Posted: 22nd May 2015 | Back to news feed
Equestrian fans will have the chance to see the British showjumping team compete on home ground this summer at the Longines Royal International Horse Show (28 July – 2 August), which is held at Hickstead in West Sussex.
The show, which was voted the world’s best showjumping venue in the 2014 L'Année Hippique awards, hosts the British leg of the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup™ series. The British team will be hoping to claim the Prince of Wales trophy by netting their first home win at Hickstead since 2010, but they will face tough opposition from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland and last year’s Hickstead winners, the USA.
Hickstead’s FEI Nations Cup leg comes less than three weeks before the showjumping competition at this year’s FEI European Championships at Aachen. The squad of five riders will be named nearer the time, but for some combinations Hickstead could well form a final prep run before the Championships. “I’ve already said we want our strongest team at Hickstead, as we don’t want to disappoint the British showjumping supporters at their home leg. Winning there is high on my wish list,” says World Class Performance Manager Di Lampard.
The Longines Royal International Horse Show, which is the official show of The British Horse Society, begins on Tuesday 28 July with two days of national showjumping and showing classes. The international jumping action gets started on Thursday, with the Bunn Leisure Trophy and the return of the new-format Amlin Plus Eventers’ Challenge, while Friday’s highlights are the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup™ of Great Britain plus the Bunn Leisure International Stakes. Saturday’s international classes are the Bunn Leisure Salver and the British Speed Classic, plus there’s the Templant Events Queen Elizabeth II Cup, a championship open to the leading national riders. The show concludes on Sunday with the Royal International Accumulator and the €200,000 Longines King George V Gold Cup, one of the most prestigious classes in the sport.
The Longines Royal International Horse Show is also renowned as the pinnacle of the outdoor showing season, with riders travelling up and down the country in order to pick up one of the coveted qualifying tickets. There are hundreds of showing championships across the six days of the show, with the best of these competing in the British Horse Society Supreme Horse and the Underwood Supreme Pony Championships on the final Sunday.
With the vast Charles Owen Shopping Village, family entertainment and a huge range of hospitality options, a visit to the Longines Royal International Horse Show will provide the perfect day out this summer. Guests attending on Saturday 1 August are encouraged to dress to impress in order to win one of the luxury prizes on offer as part of the Mark Davies Injured Riders’ Fund Ladies’ Day at Hickstead.
Competitor entries are open now, with the schedule and the ticketing Box Office online at Hickstead
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