HISTORY

It was in 1961 that the Marquess of Exeter, on hearing that the autumn three-day event at Harewood could no longer be held, invited the British Horse Society to transfer the event to his estate. In its second year, 1962, Burghley ran the F.E.I.'s European Championship and this was the beginning of a remarkable record. No other international horse trials site has staged as many Championships, a record ten in all including the first World Championship in 1966.

In total Burghley has run two World Championships in 1966 and 1974, six European Championships in 1962, 1971,1977, 1985, 1989 and 1997. Also one Young Riders European Championship in 1978.

It is the longest continuous running international event. There have been six course designers : Bill Thomson, M.R.C.V.S. 1961 - 1983, Lt.- Col. Henry Nicoll, D.S.O., O.B.E., 1975, Philip Herbert 1984 - 1988, Capt. Mark Phillips, C.V.O., 1989 - 1996 and 1998 - 2000, Mike Tucker 1997 and 2001, Wolfgang Feld 2002 - 2004 and Capt. Mark Phillips, C.V.O., 2005 -.

Individual Records
William Fox-Pitt, Virginia Elliott, (nee Holgate) and Mark Todd are the most successful riders to compete at Burghley, all winning 5 times. William Fox-Pitt in 1994, 2002, 2005, 2007 and 2008; Virginia Elliott in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1989 and Mark Todd in 1987, 1990, 1991, 1997 and 1999. Lorna Clarke, (nee Sutherland) has completed the Burghley event more times than any other rider, 16 times between 1967 and 1989. Finally, only one horse has won Burghley twice: Priceless in 1983 and 1985.

FACTS & FIGURES

• Only one horse has won the event twice: Priceless in 1983 and 1985
• Pippa Funnell won $250,000 as the Rolex Grand Slam winner by winning Lexington, Badminton and Burghley in the same 12 month period in 2003
• Mark Todd and Blyth Tait are the only two riders to have taken first and second places in the same event in 1987 and 1998 respectively
• Princess Anne, riding as an individual in only her second Three-Day Event, became European Champion at Burghley in 1971. Her daughter Zara Phillips is the only child of two former winners to compete at the Event, finishing second in 2003.

Land Rover

• Land Rover was 60 years old in 2008, formed in 1948 by Maurice & Spencer Wilkes.
• To date Land Rover has sold over 3.7 million vehicles worldwide.
• Land Rover launched its fifth name plate - the Range Rover Sport - in 2005.
• All Land Rovers are manufactured in Solihull, Warwickshire, and Halewood, Merseyside.
• Exports run at 70% to over 140 countries around the world.
• Over 60 Land Rover vehicles are on site at Burghley in use throughout the event by Officials, Medical and Veterinary Teams.

Tentage

• Woodhouse has been working with Burghley Horse Trials since 1962
• Their equipment used on site is worth in excess of £1,650,000
• There are over 40 x 20 tonne lorry loads of equipment in and out of the event.
• It takes Woodhouse four weeks to build the show and three weeks to clear the site.
• More than 5875 man-hours are involved in setting up and breaking down.
• Woodhouse supply nearly one mile of tradestands.
• Approximately 7200 square metres of flooring is laid.

Did you know?

• Approximately 600 dogs attempt the Pedigree Fun Dog Agility Challenge each year.
• Approximately 70,000 photocopies are made over the four days of the Event.
• Annually Stamford XT provide over 350 volunteer stewards for the cross country crossing points.
• Over 80 hours are spent mowing the cross country and parkland in preparation for the Horse Trials.

Parking and Tickets

• Over 6,000 metres (3.72 miles) of rope and over 1,000 metal pins are used to lay out the car parking areas.
• On Saturday of the Event over 140 acres of land are parked with visitor vehicles.
• On Saturday alone, over 150 staff are involved with parking supervision and ticket handling.

Flowers

• Hanging Garden send the equivalent of 9 x 7.5 tonne lorries transport plants and flowers.
• 32 x 8’ high trolleys are delivered, each racked with shelves, containing in the region of 2240 plants and flowers
• Hanging Garden supply a further 200 plus oversized shrubs, interior plants and topiary.
• Approximately 100 hanging baskets are provided, some of which are hung around the trade stand area and the hospitality areas, and the remainder have their stringers removed and are used in gardens.
• 10 staff in total set up Burghley. Most of the plants are moved up to Stamford from Basingstoke on the Friday before Burghley starts and then most of the work is undertaken over the weekend in terms of dressing the cross country course and the hospitality areas.
• It takes over 5000 miles in journeys in order to set up, maintain and breakdown Burghley
• Watering is carried out using electrically powered bowsers which use around 3000 litres of water over 10 days to keep the plants and flowers well maintained.
• For optimum freshness all of the cut flowers are delivered on the day before Burghley starts.
• A skeleton crew is on site from Monday to Friday for maintenance work, extras, work in the dressage arena and on-hand to help. The rest of the team attend on Saturday to breakdown the cross-country once it has finished and set-up the show jumping for the next day.

Electricity

• We use 26 generators at Burghley with a combined capacity equal to 2.5 megawatts of power - enough to supply a small town.
• 18,000 litres of fuel will be used to run the generators.
• Over 130 tons (130,000 kilograms) of equipment will be transported to Burghley.
• 25 kilometres of cable will be run around the site along with some 60 distribution boxes.
• It takes our electricians four weeks to install all this prior to the event.

Catering

• Over 95% of the Members' and Hospitality catering staff are employed from Stamford and the surrounding areas.

Some of the food and drink consumed during the Event includes:

• 11000 Baguettes
• 1.5 tons of Pork
• 7000 Glasses of Pimms
• 2000 Bottles of Champagne
• 40,000 cups of tea and coffee
• 50,000 bottles of drink