Top row (left to right):Brian Morrison, Cathal Daniels, Sarah Ennis, Centre: Fred Scala, Austin O’Connor, Joseph Murphy, Bottom row: Sam Watson, Susie Berry, Padraig McCarthy
The beautiful Devon countryside is to play host, for the first time, to three important CCI4* competitions when the Bicton International Horse Trials, supported by Chedington, take place on June 10-13 at one of the UK’s leading equestrian venues.
Twelve nations with multiple nominated Olympic combinations will be represented across the three competitive sections — CCI4*-L, CCI4*-S and CCI4*-L-u25 — tackling the cross-country tracks designed by Bicton Arena’s manager Helen West under the watchful eye of Captain Mark Phillips who is acting as Course Advisor.
The CCI4*-L will feature such exciting prospects as Ros Canter’s Lordships Gruffalo, a recent international winner at Aston-le-Walls, Laura Collett’s Dacapo and Mr Bass, Alexander Bragg’s King of the Mill plus Gemma Tattersall’s trio of Santiago Bay, Jalapeño lll and Chilli Knight. Among the horses that hit the headlines in 2019 are Piggy March’s Badminton winner Vanir Kamira, Ben Hobday’s National Champion Shadow Man ll and Tom McEwen’s British Intermediate Champion, the grey Dreamaway ll.
An illustrious CCI4*-S entry includes Olympic longlisted combinations Ros Canter and Allstar B, the world champions in 2018, plus Piggy March and Brookfield Inocent, Pippa Funnell and Majas Hope, Kitty King with Vendredi Biats, Tom McEwen and his 2019 Pau winner Toledo de Kerser, Laura Collett with the in-form London 52, also a 4* winner at Aston-le-Walls last month, and world number one Oliver Townend with his dual Kentucky winner Cooley Master Class.
Seven of the world’s top 10 are represented, including Tim and Jonelle Price from New Zealand and Australia’s Christopher Burton and Andrew Hoy. Ireland’s 2019 European bronze medallist Cathal Daniels rides Sammy Davis Junior in a competitive under-25 CCI4*-L.
Nations represented are: Great Britain, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and USA.
“We are delighted that Bicton will, for four days, be the centre of the eventing world, with such a star-studded line-up of horses and riders making their way down to this lovely part of the country,” said Helen West. “It is going to be a first-class weekend of competition and we are enormously grateful to everyone who has pulled together to make this happen, especially Chedington, whose support has enabled us to put on a competition of this stature.”
