Gatcombe HT- Dassett Eventing is going to Burghley!
On Friday August 1st, the Dassett team headed to Gatcombe Horse Trials to compete four of the young horses in the Burghley Young Event Horse class. I decided to tag along for the day to watch the young event horse class, do a bit of shopping in the epic trade fair, and mostly just to see Gatcombe.
There are so many big shows in the UK that I’ve heard of and Gatcombe is definitely one of them. Before I watched the Dassett horses compete I headed to the cross-country course to take a look at what a British Championship course looks like.
The Advanced and CIC*** corner combination with Gatcombe House in the background
My first thought was, “this is one of the most beautiful xc courses I’ve ever seen” and my second thought was, “oh my god it is so hilly.” The courses at Gatcombe are big and bold with serious technical questions throughout and the intense terrain adds a whole other level of difficulty. After looking at some of the Advanced questions I was really wishing I had an upper level horse, but who knows maybe miss Jessica will be ready for this in 5 years or so!
Kilmullen Dassett “Liliy” is headed to Burghley Young Event Horse!
After wandering around the XC course and buying a bit too many things at the trade fair I headed back to watch Kate and Craig compete in the 5-year-old class. Craig and Kilmullen Dassett (“Lilly”) had a great day and ended up finishing 2nd in a huge class, which means that they qualified for the championships at Burghley in a few weeks! I’ve been to Burghley once before about 10 years ago, but it will be so much fun to go and be able to behind the scenes, even if it is just for the YEH championships! It was a great way to finish a long day and again I am so thankful to be a part of the Dassett Eventing team.
Much more to come from across the pond!
-Benita