Great Tew Estate Horse Trials

The Park, with its sweeping views of the surrounding countryside and inherent natural beauty, lends itself to horse trials. The old turf and excellent spectator viewing make the cross-country a particular highlight.

All of us at Great Tew welcome back the Horse Trials this weekend, the seventh running of this hugely enjoyable and warmly anticipated date in our Estate calendar. I believe that this weekend is enjoyed as much by our Estate and village community as it is by all the riders and spectators who happily return to us in North Oxfordshire every year.

However, those of you who have been here before will notice a number of big changes to this years event; the Park Wall (which is very nearly completed after 2 years of considerable time and effort – and 500,000 individually laid ‘dry’ stones), the outlying boundaries to the Park (particularly the ‘opening up’ of the old lake on the western side) and the new drive way through the Park which has itself necessitated the alterations for the layout of the event itself. I hope all of these changes will improve the weekend for both riders and spectators.

We are also keen to ensure that this important weekend coordinates successfully with the Cornbury Festival which takes place here for the first time over the 1st – 4th July. We believe that this can be suitably achieved.

Organising such a busy weekend takes a great deal of time and effort and my principal thanks must go to Jo Jakeman and Charles Etherington-Smith, without whose enormous contribution this event would not be the success that it has proven to be. In addition, there are a large number of volunteers who dedicate their weekend to ensuring that Great Tew is one of the best organised events on the calendar – my thanks to you all.

We remain very proud of our continuing relationship with Hartwell Land Rover in Oxford as our Title Sponsor for the fourth year running – you will certainly see some of their vehicles across the course over the weekend. Many of our other fence sponsors and section sponsors are returning again and my thanks for your support and loyalty. It is our pleasure to welcome you all to Great Tew.

Whether you are a competitor, sponsor or spectator I hope you will enjoy both the sport and the entertainment on offer this weekend. We have endured a very dry spell of weather through April and May but we all hope that this weather can continue for a few more days over this weekend .