Its at...... Gatcombe Park
From Singletrack/ Pat Adams
Essentially we’ve been nine years at Eastnor and it was getting
difficult to find new trails there to give new experiences to the
riders. With the weather we experienced there in 2012, we decided we
definitely needed a change. I went on a quest, spent 26 days on the road
visiting 20 odd other places between the Scottish Borders and south to
Cambridgeshire looking for a new venue. Place, after place after place;
all gagging to get us there but not one was suitable. We need a minimum
of an eight mile course, plus camping of over 30 acres and an arena of
over 12 acres plus good access, parking, water; that’s a tricky
combination to find. All the northern people want us in the north and
all the southern people want us to be in the south so it’s important to
find somewhere in the middle.
We were invited by kind invitation of the Princess Royal to bring
Wiggle Mountain Mayhem for 2013 to Gatcombe Park. It’s not open to the
public, it’s her private house and there’s only one horse trials event
held there. It is fabulous. The venue is on rock, a fine draining rock
which is good, and the start/finish arena is at a high point which
should guarantee it won’t get flooded, at the lowest point there is a
river so with the course following the line of natural drainage we
should be fine.
We have about seven and a half miles of trails that have been used
for hunting and shooting plus mediaeval trails that we are allowed to
use. We’re excited and our two course designers have spent several days
there already, we’re just waiting now for some fine weather to dry it
out to finalise the course. Expect lots of woods and lots of
singletrack, there’s a lot of woodland there and we’re going to use it.
We’re excited by the new venue and we feel this is going to be a new and suitable challenge for Mountain Mayhem.
