SCONE Palace International Horse Trials is set to run for the second time next week, from August 26th to 30th. The Scottish event will feature classes from CCI1*-Intro right up to CCI4*-L, as well as British Eventing national classes, arena eventing and pony club games.

Event director Alec Lochore is delighted with both the depth and quality of the entries forward for the international competitions. “The level of entries we have received is very exciting. We have 13 or 14 Olympians coming to Scone, and that’s always a sign you’re putting on a world-class event. It makes it exciting for the spectators too.”

Six nations will be represented in the CCI4*-S, a class which has the distinction of including all four of the gold medal-winning British team riders from the recent FEI Eventing World Championships at Aachen on its start list. Gemma Stevens and Tom McEwen each have multiple rides in the class, while Laura Collett and Ros Canter will bring forward Bling and Armscote Explorer respectively.

The best of the Irish riders at Aachen, Aoife Clark will also make the trip north to Scone, where she will contest the CCI4*-S with both Night Agent and Standfast. Sarah Ennis will join her with Dourough Ferro Class Act, Dolmen Stellor Design and Onceuponatime, while Patrick Whelan is set to be double-handed as he travels over with SHL Cantbetamed and Lakelands Woody. Elizabeth Power brings forward her two promising younger horses Balladeer Clintender and Dassett Fortune, and Rosie Alcorn, Jonny Steele and Darragh Byrne complete the Irish entry with one ride each.

The only Irish entry in the CCI4*-L is British-based Meghan Healy who will ride Overis Cavalier in a class where one to watch is the recently returned from injury Izzy Stevens, who is on the start list with both PSH Encore and SBH Big Wall. Two American riders whose names may be familiar from the recent FEI Eventing U25 World Championships at Millstreet will also feature here. Quidley Kellerman will travel to Scone with her Millstreet partner, the Irish Sport Horse Blakeney’s Cruise, while her compatriot Molly Duda will bring both Carlingford He’s A Clover and Jutopia.

Fresh from helping Ireland secure Olympic eventing qualification at Aachen, Austin O’Connor is set to contest the CCI3*-L with Chico Blue Z and the former Noel Dunne ride, Kief Rhapsody of Belline. Louise Kennedy and Eromenom JJ is the only other Irish combination in this class, which also features Laura Collett with Romany Cricket and the individual silver medallists from the Millstreet championships, Cerys Macaulay and Kananaskis.

Good ground

While Lochore says the course will make use of the Scottish topography and be broadly similar to last year’s, his team has made significant changes to the ground. “Scotland has been more fortunate than many events further south in receiving the right amount of rain at the right time. We benefit from the racecourse team’s high level of expertise in grass and ground management, and we’ve carried out some reseeding and even completely resurfaced one of the tracks through the woods.

“Just yesterday, we verti-drained the whole course and the main arena, and hopefully when people come they will feel they have a really good surface to jump and gallop on.

“We’re grateful for the support of riders and owners, but also spectators through ticket sales. Last year, we sold 27,500 tickets and scanned every one of them, and the box office for this time round is still open. We will have over 100 trade stands and run almost 1,500 horses. We’re not resting on our laurels, because we know we’re only as good as our last event, but so far eventing at Scone has gone as well as we could have hoped,” Lochore concluded.

Tiggy’s Trust

For the second year, Tiggy’s Trust will bring riders to Scone. A team of 23, all between the ages of 14 and 18, has been selected and the vast majority have never travelled abroad with their horse/pony before.

The Trust is taking five riders to form a Pony Games team; two for the BE100 national class; four in the pony two-star class; one in the two-star long and 11 in the Intro. All 23 convened for a training camp at Punchestown last week to bond, collect their gear and meet up with coaches Becky Cullen (cross-country and dressage), Sue Smallman (dressage), Heather Coyle (show jumping) and Alan Hatton (Games).

The ponies will all be dropped off at Mullins Transport on Monday night and arrive in Scone on Tuesday. Friends of the Trust will be rowing in to make the event a big success; Adrienne Daly for the trot up, while Michael and Lorli Higgins will be feeding around 80 riders, families and friends every evening.