It is good to see the mornings and evenings getting lighter and when the sun does appear I feel there is a hint of Spring on the way.  Since I last wrote the pace has quickened in various ways. The Box Office has now been open for a month and the Campsite is in demand and filling up!  Rosie has been working on the tradestand area and the jigsaw puzzle does not have many pieces left to be filled.  It is very sad that the Rural Crafts Association have retired from events and we are grateful to Trevor, Karen and team for the many years they have supported Badminton.  We welcome on board Eden Crafts who will be providing the crafts marquee. The Rural Crafts food area is also under new management, more details to follow.

In January I attended the FEI Eventing seminar in Lausanne.  Many useful topics were covered and it is always a good opportunity to exchange views from organisers and officials from around the world as our sport evolves.

This weekend we held a Medical, Veterinary and Fence Judge meeting.  It was good to get everyone together and give an insight into what the 2025 event has in store, which included Eric describing the 2025 cross-country course that is now taking shape.  We have in place very strong medical and veterinary teams who are deployed around the cross-country course.  This includes a paramedic at each fence and three specialist doctors and vets within each of the sectors of which there are seven, this allows for every fence to be reachable within minutes.  Yesterday, we were joined by members of the Gloucestershire and Avon Fire Services who gave both an enlightening talk and demonstration on their methods of horse extraction from a constricted area, with or without a rider involved in the scenario.  With the invention of the frangible pins, etc. let us hope this practice will not be needed at Badminton but it is good to have the Fire Services’ additional knowledge in our back pocket.

The previous day we took delivery of the mannequin horse which was amusing and involved a tractor and forklift!  The Estate horses were quite surprised to see said horse  in the indoor school on Saturday morning!

Here in the Office, we all enjoy the moment when the entries open which is imminent.  As always, it will be exciting to see which horse and rider combinations enter and will they include last year’s winner and some of those that competed at the Paris Olympics?!  It is also interesting to see the “first timers” that enter and we look forward to welcoming them to Badminton in May.

We have had several planning meetings with Mars Equestrian and how lucky we are that they are the Title Sponsor of the event, the whole team is great to work with and they give us wonderful support in various ways.

We were all so pleased to see Nicola Wilson was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours – which is so much deserved.

By the time I write next the 2025 season will be underway and I wish all owners and riders the very best of luck at whatever level they are competing and let’s hope the weather is kind this year!