British Dressage adds news dates to 2015 diary

British Dressage (BD) has added new dates to its 2015 calendar to meets the demand of its growing membership.

Area Festivals

The Petplan Equine Area Festivals, which saw a 32 percent increase in participation last year, now has three new venues: Forrest Edge in Norfolk (15 – 17 August), Bicton Arena in Devon (4-6 September) and Beacons in Carmarthen (24 – 26 October).

International shows

Bury Farm in Buckinghamshire will host a new CDI3*, CDIYJP and CPEDI as part of their International All Stars Show (28 October – 01 November).

The CPEDI at Bishop Burton in East Yorkshire will now feature a 3* competition, which will run alongside the 1* and 2* classes (4 – 8 August).

The CDIO at Hickstead will move to 15 – 19 July, so that it runs ahead of this year’s European Championships in Aachen (11 -23 August).

Premier League

Cheshire’s Bolesworth CSI, which now has 4* status for its showjumping, will be running an Inter I freestyle class, based on invitation only (18 June).

Elsewhere in Cheshire, Jo Graham and Susie Farnon have taken over Somerford Park Premier League show after Julian Sebire retired at the end of last year. They will be hosting a CDI in 2016. Its Premier League this year runs as normal (22 – 24 May).

Veteran Championships

In Scotland, the Ian Stark Equestrian Centre has now been approved to host BD affiliated competitions to bring the total venues in the region to 15.

Last year BD announced a new Veterans Championships, with classes for horses and riders from prelim to advanced medium. The final of this new series will be held at Vale View in Leicestershire (31 October to 1 November).

The Retraining of Racehorses Championships saw record numbers taking part in 2014 and this year the finals move to Houghton Hall in Cambridgeshire (26 – 27 September).

‘Supply and demand’

BD sport operations manager Paul Graham said: “We’re working hard with our organisers to continue to grow the sport. Membership is up and we need to meet the needs of the riders; it’s a question of supply and demand.

“Coupled with this is the need to put on more high-end fixtures to showcase the sport to our growing audience of both dressage aficionados and those new to the sport as well as provide the riders with opportunity to bring on the stars of the future.”