What Blair Means To William Fox Pitt

We’ve had some pretty special competitors here at Blair over the last (almost) 50 years. World Number Ones, Olympic Gold Medalists, European & World Games Winners… we’d hazard a guess that there aren’t many top eventers who haven’t galloped across our turf at some point!

One of the most special competitors we’ve had with us has been Fox-Pitt Eventing who has always found Blair to be a very happy hunting ground!

We asked him what Blair means to him, and this is what he said

“Blair Horse Trials has always been such a happy event for me, my team and my family – My Uncle Mervyn was the XC starter at the very first event in 1978.

I have used it throughout my career as a target in its own right but also as a stepping stone to the next stage. I have always known that if I have a horse that gallops round Blair 4* inside or close to the time they are 100% a 5* horse!

The beautiful natural terrain & the Scottish hills test everything you need tested in a top event horse, balance, bravery and stamina in a fair and educational way.

I am so so sad for the sport that we are losing this iconic and historic event I have so many fond memories of over the years.

Bringing a lorry load of horses north always signalled the start of the autumn three day season as we would roll from Blair to Burghley to the Championships to Blenheim and then into Europe for October.

Jamie and Sarah Troughton were the most amazing hosts having the family to stay in the Castle. For two little boys it was a dream come true!

Often Alice and the boys would travel up on the sleeper train and arrive just after the lorry.
I remember a particularly wet year and we had been towed in to the site. The boys arrived stripped off and were body surfing down the mud in the lorry park It took a lot of washing down and buckets of water before they were Castle or lorry fit!

The boys always loved the Country Fair and I still have the rangers badges they made there pinned to my curtains in the truck. It was always lovely that there was so much for all the family to do, Blair was unique in that way.

Looking back through the lovely horses I took to Blair, Cool Mountain stands out. Him winning the CCI 3* (now the 4*) was the first proper inkling that he was the real deal.

The way he galloped up and down the valley and charged home gave me the confidence to enter him for Kentucky the following spring which he won before securing individual Silver and Team Gold that year at the WEG. Blair was the test I needed to know that he was the horse he was.

Macchiato was made for Blair a thoroughbred born in Argentina that I bought from Australia where he had raced, he was a galloping machine that went on to add Bramham and Luhmuhlen to his CV as well as being the pathfinder at Badminton en route to a top ten placing.

Each time Blair laid the foundations, presented the right challenge at the right time for those horses to be prepared for what was to come.
Blair is also very special for me as it is where I secured my last medal for team GB, a Silver at the European Championships in 2015.

To have the medal presented by her majesty the Queen alongside my great mates Kitty King Eventing, Pippa Funnell & Nicola Wilson Equestrian was extra special and something I will never forget.

Blair you will be sorely missed but the memories very much treasured!”

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