The Badminton Horse Trials is a five-day event, one of only six annual Concours Complet International (CCI) Five Star events as classified by the Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI). It takes place in April or May each year in the park of

Badminton House Badminton House is a large country house and Grade I Listed Building in Badminton, Gloucestershire, England, which has been the principal seat of the Dukes of Beaufort since the late 17th century. The house, which has given its name to th ...

, the seat of the

Duke of Beaufort Duke of Beaufort (), a title in the Peerage of England, was created by Charles II in 1682 for Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Worcester, a descendant of Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, legitimised son of Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of So ...

South Gloucestershire South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke, the latter three forming part ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

Badminton was first held in 1949 by the 10th Duke of Beaufort in order to let British riders train for international events, and was advertised as "the most important horse event in Britain". It was the second three-day event held in Britain, with the first being its inspiration – the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

. The first Badminton had 22 horses from

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

start, and was won by Golden Willow. Eight of the 22 starters failed to complete the cross-country course. Badminton was the home of the first European Championship in 1953, won by Major Laurence Rook on Starlight XV. In 1955, Badminton moved to

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original cast ...

for a year, at the invitation of the

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, in order to hold the second European Championships. Badminton was first televised in 1956. In 1959, Badminton was held in two sections, called the Great and Little Badminton, due to the popularity of the event and the number of entries. The horses in the two sections jumped the same fences, but were separated into the two divisions based on their money winnings. This graded approach was abandoned after the 1965 event. In 1989, the current director and course-designer Hugh Thomas, who rode in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, took over from

Francis Weldon Francis William Weldon MVO MBE MC (2 August 1913 – 21 September 1993) was a British equestrian and Olympic champion. He won a team gold medal in ''eventing'' at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, and received an indiv ...

, a former winner, who is credited with bringing the event to the pinnacle it is at today. Badminton is held in the 6 square kilometre (1500 acre) Badminton Park, where the car parks, tradestands, arena and cross-country courses are located. Badminton has been cancelled on several occasions – in 1966, 1975, 1987, 2001, 2012, 2020 and 2021 the event was cancelled completely, and in 1963 it was downgraded to a one-day event due to bad weather. In 2001 it was cancelled due to

foot and mouth disease Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) or hoof-and-mouth disease (HMD) is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovids. The virus causes a high fever lasting two to six days, followe ...

, in 2012 due to waterlogged ground, and in 2020 and 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Status

Together with the five-star rated

Kentucky Three-Day Event The Kentucky Three-Day Event, currently the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event due to sponsorship, is an eventing competition held at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky. Land Rover Kentucky is a CCI5*-L eventing competition. Five s ...

and the

Burghley Horse Trials The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials is an annual three-day event held at Burghley House near Stamford, Lincolnshire, England, currently in early September. Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials is classified by the FEI as one of the six leading th ...

, Badminton forms the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing. Only two people have ever won the Grand Slam;

Pippa Funnell Philippa Rachel "Pippa" Funnell MBE (née Nolan, 7 October 1968) is an equestrian sportswoman who competes in eventing. In 2003, she became the first person to win the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing (consecutive wins at Rolex Kentucky, Badmint ...

in 2003 and Michael Jung in 2015/16. Australian

Andrew Hoy Andrew is the English form of a given name common in many countries. In the 1990s, it was among the top ten most popular names given to boys in English-speaking countries. "Andrew" is frequently shortened to "Andy" or "Drew". The word is derived ...

nearly took the title in 2007 but lost it when he had a pole down at Burghley. The remaining CCI***** rated events are the

Luhmühlen Horse Trials The Luhmühlen Horse Trials are an annual equestrian eventing competition held in Luhmühlen, Salzhausen, Germany. Riders compete at the highest level: the CCI*****. There are only six events of this kind in the world, the others being the Bad ...

, the Australian International Three Day Event and the

Stars of Pau A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

. It is also now part of the

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FEI Classics—a points-based system containing the CCI***** events. The cross-country day at Badminton attracts crowds of up to a quarter of a million and is the second largest in the world for money made (after the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

Winners

Casualties

1976 *Wideawake ridden by Lucinda Green died of a heart attack on his victory lap. 2010 * Desert Island ridden by Louisa Lockwood, euthanised after breaking a

fetlock Fetlock is the common name in horses, large animals, and sometimes dogs for the metacarpophalangeal and metatarsophalangeal joints (MCPJ and MTPJ). Although it somewhat resembles the human ankle in appearance, the joint is homologous to the ba ...

.Horsetalk �
Horse killed on Badminton cross-country
3 May 2010 2007 * Skwal ridden by Andrew Downes died of a suspected heart attack in the finishing ring Horsetalk �
Fredericks retains Badminton lead after cross-country
6 May 2009 * Icare d’Auzay ridden by Jean-Lou Bigot died after a fence flag marker pole pierced an artery. 2018 * Redpath Ransom ridden by Alexander Bragg, euthanised after suffering a major injury to a suspensory ligament during cross country, unrelated to a jump.

Criticism

In 2007, after a long period without rain, the ground was considered to be too hard, resulting in 22 withdrawals.

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

�
Phillips puts the welfare of her horse first and withdraws
5 May 2007

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

Badminton Horse Trials website
Eventing Equestrian sports in the United Kingdom Sport in Gloucestershire Equestrian sports in England