Tapner is also riding his Badminton horse Bonza King of Rouges while Bill Levett has three in the Section L with Improvise, Lassban Diamond Lift and his Badminton horse, Alexander NJ, all competing
Andrew Hoy, Warren Lamperd, Sammi Birch, Catherine Burrell are also in the line-up as are Kiwi riders James Avery, Jonelle and Tim Price, Jesse Campbell, Andrew Nicholson and Dan Jocelyn
We’ll be keeping an eye out for Jonelle in the Novice on Saturday with an interesting new ride – the very lovely young mare Grappa Nera, previously ridden with great success by Alex Postolowsky. Grappa Nera is sired by Karandasj, who has already produced some very good eventing progeny including Tim Price’s 4* horse Wesko and is very much Jonelle's ' type' of mare so they are definitely ones to watch
The event is chock a block with other fabulous horses and riders from around the world and we’re looking forward to a great weekend of eventing! See you there and smile at the camera ……
A new ride for Jonelle Price - the 2016 British Eventing 5 Year Old Champion, Grappa Nera, previously ridden by Alex Postolowsky
