A Foundation for the future

Family and friends gather at Heythrop Park and Chivel Farm shoot in aid of the Georgie Campbell Foundation, an organisation created in the late event rider's memory to support the sport she loved

- Written by Janet Menzies • Photography by Andy Hook

THIS COUNTRY excels at equestrian and shooting sports and, more than that, we do them well.

It's not that we win a lot – which we do – but the way we compete and the community created by our athletes that is admirable. The nation's trophy cabinet is full of Olympic, world and European medals in shooting, eventing, showjumping and dressage but what makes those honours worth having are the values demonstrated by those who win them.

All these qualities came together on the shoot day at Heythrop Park and Chivel Farm in aid of the Georgie Campbell Foundation, at the very end of a season that had seen the tragic death of event rider Georgie Campbell after a fall at Bicton International Horse Trials in Devon in the spring. Event riders, especially at the elite level, are something of a gypsy tribe. They start their competition season in March and rarely see home until October, as they travel up and down Britain and the world in enormous lorries kitted out with literally everything, including the kitchen sink. Campbell's terrible fall hit this tight community extremely hard.

Campbell's friend Harriet McEwen apologised that her husband Tom – an Olympic gold medallist – couldn't attend as he was on international competition duty. However, despite being due to give birth in just a few weeks and in the middle of moving house, she had made it to the shoot. "I hope Tom gets home in time for the birth; it's a bit hectic at the moment," she joked. "But what is important is that we all want to do something in memory of Georgie and to support her husband Jesse. Everyone was so shocked, and I think Jesse has felt he must be strong for other people. When it happened Tom and I helped with the horses, getting them settled back at home and so on. When we'd finished on the yard we found we just couldn't go home straight away, so we went for a long walk."