Bramham on course for success

This will be my third year as part of the organising team, and I’d like to think that the preparations get easier, but although they become more familiar, I’m not sure that they get easier.

Previous visitors to Bramham will notice several changes in layout at this year’s event. As we’ve grown considerably over the last few years, bottlenecks and traffic jams have developed, which we are trying to banish.

As part of this plan, the cross-country start and finish, the event stables, the caravan park and much of the public parking have all moved.

Although we have taken advice on these site changes (including from Hugh Thomas, who organises the world’s largest event, Badminton Horse Trials), we will all be relieved when we know for sure that the changes have worked. We’re hoping traffic flows better and life is made easier for the horses, riders and public.

If you’ve been in the past, please make sure you follow the signage as entrances have changed and you may find yourself being turned away from a previously familiar entrance.

Ian Stark, our cross-country course designer, has been to the Park on several occasions, designing his new course. With last year’s track being hailed as one of the best in the country, he has a lot to live up to – but you will not be disappointed.

We have a new course builder, David Evans and he has also been working extremely hard on the course. David and his team are very experienced and have built courses to the highest level, including the course for the 2008 Olympics.

The winter here was extremely harsh, with snow on the ground for all of December and temperatures consistently reading minus 15.

Now spring has been incredibly dry and warm, which has meant that the grass has been slow to grow. We have already started watering parts of the cross-country course and we will continue and increase this to ensure that the footing is perfect.

One of the major parts of my job is to contact sponsors – both new and existing. Sponsorship has been hard to find in the last few years because of the current economic climate, and this year has been no exception. We are ever grateful to all of our sponsors, without whom, the event really wouldn’t be able to take place.

Many of our sponsors, such as British Horse Feeds, Bishop Burton College, Carter Jonas, Dickinson Dees, Equi-Trek, Fulmart Feeds, Land Rover, Smiths Gore and the Yorkshire Post, have returned year after year for some time, while we also have some new sponsors this year, including Dog Rocks, Equestrian Clearance Sales, Sharecheval and Shires Equestrian.

Welcome to Yorkshire, the official tourism agency for Yorkshire, has become our title sponsor after being involved for the first time last year, and we hope that with their support this year’s event will be the biggest and best yet. Our advance ticket sales are going extremely well, and we are currently up 25 per cent across the board on this time last year. Camping reservations are selling like hot cakes and we currently have an increase of 52 per cent on these, so if you are looking to come and camp, I would suggest you book your tickets as soon as possible.

We have joined the social networking revolution here at Bramham and I’d urge all of you to join our Facebook page – it’s a fabulous way to stay in touch, get a sneak preview of the course and see what we all get up to while organising Yorkshire’s largest equestrian fixture. So if you can’t be with us in person, be online.

This is definitely a busy time of year, and I know that our working days are going to get longer and longer, and we will be spending less and less time at home.

I have a nice young horse who I have been introducing to eventing this spring, but now that the horse trials are looming ever closer, he has been turned out to grass and won’t get much attention until after June 5.

For more information and for tickets, go to www.bramham-horse.co.uk.

Laura Jennings is the events assistant at Bramham International Horse Trials.