There’s good news for eventing fans in Cumbria with the announcement of a new fixture to be held at Hutton-in-the-Forest this year.

It will feature two-star, intermediate and novice classes and will be held on July 24/25. This means Lord and Lady Inglewood will now play host to three prestigious BE events at their estate, near Penrith. The first on June 18-20 features a BE80 course for the first time plus classes right up to one-star. The third event runs on September 11/12 with BE90, BE100 and novice classes.

Before all of those, there’s another event new to Cumbria – the new Eden Valley event at Charles Lowther’s Nord Vue Estate, near Armathwaite, on April 10-11, and the Bainbridge family are once again hosting the popular Cumwhinton Horse Trials, near Carlisle, on July 17/18.

The new Hutton fixture fills the gap left by the loss of the Knaptoft, Tetton and Auchinleck events and brings organiser, Douglas Weymouth’s ultimate ambition one step closer to reality.

“I’ve always believed Hutton-in-the-Forest suits the entire spectrum of horse trials,” said Douglas. “It could go all the way from BE80 right up to three-star and I hope one day it will.”

The dream came close to being realised last year when plans were put in place for a three-star course. Sadly, the recession made it impossible to secure the essential top-line sponsorship, but the plan has been postponed rather than ditched altogether.

Safety on the cross-country course was high on the agenda when a group of builders and designers took part in a special professional development day at Hutton-in-the-Forest. After hearing presentations on new British Eventing guidelines, they were asked to come up with ideas for the new BE80 course.

“Statistically, the chances of serious injury while eventing is very slight, and more than 1.3m fences are jumped every year,” said British Eventing regional director, Chris Shaw, who chaired the event. “But, of course, we can never be complacent and new research is being carried out all the time to make courses even safer.”

The group also heard from Adrian Ditcham, who’s part of the London eventing squad which will be building the 2012 Olympic cross-country course, at Greenwich.

“Days like this are particularly important because they allow us to pass on information about new guidelines and safety issues,” he said.