Future looking bright for Bramham as it goes from strength to strength

Forty years and counting, with course director Nick Pritchard seeing no reason why another 40 years are not in the offing.

Pritchard, 35, is the man at the helm for this weekend’s Yorkshire extravaganza which could welcome up to 28,000 today and over 55,000 across its four days.

The man responsible for the event’s inception in 1974 was George Lane Fox, who sadly passed away last October, and who called Bramham Park his home.

The former head of Bramham’s Estate will be remembered by a special memorial trophy – awarded to the CCI horse and rider whose final position shows the most improvement on their dressage placing.

The future of his event seems to be in very capable hands with Pritchard holding the reins.

“We have always worked really hard to make the Bramham Horse Trials a friendly event and a family friendly event,” Pritchard told the Yorkshire Post.

“That was very much what the family wanted when George Lane Fox created the event 40 years ago.

“Sadly he died last October and now his son Nick has taken over with a want to keep the event going in the same vein.

“I think Bramham is so popular because there’s a lot to do and if you love horses there are hundreds of horses to come and see.

“There’s around 130 trade stands, food units, social bars – all sorts of stuff and it just makes for a cracking weekend.

“And it’s in Bramham Park which is a private country park in Yorkshire. It is stunning.

“There’s also lots of shops and 101 things like that – it’s pretty cool really.

“George Lane Fox will obviously be sorely missed as he was an integral part of the event and obviously he established it.

“Then in the later years there were people like me running it but he was still very much involved and at the cocktail party he would be at the doors greeting all of the guests.

“He was core to the whole thing but in recognition of him we are doing a special memorial trophy which will run every year in memory of George.

“That’s a really nice touch and something that his son Nick and Nick’s wife Rachel thought of themselves.”

The George Lane Fox Memorial Trophy will be a touching tribute to the Horse Trials founder and the former head of Bramham Park – now home to Nick and Rachel along with their five children – Sophie, Georgie, Freddie, Charlie and Harry.

The family fund this weekend’s event which – rather like the Leeds Festival – Pritchard acknowledges literally takes place in their own backyard.

“It is, in effect, their back garden,” said the course director.

“It’s quite a large back garden but it is their back garden and they are inviting 50,000-plus people into it.

“But they love it – they really enjoy it and they like to see it work and being a success. They leave me to get on with a lot of it and it’s a good relationship as they really support the event. It all works well.”

But Bramham could only work well with an organised captain of the ship – a role that Pritchard thrives in.

He may only be 35 but he is already heading up his fifth Bramham Horse Trials having landed a dream job back in 2008.

“I took over as director in 2009 so this will be my fifth year,” he said. “Gosh – how time flies.

“But my background is that I am an estate manager – I did a land management degree at university – I looked after two or three country estates and then I came to the management in Bramham in 2008.

“Then in 2009 the role of event director of the horse trials amalgamated into my job.

“I actually grew up and went to school in Kent and then went to University in Aberdeen and the job at Bramham was the dream job.

“When I got a phone call from Bramham saying would I come for a job interview I jumped at the chance.”

Landing that role has also meant that Pritchard is another resident of the Bramham Estate – in a cottage that he shares with veterinary surgeon wife Beth.

Pritchard’s home is 250 yards from his office – which has its pros and its cons.

Pritchard explained: “It’s a very nice scene in the mornings and the dogs love to play along behind me.

“But the disadvantage of living in the core of the estate is that you never really get away.”

Given the incredible surroundings that is not too much of a hardship for a man at the helm of one of Yorkshire’s most popular events and one that continues to go from strength to strength.

However, hard-working Pritchard admits catering for around 55,000 visitors as well as all the officials and competitors takes some doing.

He said: “There’s a whole host of things that need doing from the number of toilets we rent to making sure we invite all of the right officials and having the right officials for the right jobs.

“Then there’s making sure we have got the right contracts – everything from parking contracts right through to toilet contracts and everything like that.

“It’s also a case of numbers such as getting the right amount of toilets for the size of the crowd.

“On the cross-country course there are Ian Stark’s designs and making sure that David Evans’s team are building it – making sure the grass has grown and does it need watering or does it need spiking? There is a huge, huge number of things that go into making an event like this work.”

An event that is 40 not out and showing no signs of stopping.