New Beginnings at Bramham in 2020
As
2019 draws to a close, thoughts turn to the promise of a new year and a new
decade. 2020 brings the excitement of an Olympic year where we can all get
behind our British athletes and cheer them to gold. Yorkshire’s largest
equestrian fixture, the Equi-Trek Bramham International Horse Trials (4 – 7
June) is set to play a starring role as horses and riders compete to impress
for selection to Tokyo. It promises to be a special year for the event and
equally for our selected charitable partner, New Beginnings, who mark their ten
year anniversary as part of the Bramham team.
Based
at Bishop Wilton near York, New Beginnings re-trains racehorses for a ‘life
past the post’. Through no fault of their own, many thoroughbred racers find
themselves in need of a new life when their racing career is over and careful
and considered rehabilitation from New Beginnings provides just that. As one of
only ten accredited centres for Retraining of Racehorses, the charity provides
security and purpose and without the selfless dedication of Directors Kevin and
Pam Atkinson and their team, these thoroughbreds could find themselves
neglected or even destroyed.
Once
a racehorse has been through the New Beginnings rehabilitation programme to
become a riding horse, they’re carefully matched to a loving long-term forever
loan homes where they can enjoy a secure life and a new career. The charity
also work with racecourses to help educate the racing public and show the
versatility of the thoroughbred breed – indeed the majority of the horses
competing in the three world class competitions in the Horse Trials will be
full or part-bred thoroughbreds.
“We’re thrilled to be working with Bramham International Horse
Trials in the year when we celebrate our tenth birthday,” commented Pam
Atkinson. “We started with just a small holding but plenty of passion to give
former racehorses a future and purpose and have grown into a 23 stable strong
enterprise. As a charity, we continuously need to fundraise to cover costs and
help as many horses who need our support as possible but Bramham also gives us
a great chance to raise awareness and educate the equestrian public about what
magnificent horses these are and that they should consider an ex-racer when
looking for their next horse.
“We have a full year of celebrations planned to mark ten years
including a Charity Ball in February and an Open Day in the summer so this
association with Bramham in June is fitting in our milestone year. We’re
looking forward to working with Bramham Horse Trials and all those involved to
share our love for thoroughbreds,” she continued.
Bramham
features three world class eventing classes in one; the showcase Equi-Trek
CCI4*L, the future star spotting British Horse Feeds u25 CCI4*L and the Land
Rover CCI4*S. While Bramham is outside the Tokyo qualification window, it’s
testing cross country courses designed by Ian Stark and built by David Evans,
who’s also responsible for building in Japan, will provide a test where a good
performance could cement selection for riders from nations around the world.
Alongside
the eventing, there’s top flight show jumping action, the Saracen Horse Feeds
Arena Eventing which proved a huge hit in its inaugural year, showing and
breeding classes, Young Horse qualifiers and Pony Club activities so there’s
always something to watch in our two competition arenas. Aside the equestrian action, there’s a first
rate shopping experience, entertainment, the Yorkshire Food Hall, Rural Crafts
and a gourmet food outlets.
Bramham
Event Director Nicholas Pritchard commented; “We’re excited to welcome New
Beginnings as our charity this year. Horses are at the heart of the event and
it’s wonderful to showcase their good work to our 50,000 or so visitors and
help them to raise much needed funds as well as well as showing what great
partners ex-racehorses make.
“We’ve
got a number of plans in the pipeline to make Bramham 2020 one of the best ever
as we build toward the excitement of the Tokyo Olympics and we’ll be sharing
them throughout the spring. We’ll be bringing you family fun and eventing
action in one of Britain’s most beautiful parks as ever with a few new
additions.”
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