The Mounted Games World Team Championships are coming home to Britain this summer
Mounted games enthusiasts are celebrating the return of the Mounted Games World Team Championships (26-28 July) to the UK – the birthplace of mounted games – for the first time since 1994.
This year will be the 16th running of the annual event, which will see 14 nations from around the world battling for the World Championship title.
Seventy ponies and their riders will descend on Fontwell Park Racecourse, Sussex, for three days of entertaining high-speed competition.
“Mounted games is a great spectator sport,” says Mary Worth, executive officer of the Mounted Games Association of Great Britain. “The riders and their ponies are amazing athletes who train long and hard to represent their country.”
Great Britain retained the world title for the first 14 years of the World Team Championships, before being split into the separate nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2000.
Last year’s event was held in Guelph, Canada, when the home side triumphed, but the hopes of the British teams are high for 2002.
“England and Wales have both got a very good chance of taking the title,” says Mary. “The teams are very strong and the riders will be competing on their best ponies.”
Britain will be supplying ponies to the Australian, American and Canadian teams, while the remaining countries will be bringing their own ponies for the event.
Find out more about mounted games:
- Visit the MGA’s website: www.mgagb.co.uk
- Visit the world championships’ website: www.world-championships.net
- Visit the Pony Club’s mounted games webpages: www.pcuk.org
