Badminton Horse Trials

The Badminton Horse Trials is a five-day event, one of only seven annual Concours Complet International Five Star events as classified by the Fédération Équestre Internationale. It takes place in May each year in the park of Badminton House, the seat of the Duke of Beaufort, in South Gloucestershire, England.

History

Badminton was first held in 1949 by the 10th Duke of Beaufort in order to let British riders train for international events, and was advertised as "the most important horse event in Britain". It was the second three-day event held in Britain, with the first being its inspiration – the 1948 Summer Olympics. The first Badminton had 22 horses from Britain and Ireland start, and was won by Golden Willow. Eight of the 22 starters failed to complete the cross-country course. Badminton was the home of the first European Championship in 1953, won by Major Laurence Rook on Starlight XV. In 1955, Badminton moved to Windsor Castle for a year, at the invitation of the Queen, in order to hold the second European Championships. Badminton was first televised in 1956.
In 1959, Badminton was held in two sections, called the Great and Little Badminton, due to the popularity of the event and the number of entries. The horses in the two sections jumped the same fences, but were separated into the two divisions based on their money winnings. This graded approach was abandoned after the 1965 event.
In 1989, the current director and course-designer Hugh Thomas, who rode in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, took over from Francis Weldon, a former winner, who is credited with bringing the event to the pinnacle it is at today.
Badminton is held in the grounds of the Badminton Estate in South Gloucestershire, where the car parks, tradestands, arena and cross-country courses are located.
Badminton has been cancelled on several occasions. In 1966, 1975, 1987, 2001, 2012, 2020 and 2021 the event was cancelled completely, and in 1963 it was downgraded to a one-day event due to bad weather. In 2001 it was cancelled due to foot and mouth disease, in 2012 due to waterlogged ground, and in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Status

Together with the five-star rated Kentucky Three-Day Event and the Burghley Horse Trials, Badminton forms the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing. Only two people have ever won the Grand Slam; Pippa Funnell in 2003 and Michael Jung in 2015/16. Australian Andrew Hoy nearly took the title in 2007 but lost it when he had a pole down at Burghley. The remaining CCI***** rated events are the Luhmühlen Horse Trials, the Australian International Three Day Event, the Stars of Pau and the Maryland Five Star at Fairhill.
The cross-country day at Badminton attracts crowds of up to a quarter of a million and is the second largest in the world for money made.

Winners

Year	Rider	Horse	Notes
1949	John Shedden	Golden Willow
1950	Tony Collins	Remus
1951	Hans Schwarzenbach	Vae Victis
1952	Mark Darley	Emily Little
1953	Laurence Rook	Starlight
1954	Margaret Hough	Bambi V
1955	Francis Weldon	Kilbarry	Event held at Windsor
1956	Francis Weldon	Kilbarry
1957	Sheila Wilcox	High and Mighty
1958	Sheila Wilcox	High and Mighty
1959	Sheila Wilcox-Waddington	Airs and Graces	Little Badminton
1959	Shelagh Kesler	Double Diamond
1960	Bill Roycroft	Our Solo
1960	Martin Whiteley	Peggoty	Little Badminton
1961	Laurie Morgan	Salad Days
1961	Peter Welch	Mr. Wilson	Little Badminton
1962	Anneli Drummond-Hay	Merely-a-Monarch
1962	Penny Crofts	Priam	Little Badminton
1963	No Major Event		Event downgraded due to weather
1964	James Templer	M'Lord Connolly
1964	Sheila Waddington	Glenamoy	Little Badminton
1965	Eddie Boylan	Durlas Eile
1965	Martin Whiteley	The Poacher	Little Badminton
1966	No Event		Cancelled due to weather
1967	Celia Ross-Taylor	Jonathan
1968	Jane Bullen	Our Nobby
1969	Richard Walker	Pasha
1970	Richard Meade	The Poacher
1971	Mark Phillips	Great Ovation
1972	Mark Phillips	Great Ovation
1973	Lucinda Prior-Palmer	Be Fair
1974	Mark Phillips	Columbus
1975	No Event		Cancelled due to weather
1976	Lucinda Prior-Palmer	Wide Awake
1977	Lucinda Prior-Palmer	George
1978	Jane Holderness-Roddam	Warrior
1979	Lucinda Prior-Palmer	Killaire
1980	Mark Todd	Southern Comfort III
1981	Mark Phillips	Lincoln
1982	Richard Meade	Speculator III
1983	Lucinda Green	Regal Realm
1984	Lucinda Green	Beagle Bay
1985	Ginny Holgate	Priceless
1986	Ian Stark	Sir Wattie
1987	No Event		Cancelled due to weather
1988	Ian Stark	Sir Wattie	Also came second on Glenburnie
1989	Ginny Leng	Master Craftsman
1990	Nicola McIrvine	Middle Road
1991	Rodney Powell	The Irishman II
1992	Mary Thomson	King William
1993	Ginny Leng	Welton Houdini
1994	Mark Todd	Horton Point
1995	Bruce Davidson	Eagle Lion
1996	Mark Todd	Bertie Blunt
1997	David O'Connor	Custom Made
1998	Chris Bartle	Word Perfect II
1999	Ian Stark	Jaybee
2000	Mary King	Star Appeal
2001	No Event		Cancelled due to foot and mouth epidemic
2002	Pippa Funnell	Supreme Rock
2003	Pippa Funnell	Supreme Rock	Won as the second leg of winning the Grand Slam of Eventing
2004	William Fox-Pitt	Tamarillo
2005	Pippa Funnell	Primmore's Pride
2006	Andrew Hoy	Moonfleet
2007	Lucinda Fredericks	Headley Britannia
2008	Nicolas Touzaint	Hildago de L'Ile
2009	Oliver Townend	Flint Curtis
2010	Paul Tapner	Inonothing
2011	Mark Todd	NZB Land Vision
2012	No Event		Cancelled due to weather
2013	Jonathan Paget	Clifton Promise
2014	Sam Griffiths	Paulank Brockagh
2015	William Fox-Pitt	Chilli Morning
2016	Michael Jung	La Biosthetique-Sam	Won as the final leg of winning the Grand Slam of Eventing
2017	Andrew Nicholson	Nereo
2018	Jonelle Price	Classic Moet
2019	Piggy French	Vanir Kamira	First year of CCI5* designation
2020	No Event		Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
2021	No Event		Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
2022	Laura Collett	London 52
2023	Rosalind Canter	Lordships Graffalo
2024	Caroline Powell	Greenacres Special Cavalier
2025	Rosalind Canter	Lordships Graffalo

Warnings and sanctions

Yellow Warning Cards are sanctions issued by the FEI to riders for abusive behavior, unsafe riding, or potentially dangerous practices such as excessively whipping a horse or pushing on with an exhausted horse. If a rider receives a second Yellow Warning Card within a year, they are suspended from competing in FEI sanctioned competitions for two months. More Yellow Warning Cards are issued in the sport of eventing than for other FEI sports.
Yellow Warning Cards issued at Badminton Horse Trials include:

2011: Jrina Giesswein for dangerous riding - continuing after three clear refusals, a fall, or any form of elimination
2011: Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch for dangerous riding - not following the instructions of the officials
2013: Manuel Grave for dangerous riding - pressing a tired horse
2016: Alice Dunsdon for dangerous riding - continuing after three clear refusals, a fall, or any form of elimination
2017: Elisa Wallace for abuse of horse - riding an exhausted horse
2022: Mollie Summerland for abuse of horse - excessive use of whip, bit and/or spurs
2022: Maxime Livio for dangerous riding - pressing a tired horse; and one for incorrect behaviour the prior month
2023: Oliver Townend for dangerous riding - series of dangerous jumps. After clipping a fence, rider was asked to pull up by the ground jury and was eliminated.
2024: Florian Ganneval for dangerous riding - series of dangerous jumps