International horse trials to bring in the crowds
Some of the finest equestrian talent around will be descending on Blair Atholl this week for the annual international horse trials.
Four full days of events in the EquiTrek trials are to kick off on Thursday, ranging from pony shows and dressage to cross country and showjumping.
Also for this year Blair Castle will host leg six of the Event Ride Masters which is part of the CIC*** series and attracts unprecedented prize money to help ensure its goal of showcasing the sport of Eventing to a new global audience.
The Blair Atholl event also boasts a massively popular Bruadar Country Fayre with many demonstrations.
Over the Saturday and Sunday the country fayre will have terrier racing, flyball, falconry and vintage tractors.
And the programme will also offer the chance for visitors to take in course walks.
Parties of people can walk one of the Cross Country Track at this year’s Blair Castle Equi-Trek International Horse Trials with the pros: learn how they view the fences, how they walk the distances, walk the lines they plan to ride, and find out if they foresee any tricky moments!
In the past these have been led by top names such as William Fox-Pitt, Ruth Edge, Lucy Wiegersma and Caroline Powell.
This year the walks are on Thursday and Friday and will raise money towards Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance, Blair’s official chosen charity for 2017.
The full programme of events starts tomorrow, Wednesday, with a first horse inspection at 3.30pm.
Tickets are on sale at www. blairhorsetrials.co.uk.
Around 60,000 people have attended previous Blair trials events, bringing with them a £4 million boost to the local economy.
Traffic Scotland is urging motorists travelling in the area to leave extra time because of interest in the event, which has doors open to the public at 9am. The Thunder in the Glens event this weekend in Aviemore is also expected to have an impact on traffic on the A9.
The former POW camp at Cultybraggan
Blair Castle International Horse Trials returns this week