Hope As Horse Sport Prepares To Restart

Competition looks set to get going again at the end of this month under guidelines for lockdown easing

- Eleanor Jones

National competition looks set to restart within weeks, as England emerges from lockdown.

Prime minister Boris Johnson announced on 22 February that organised sport could run from 29 March, if various criteria including on infection rates are met. The British Horse Society has confirmed that, from this date, arena hire and travelling horses to training and competition will be allowed.

In Wales, lockdown restrictions still apply, and will be reviewed on 12 March, while in Scotland it is hoped competition could run from 26 April.

British Eventing (BE) chief executive Jude Matthews told H&H it is hoped the eventing season will start on the Easter weekend, from 2 April.

“We’re expecting a fairly normal season,” she said. “There will be changes in the first week to provide competition opportunities at every level. We hope it will run pretty much as normal, but if we need to make changes, we will.”