British Eventing (BE) has lost two of its longest running novice events from the fixture list.
Malpas (Cheshire) and Iping (West Sussex) will not be hosting BE events in 2015.
The long-standing organisers of Malpas, Captain Timothy and Dawn Ritson, stepped down last year after many years at the helm, and BE commentator and controller mentor Richard Connelly had taken up the reins in order to try and keep the event running.
He said: “Malpas has always boasted very traditional cross-country courses with natural hedges, logs and ditches. But feedback from riders and from BE was that new, more modern challenges were needed to bring the event up to date. Unfortunately – and understandably — the changes that needed to be made didn’t sit comfortably with the landowners, so we had no choice but to call it a day.”
The south east calendar will be minus Iping next year as long-time organisers Daphne Lakin and Veronica Spackman have also stepped down. The event, which hosted intermediate classes until 2007, has run sections at intermediate novice level and below for the past seven years.
Adrian Ditcham, BE regional coordinator for the south east, said: “All good things come to an end eventually, but Iping will be a hard act to follow. It has been an important educational site for so many riders over the years, and I hope that it continues to be so, albeit at unaffiliated and hunter trial events.”
Earlier this year, Milton Keynes confirmed 2014 would be its last season holding BE competitions.
BE has indicated that it will be announcing several new fixtures shortly. It has already said that there will be a new event at Dalston Green, Carlisle, which will run BE80(T) through to BE100 classes next May. Aske (1) and Aske (2) in North Yorkshire will be adding a BE90 class next year.
The 2015 BE calendar is due to be published in early November.
