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Her Majesty The Queen will attend the MARS Badminton Horse Trials on Friday, May 8th in her role as Patron of the Ebony Horse Club, the event’s chosen charity this year.
The Ebony Horse Club, founded in 1996, is a community stables in Brixton, London, which aims to use horses to transform the lives of young people from disadvantaged communities within Lambeth, offering training and career opportunities and cultivating within them life skills and the responsibility of caring for an animal.
The charity’s stand at Badminton, which represents the pinnacle of equestrian sport, can be found at number 253, Beaufort Way, and its cross-country fence, the Ebony Horse Club Gates, is the fifth obstacle on the course.
The Cross-Country Course App was unveiled this week and the course can be seen here.
The course will run in an anticlockwise direction this year, with the Quarry as the first combination. New fences include a different route at the famous MARS Lake, which will see riders looping back through the water in front of spectators.
“There will be more combinations on the course this year – 13 in total – but with less elements than previously,” reveals Course Designer Eric Winter. “Riders will therefore need to exercise judgement if they are to achieve the optimum time. I think it will be a suitably challenging track for what looks a high-class field.”
The first to test it will be world number one Harry Meade, who has three rides this year. Other leading riders to watch include defending champion Ros Canter, bidding to win a third Badminton trophy with the same horse, Lordships Graffalo, and five-star winners Tim Price (Falco) and Caroline Powell (Greenacres Special Cavalier) from New Zealand, Lara Liederkerke-Meier (Hooney d’Arville) from Belgium and Felix Vogg (Cartania) from Switzerland, plus Britain’s Oliver Townend, a close runner-up last year with Cooley Rosalent, and Gemma Stevens (Chilli Knight).
All the action will be shown with expert commentary on Badminton TV, which can be purchased here.
The BBC will broadcast their usual 2-hour highlights programme on Sunday 10th May culminating with live coverage of the top ten show jumping to see who will be crowned the 2026 Badminton winner. |
