NAF Five Star Winter Championships - all systems go!

Championships organiser Show Direct is putting the finishing touches to the arenas at Hartpury in readiness for the NAF Five Star Winter Dressage Championships (11-15 April 2018) at Hartpury College in Gloucestershire.

The NAF Five Star Winter Championships is without doubt the UK’s largest and most diverse dressage event and we’re looking forward to welcoming the many talented amateurs and well-known pros who’ve all fought hard to qualify for a coveted place.

From Wednesday to Sunday, more than 1,000 horse and rider combinations will converge for this celebrated finale to the winter dressage season. This year too, with the introduction of non-music PSG and Inter I Championship as well as Inter II and U18 sections in the Petplan Equine Area Festival Championships, the event promises to be bigger and better than ever before.

James Burtwell will be the busiest rider of the show with a total of 12 classes entered with his five rides. Alice Oppenheimer has an impressive 11 starts with four horses, whilst Olympic, World and European gold medallist Charlotte Dujardin will be sure to play a big part. Fresh from her winning international Grand Prix debut with Mount St John Freestyle at the Nieuw en Sint Joosland CDI, she’ll be making the short trip to Hartpury to contest eight classes with six of her up-and-coming young stars.

Come the weekend it’s time for letting your hair down! On both Friday and Saturday night, the curtain is raised for two gala performances. On Friday it’s the Magic Prix St Georges Freestyle and on Saturday it’s the turn of the Superflex Intermediate I Freestyle, which both feature the top combinations from the earlier PSG and Inter I classes.

Both nights you’ll also get to see a master class with British team silver medallist Michael Eilberg, a performance by the English Vaulting Squad with their exceptional display of athleticism on horseback, and the Young Rider Quadrille. This team of young riders has been raising the roof at high profile shows the length and breadth of the UK, and we’re proud to have them perform here.

Both evenings get underway at 7.00pm (doors open 6.20pm) with tickets available for £16 on the door.

Entry is free during the day and with three arenas running from around 8.00am to 6.00pm and a wealth of shopping, there’s plenty to see and do.

If you can’t make it to Hartpury, you won’t have to miss any of the action from the NAF Five Star Arena as thanks to support from LeMieux we’re able to provide a live stream of all the daytime indoor classes, and the feature gala evening classes, though not live, will be recorded and available to view after the show.

Please visit the BD Championships website for all the info on the NAF Five Star Championships – news, full timetable, results, tradestands, location and of course, the live stream! Plus, you’ll be able to download rider interviews from Friday to Sunday using our audio service.

BD will be there in the NAF Five Star Arena, so do drop by the trade stand to see us. We have new additions to the clothing range, a special event offer on membership, and we’ll also be celebrating BD’s 20th Birthday!

We’ll also be at ‘BD Corner’ near the secretary’s office where you can buy your BD essentials and go with your questions on anything BD. The communications and marketing team will also be out and about providing stories and quotes plus lots of coverage on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (@british_dressage).

The annual Members’ Meeting returns, taking place on Thursday evening (12 April) in the Mark Davison 1 lecture theatre in the main Hartpury campus, starting 15 minutes after the last prize-giving which should be about 6.30pm. Members of the Board and the senior management team will be available to chat and talk through your questions.