Scotland’s equestrian calendar has been dealt a second devastating blow this week with news that an international event held in Fife has been scrapped after just one year.
Lord and Lady Balniel, owners of Balcarres Estate, near Colinsburgh, said it was ”with deep regret” that Balcarres International Horse Trials, held for the first time in June, are unable to continue.
The bombshell news comes just days after the future of the Central Scotland Horse Trials was thrown into jeopardy after losing its Perthshire venue.
Lady Balniel said: ”We had a fantastic time running the event at short notice and we believe the horse trials were a success. Unfortunately, we were totally undone by the weather and these conditions have had such an impact on the estate that it is with deep regret we have had to take this decision.
”We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported us sponsors, volunteers, trade stands, spectators, competitors and British Eventing. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with the committee who have all strived so hard to run this year’s event. I will be extremely sad not to be working alongside organiser James Oakden, who is a dedicated team leader.”
Mr Oakden said: ”Due to unforeseen encounters this season the event is unable to run. Thank you to Lord and Lady Balniel for hosting the horse trials and to the organising team, sponsors and helpers for contributing so much to the event. We are sorry the weather beat us.”
Balcarres Estate is owned by Lord and Lady Balniel and is their permanent family residence.
It is understood organisers received confirmation that they were running international classes in October last year, which is a relatively short period of time to build an international event.
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Balcarres International Horse Trials took place from June 14-17, although adverse weather conditions meant that the committee worked hard in order to run the CCI* and CCI** classes and one novice section, while the other British Eventing sections had to be cancelled for safety reasons.
Mr Oakden is also the organiser at Central Scotland Horse Trials. It is the second blow for him after it emerged this week that the Central Scotland Horse Trials would not be welcomed back to their venue in the grounds of Scone Palace.
Mr Oakden would not be drawn on how much money was spent in setting up the Balcarres event, but The Courier understands investment has been around £150,000.
However, he did confirm the organisers had no specific wet weather insurance for the event. He said this was primarily because it was a new event and therefore difficult to obtain insurance with no previous spectator numbers to compare with.
Speaking of the double blow affecting the Scone and Balcarres events, he added: ”It is a disappointment. There’s been difficult weather this year and it’s putting strain on venues to get them repaired. And the horrendous weather also means there have been less spectators than planned for. This has had a seismic effect and was certainly the background to Balcarres.
“Scone is a separate issue. It’s a multi-use site. The management of the estate are looking at maximising revenue from the site and it appears pop concerts and game fairs are more lucrative.”
No one from British Eventing could be contacted by The Courier.
Fife Council made an unspecified financial contribution to the staging of the Balcarres trials, and Linda Temple, events strategy co-ordinator, said: ”This was an excellent event which the council supported this year and we’re disappointed for the event organisers and for Fife it won’t be going ahead again.”