Ever thought you’d be better off getting off the horse and negotiating the cross-country jumps yourself? Probably not, but that’s what a group of 422 runners did in Norfolk recently.
Mucky Races, which prides itself on offering “the toughest, muddiest, wettest off-road running events in the south-east”, held its “steeplechase” race on 30 October at Blackwater Farm near Norwich, home of the Great Witchingham International Horse Trials.
The course took runners out on to the roads and tracks phase of this long-format horse trials before bringing them through a chest-high river and over – or under in some cases – several of the jumps.
Landowner David Sayer said: “This is the second year they have held it here and it’s getting bigger each year. It’s great fun to watch – the horses grazing in the fields were spellbound.”
This news story was first published in the current issue of Horse and Hound (10 November, 2011)
