HARTPURY COLLEGE has been chosen to host a number of international equestrian teams during the upcoming London 2012 Olympics.

The popular further education college will become home for the Canadian and Russian Para-equestrian teams during the competition, as well as the Belarusian event team. All three teams will use the college as a training base while they are in the country for the Olympics.

The Canadian and Russian teams chose the venue after competing at the Hartpury Festival of Dressage last July.

Canadian chef d’equipe Elizabeth Quigg said: “The Canadian para-equestrian team is thrilled to be training at Hartpury College in preparation for the 2012 Paralympic Games.

“The facilities are world class and the hospitality that we have received from Hartpury’s staff, students and volunteers has been exemplary.”

Hartpury has already hosted a number of potential Olympic competitors this year: the New Zealand eventing team used the International Equine Arena at the college on January 27 for their spring training.

A GRADUATE of Hartpury College was killed when she tried to save a distraught horse while it was undergoing treatment in a pressurised hyperbaric chamber.

Erica Marshall, who was working in Florida, studied Equine Science at Hartpury College and married her college sweetheart Kieran Marshall, from Corsham, Wiltshire, last November. Erica would have turned 29 last week.

She was working at the Kesmarc Equine Rehabilitation facility, near Ocala, when the horse she was treating became distressed and struck out at the chamber wall. The explosion which followed is believed to have been caused by the horse’s metal shoes causing a spark in the chamber.