To see some example footage, go to https://www.facebook.com/theoriginalhatcamcompany?sk=videos.

Taking on the BE100 Class will be Cynthia Llewellyn Palmer, List 2A (who has incidentally been the writer for the President of the Ground Jury at Badminton for more years than she may wish to remember!); and Simon Laurens, himself a Paralympic Gold Medallist.

Simon Laurens

Heading up the BE90 Jury is Andrew Bennie, former New Zealand Olympic Medallist, who we hope will have recovered from breaking his hip in

Andrew Bennie

a recent fall while schooling (we wish him well); with Jennifer Ham from near Bath, a regular judge at both Horse Trials and Dressage competitions, a freelance instructor and former Chair of the BHS Avon Committee.

Jennifer Ham

This celebration of Eventing at the introductory levels has given people who ordinarily may not have the experience or confidence for Badminton’s  International  competition a chance to compete on the legendary turf of the Badminton estate. Riders also benefit from the high levels of course design and build from the expert team,  the Willis Bros,  who have built courses all around the world including at the Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney Olympic Games.

Last year’s winners include Kelly Turner (the BE100 title winner). Kelly is a full time mum and freelance instructor: “For me, last year made me even more determined to compete at the very top of the sport. It was a fantastic stepping stone towards achieving my ultimate goal of riding around the four star competition at Badminton. As well as helping me decide that I wanted to compete with the best of the best, last year’s success did a lot for me in terms of my teaching:  following all the press coverage we got, I had lot of enquiries and have since launched my own website and am running numerous teaching clinics.”

We will be bringing blogs from previous winners plus riders aiming for their first Badminton Grassroots championships this year in the build up to event plus live updates footage and photos during the competition.

The qualifying period for the championships in 2013 begins again at Skipton Horse Trials 4-5 August 2012 for BE90 competition and at Central Scotland 11-12 August for BE100. Full information on becoming a member plus qualifying criteria is available from www.britisheventing.com

This year I have two horses qualified, mine and Paul Graham’s mare ‘Crackenthorpe Nightingale’ who I competed last year, and also an ex- PSG winning dressage stallion, Crackenthorpe Formula One. You may notice they both have the same prefixes – they have the same Grand Sire, Pentagon, and were produced and based at our family’s Crackenthorpe stud near Carlisle (which isn’t exactly down the road from Badminton!).

As one of my various jobs, I work for Ray Atkinson of Appleby and was lucky enough  to be able to borrow an Eddie Stobart lorry from the company in 2011 for the Championships – the lorry is normally used to transport polo ponies so it is absolutely huge! The little mare thought she was pretty special being transported like that.

A typical day in the life looks like this for me..

Once the family’s collection of horses are worked, they are either tucked up in their stables or out in the field rugged up to the eyeballs so all you can see are their noses, ears and legs.

Then I start work.  My first job is as a part time garage attendant; this is two hours an evening, usually starting around 4pm.  This job does have the plus point – if it’s quiet I get to catch up on the latest Horse and Hound!

Once I have finished there I go to my full time job as an artic tipper driver.  I’m very fortunate to have a very good boss, Ray, who makes sure my wagon “Bracken”, a 480 Scania, is loaded and waiting for me.  Bracken is usually waiting at Penrith or Carlisle depending on where she has been loaded.

We are hauling used chicken bedding to a power station near Kinross, Scotland.  After the load has been tipped I set off home, normally making it to a services on the M74 for a compulsory 45 minute break (by law a 45 minute break is required within four and a half hours’ driving time).  If all goes to plan, I can be home by 3am.  Although the past few weeks the weather has not been helping, tackling high winds, rain, snow and even lightning! Then is it time to go home and try and catch up on some sleep before it all starts again.

It is all worth it when I look at the yard and know that I will be returning to Badminton in 2012 with two fantastic horses.

The list of qualified riders for the Championships in 2012 are now available to view on our 2012 entries page. More information regarding how to qualify for the 2013 championships is available here.