Rain, rain, go away… British eventing hit hard by bad weather

Britain’s eventing calendar has been hit hard by poor weather over the past few days, with only one of four British Eventing (BE) fixtures unaffected.

Childeric Saddles Little Downham in Cambridgeshire went ahead on Saturday and Sunday (3-4 October), but the national classes were cancelled yesterday and today (5-6 October).

The international CCI4*-S sections continued, with dressage starting yesterday, and these classes will complete today. Many horses in these sections are having an important warm-up for the French five-star at Pau Horse Trials, with the likes of Piggy March, Laura Collett and Kevin McNab competing.

The partial abandonment marks the first cancellation of any competition in 20 years of events at Little Downham.

“Due to last-minute rainfall in the past two hours we have no option but to abandon the advanced and intermediate due to run later today,” said a statement from Little Downham today.

“The cross-country course and showjumping arena remain good and we have the bulk of the four-star horses on site, so we will finish the CCI4*-S classes as planned.

“Unfortunately our lorry parks will not cope with additional strain of the advanced and intermediate. The competition areas, and emergency access to these areas, are not compromised.”

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Saturday and Sunday’s classes at Dauntsey, Wiltshire, were cancelled owing to continued “heavy rainfall”. Friday’s intermediate, open intermediate and novice sections went ahead as planned.

The only fixture this weekend unaffected by the weather was Kirriemuir in Scotland, which ran as scheduled on Saturday only.

The BE season continues for three more weeks, finishing at the end of October.

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