Gatcombe Park all set for the Festival of British Eventing (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Gatcombe Park all set for the Festival of British Eventing

THE Festival of British Eventing at Gatcombe Park kicks off tomorrow (Friday) with the Novice Championships and ends with the nail-biting British Open Championships this Sunday.

In the meantime, riders in the Advanced and Intermediate sections take up the challenge of Captain Mark Phillips's imaginative Cotswold course.

Many local riders will be competing for the laurels against a national and international field and among them is former Beaufort Pony Club member, Louisa Brassey, from Shipton Moyne, near Tetbury, who rides Plantagenet of Rushall in Advanced Section 1.

Apart from a nasty fall at Aston Le Walls at the end of last month, the pair have enjoyed a successful season which has included winning the young event riders' Showjumping Championship at Windsor Horse Trials in May and coming ninth at Tweseldown last month in a class which William Fox-Pitt won and in which several Olympic riders competed.

Louisa is no stranger to the area where she rides out for Gatcombe residents Andrew and Bettina Hoy.

Polly Williamson, from Charlton Park, near Malmesbury, has no less than five horses entered at Gatcombe and three of them are home bred by Robert and Mell Puddick from Malmesbury.

Henbitten, which she rides in the Novice, recently won the Novice class at Cheltenham and is half-brother to Applemoss who she rides in the Intermediate.

The Puddicks also own Tiger Lily II, one of Polly's Advanced rides on whom she was second at Little Gatcombe earlier in the year.

Her second Advanced ride is Wicked Time on which she won Windsor Horse Trials in May and she also rides The Prankster (second at Cheltenham) in the Novice.

The Prankster is owned by Susie Goess-Saurau, joint master of the VWH Hunt, who hunts him when she is field master.

The going at Gatcombe, always good, should be near perfect after the recent rain and all looks set fair for a great weekend of horsemanship and entertainment at the Princess Royal's spectacularly beautiful estate.