A Day Out in Chatsworth Horse Trials
On Sunday the 13th May at 9am, three cars full of tired but excited LUEC members pulled up outside the stunning backdrop of Chatsworth House and gardens. Having checked the weather beforehand, most of us were prepared for a slightly rainy and miserable day, but to our surprise we arrived in full sun and cloudless skies. As it had been some years since I last visited a live horse trials event I was eager to get the day started, we headed towards the main grounds to explore what was going on.
We first wandered around some of the show-jumping rings and briefly stayed to watch a few rounds. Much to the annoyance of my friends, I am always watching and following Facebook pages of various show-jumping competitions around the world, so to be stood in front of one in real life was rather exciting to me. Seeing the height of the jumps and the tight turns from the ground, it was fascinating to watch.
We then started to plan our activities for the rest of the day, starting with a walk around the cross-country course for the B, C and D category event riders, in reverse order of the jumps. This proved to be one of the highlights of the day, seeing the intricate and unique designs of each jump and how each rider tackled the approach and take-off of the jumps at a notable speed, in order to make the time limit. Some of the most interesting to watch included a large ditch, an extremely steep hill followed by a jump in the shape of a stag’s head and everyone’s favourite, the water jumps! Whilst sauntering around the course we noticed one of the top event rider’s; Emily King, also walking the course for her round later on in the day, which caught some of the group members a little star-struck.
After hitting the middle of the cross-country course, it was just in time for lunch. After walking the course for most of the morning, we were lured in by the amazing smells coming from the food stalls. Having munched through my sandwich already that I’d brought for lunch (whoops, classic Sara…) I settled for calamari and chips from a Greek food van, whilst others tested fried haloumi wraps and hog roasts. We found a perfect spot to set up camp, right in between two cross-country jumps, whilst taking advantage of the still amazing sunny and warm weather. One of the girls even shared her enormous picnic with the whole group, including bucks fizz for everyone. We sat and ate whilst watching many of the riders still coming through – very happy campers!
After lunch we decided to find ourselves seats in the stand to watch the event rider master’s show jumping. This included big names such as William Fox-Pitt, Pippa Funnel and of course the great Sir Mark Todd. These big names were one of the largest anticipations of the day for most of our group and getting to see them and their talents right in front of us was incredible. The crowds soon gathered and the atmosphere on the side-lines of the ring was intense. I found myself holding my breath through the rounds of some of my favourite riders and being a little mean in hoping some of the less well-known riders would have a pole down somewhere along the course.
Following the show jumping, the group then decided to have a mooch around the wealth of different stalls and shops that surrounded the middle of the grounds. There was so much variety, from sweet stalls to tack shops, but we managed to find a few different clothing shops that took our fancy and a few new purchases were made, including a sum of money that just accidentally seemed to slip from my hand and into some brand-new riding tops… During our shopping spree, some of the group managed to come across Mary King, one of the UK’s most famous event rider’s, doing a signing outside the Joules shop and managed to snap a quick pic with her. I was pretty annoyed I missed this!
Towards the end of the day, we decided to watch a few of the event rider master’s final rounds of cross-country whilst enjoying some ice-cream and taking a moment to have a catch up with friends and rest our legs from walking most of the day. Just before leaving we managed to invade one of the free standing cross-country jumps on the pedestrian parts of the course, to take a picture of the whole group together and capture what an amazing day we’d all had.
Some of our members who had visited Badminton horse trials as LUEC socials in previous years, made particular comments on how the day was made extra special by the fact that Chatsworth seemed much less crowded than it was at Badminton and still being able to watch all the same top riders and get a good spot to watch the jumps on the course. Overall, there was nothing but praise for our trip to Chatsworth horse trials, a great day had by all! We hope to run this social again next year to replicate such a memorable social trip.
