Travel | Cornbury House Horse Trials

This has to be my favourite horse event I attended so far. I’m rather new to the eventing world of horse trials, but it’s becoming a new industry I’m rather enjoying learning about and experiencing. Cornbury House hosts a relatively new horse trials event and I feel like they’ve nailed it down to a T. With a relaxed and wonderful atmosphere in the idyllic English countryside of the Cotswolds, it’s no surprise it’s become a favourite of mine so easily as the Cotswolds has always been by far my most favourite place in the world to visit and plan to move to at some point in my life. 

Getting There

Cornbury House is easy enough to find on the maps in the Cotswolds. Surrounded by the natural beauty of the English countryside. You’ll experience wonderful views from ear to ear on your drive through the Cotswolds. If you’re attending by public transport, the closest train station is Charlbury, but you’ll be met with a fair walk to the event from there, so this event is much better attending by car. Also the car parking is free at this event which is a major bonus compared to other horse events where you usually have to pay a fee for parking. 

What's On

Cornbury host a variety throughout the eventing days, but what I love most is, they have showjumping, cross country and dressage all happening at the same time. You don’t have to visit on certain days to watch a certain type of eventing. That’s what I love most about this event, you can see all three of your favourite types of eventing. 

I particularly loved watching the showjumping and seeing the riders absolutely smash it with their horses effortlessly flying over the jumps. The cross country jumps also looked fantastic. You can honestly see how much time and effort the team at Cornbury House have put into this whole event. 

The dressage was located a little bit of a walk to the Cornbury House, but you can get VIP shuttles around the park if need be. We decided on a walk towards the dressage as it was a glorious sunny day and why not experience the stunning surroundings and take it all in. The dressage arenas are located right next to Cornbury House which gave a very beautiful view for watching the dressage. 

There’s of course a food & drink area which are from local businesses with a choice of a few varieties, the only downfall at around 2-3pm some stalls were struggling to keep up with orders due to the high demand. I attended on the Saturday so this was no surprise with Saturday usually being a busy day at events. 

The Cornbury Shopping Village also had a fair few stalls for you to shop at with a variety of businesses from fashion, home decor to art and of course not to mention all the favourite equestrian tack and riding equipment stalls from the likes of Le Mieux, Ariat and others available. 

The Cornbury team really have thought about everyone attending the horse trials event, as they've created an area for kids and family to enjoy with free interactive activities. Children under the age of 12 alongside a valid ticket go free. 

Hospitality 

There is a beautiful area for hospitality at Cornbury where they have an endless lunch available which looked divine alongside an exquisite setting to enjoy it in with a view over the showjumping arena. Located inside a stunningly decorated tent that clearly had a lot of time and effort put into by the Cornbury House team. 

Overall, I’d certainly love to go again year after year to this fabulous event and I’m really looking forward to seeing them become bigger and better each year. I particularly would love to experience the hospitality side of things next time as I’d imagine this would be even more of an incredible day to experience.