The show was organised by Ann Sadler and Belinda Wilkins, who put extra classes into the schedule and added a second ring, which encouraged twenty six riders to enter. The morning included equitation and showing which allowed the afternoon classes to have more relaxed events such as versatile horse/pony and the ever popular Champagne Challenge.

Barnham rider Jenny Medlock won the Restricted Equitation, judged on rider position, riding and turnout, on her bright bay riding horse, Wolfgang Mayday Melody, despite only recently taking up riding aside, Ten year old Sophie Lawes from Petworth on her little welsh pony Make A Splash took a well deserved second place. Sophie also was placed second in the Cygnet Trophy Young Rider class where three of the four ponies happened to be grey. Sophie too only started riding side saddle earlier this year. Having seen Caroline Wilkins hunting with the Chiddingfold, Leconfield and Cowdray Hunt whilst she was riding Splash, she wanted to ‘have a go’ and found it easy with Caroline’s help, making her dream come true when she rode side saddle at Upwaltham for the last hunt meet of the season.

Carl Hester steered GB’s four-person team ahead with a competition-leading score of 82.568 aboard Uthopia.

Closest rivals Germany had no answer despite a score of 79.453 from Matthias Rath and equine superstar Totilas.

“This is even more fantastic because [Uthopia] is a family pet who’s turned into a superstar,” said Hester.

Hester’s score, a personal best, was the highest of the competition as Britain finished first on a combined score of 238.678. Germany took silver with 226.110.

Britain’s team score beat the previous European Championships record of 238.595, set by the Dutch team in 2009.

Charlotte Dujardin, a 26-year-old pupil at Hester’s Gloucestershire yard, and Valegro produced the fourth-highest score – 78.830 – as Britain underscored their rapid improvement on the world stage with a formidable team performance.

Despite entering this event as world and European silver medallists, no Briton had ever lifted a team or individual title at that level.

“I’m almost more emotional about Charlotte to be honest, as she’s come to it so young,” said Hester, 44.

“But it’s all very pleasurable and at least I’ve managed to produce a decent score before I’m too old.”

Emile Faurie, the first Briton to compete, scored 70.426 on Elmegardens Marquis.

Hester and Dujardin cemented the British lead to leave minimal pressure on team-mate Laura Bechtolsheimer, ranked second in the world behind the Netherlands’ Adelinde Cornelissen, who posted a score of 77.280 to make certain of victory.

Bechtolsheimer’s rise to stardom with her horse Mistral Hojris, better known as Alf, has been at the heart of Britain’s transformation into a world dressage power.

Britain’s success at the 2010 World Equestrian Games, when Bechtolsheimer picked up individual silver and helped GB to team silver in the American state of Kentucky, represented GB’s first world dressage medals since 1978.

In a sport dominated by Europeans – every Olympic title since it was introduced in 1912 has gone to a European or Soviet rider – winning this title is a strong indication that Britain can win at least one dressage gold medal at London 2012.

Bechtolsheimer and Hester will now lead the British challenge for individual honours, an event which concludes on Sunday.

Key facts

Sport: Equestrian events – Jumping, Dressage and Eventing, Paralympic Equestrian, Modern Pentathlon
Location: Greenwich Park is on the south bank of the River Thames in south east London. It is a great place to see views of central London and the Docklands.

About Greenwich Park

Greenwich Park is London’s oldest Royal Park, dating back to 1433. It has been a World Heritage Site since 1997. Within the Park is The Royal Observatory and the home of Greenwich Mean Time.

Greenwich Park includes the Old Royal Naval College and National Maritime Museum, which, together with Greenwich Park, are part of a World Heritage Site

A temporary Cross Country course is being designed for the Park. The course will be created in 2012. A temporary main arena will be built in 2012 within the grounds of the National Maritime Museum.

During the Games

Greenwich Park will host the Olympic and Paralympic Equestrian competitions, plus the combined running and shooting event of the Modern Pentathlon.

After the Games

The temporary structures will be taken down after the Games.

Around 500,000 Britons pre-registered an interest in equestrian, a figure spectacularly in excess of the core horse show audience, even allowing for the novelty of an Olympic Games. If all 500,000 proceeded with ticket requests, they represent a quarter of the two million individuals who applied for tickets for any kind of sport.

Equestrian has not been flagged up by Locog as one of the sports still available in the second ballot and so its near sell-out panders to the Greenwich sceptics who believed the park was always going to be too small for a competition of this scale. At Greenwich there are 11 sessions in an arena seating about 20,000 and one cross-country day admitting 55,000 (a reduction from original estimates of 70,000) – the session reported to be most over-subscribed. The potential for disappointment was always immense, even if the 500,000 merely applied for a pair of tickets each.

In fairness to the crowd-modellers, the horse public gives very mixed signals about what it will turn out to watch, and it is generally reluctant to get behind new or one-off events. At one extreme, 200,000 people go to the annual Badminton and Burghley horse trials – nearly as many each as will get into Greenwich across the fortnight; yet when Britain hosted the star-studded European dressage and show jumping championships in 2009, Windsor’s modest 8,000 capacity arena had swathes of empty seats. A new international in Yorkshire, the heart of show jumping country, was called off this Easter due to poor ticket sales.

In glorious hindsight, a  30,000-seater arena  at Greenwich might have been justified, but who would have dared sanction a large stadium based on recent experience?
Horse & Hound also reveals that 18 per cent of core fans surveyed did not apply for any tickets at all.  There is certainly a degree of ante Greenwich-fatigue amongst a few veteran supporters who have provided horses and/or raised significant funds for previous Team GB efforts – some who travelled to Sydney and Hong Kong tell me that the home Games, and the prospect of flogging into town, just seem like too much trouble, and many horse professionals were planning parties around their TV screens long before tickets went on sale.

England is the most horse-mad country to stage the Olympic Games since, well, London 1948, and in  recommending Greenwich back in 2003 the British Equestrian Federation had to  weigh that up against  Locog’s requirements for a “compact Games” and the opportunity to break down elitist perceptions by delivering horse sport to an urban crowd.  If that was the prime objective, then the choice of Greenwich was spot-on and the unprecedented appetite for equestrian could give ammunition for improved coverage on TV, which has been marginalised it in recent years. Whether  disenchanted core supporters will feel adequately compensated by that  remains to be seen.

Winning the award for Best Project up to 2,000m² was The British Horse Soceity for their headquarter offices in Kenilworth, Warwickshire. The Abbey Park offices which were officially opened in February by HRH The Princess Royal, received the award for the innovative, comfortable and sustainable building which replaced their old and outdated premises.

The new building provides high-quality accommodation for 85 staff, with additional meeting and conference facilities for visitors. It is a stunning new home for the UK’s largest and most influential equestrian body and provides a superb base from which staff are able to represent the interests of the 4.3 million people in the UK who ride or drive horse-drawn vehicles, particularly in the run up to next year’s Olympic Games.

The building, which sits in a Grade 2 listed deer park in Stareton, Warwickshire, comprises 22,500 sq ft of modern offices within the green belt. It is circular in shape, designed to fit around a fine 200-year-old oak tree which stands as its centrepiece. Great lengths were taken during construction to protect the many valuable trees on the site, not just by fencing off individual trees to prevent workers and machinery from getting too close, but also by hand-digging the foundations where necessary to avoid damaging root systems.

About 500 horses competed in events including dressage, cross-country and show jumping.

Bramham Park, near Wetherby, has hosted the competition since 1974 and it has since grown into one of the most popular events in the UK.

German eventer Kai Rueder won the event on Charley Weld with 42 penalties and a clear round in the showjumping.

A spokesman for the event said: “It is amazing how quickly the park transforms; from just a few pegs in the ground marking out the site to barely a day or two later completed marquees, stables and shedding units everywhere.

“It’s gone really, really well. It has been really successful. We have had a huge crowd over the last few days – the numbers have been up each day. We have had beautiful weather and it has been a fantastic event.”

As well as a host of equestrian events, there were food and rink stalls, trade stands and children’s entertainment for visitors.

The Lane Fox family, which has lived at Bramham Park for 300 years, is involved in organising the Welcome To Yorkshire-sponsored event.

The house provides the backdrop for the main arena activities and the cross country course is set in the parkland.

It will offer riders the chance to gain a valuable qualification and points which may be required for Badminton entry in 2012 – the year that Olympic eventing comes to the UK.

The two-day event, which will be held at Burgham Park, near Morpeth, on March 24 and 25, 2012, with both Intermediate and Advanced British Eventing classes, is also expected to attract riders from the UK and overseas taking part in the London Olympics.

An Advanced class is the highest national class that can be awarded.

Burgham trials directors Semore Kurdi and Sunil Mehra welcomed the decision.

Mr Mehra said: “We are delighted to have secured not only an Advanced event for the region but also one of the last events before the Badminton Horse Trials, which is sure to draw some of the top names in the sport to the North East in an Olympic year.

“We believe this decision demonstrates great faith in our team and recognition of its ability and commitment to make the Burgham Horse Trials the biggest equestrian event in the region.”

Next March’s event will be one of only a few Advanced fixtures in 2012 before the world-renowned Badminton Horse Trials.

The news comes as a huge boost to the Burgham team, just weeks before the inaugural British Eventing fixture takes place at Burgham Park from Friday, July 22, to Sunday, July 24.

It will feature top-class showjumping including the £12,000 prize fund Burgham Classic Grand Prix, alongside British Eventing, Dubarry Burghley Young Event Horse, Burghley Event Pony, Pony Club classes, Sporthorse GB and British Show Pony Society Showing and Para Dressage.

Frances Hay-Smith, British Eventing’s regional co-ordinator, said: “I am delighted we have secured this prestigious event in Northumberland to give our members based in the North and Scotland the chance to get their qualifications and pre-Badminton runs without the huge travel costs they have had to pay in the past years.”

For more information, visit www.burghamhorsetrials.co.uk

Ellen says the nine-year-old chestnut is “very brave, with a big heart”.

Mr Oley’s daughter Lauren Humphries told H&H: “We hope for big things from Lenny. We’re not sure what Ellen will do with him this season but he’s very talented.”

The second horse is a 10-year-old mare called Xemenia (stable name Minnie), whom Ellen thinks has a very bright future ahead of her.

Ellen said: “I am really excited to have these horses. They are both very very easy horses and I am enjoying getting to know them.

“Lenny is really like Kanselier in his early years and I am hoping his career will be as long as successful as Kanselier’s was.

“Minnie is an amazing horse. I first saw her when she was very young and then when I rode her recently I loved her. I have very high hopes for her future.”

The new National Equine Anti Doping and Controlled Medication rules (BEFAR) will affect all BEF Member Bodies in FEI disciplines and will be incorporated into their rules on publication of their forthcoming rulebooks.

The new system adopts the FEI’s prohibited substances list in its entirety, including a ban on Non-Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs). Under the new National system, these will be classed as Controlled Medications, which, if found in a horse’s sample during competition, will result in a violation. BEFAR is supported and funded by all BEF Member Bodies and UK Anti Doping (UKAD).

All disciplines will be fully compliant by 1st January 2012. BEF member bodies have welcomed the standardised system, which will create a clear policy for all members across disciplines, with all adhering to the same prohibited substances list, sanctions and procedures. British Showjumping will be the first Olympic discipline to join the system on April 1, 2011.

The new system will see an increasing number of anti-doping tests across the disciplines and all affiliated members should expect their horse to be tested, whether they are competing at grass roots level or at a National Championship. The Equine Anti Doping and Controlled Medication Rules for international competitors remain unchanged.

The new rules, which have been instigated by the FEI, apply to all National Federations, with the deadline for compulsory compliance for Federations set at January 1, 2012. It is hoped that the creation of standardised national guidelines will make things clearer for riders, particularly those who compete in more than one discipline. Once all of the FEI disciplines introduce the new rules, the prohibited substances, procedures and sanctions will be the same, whatever the discipline.

What is normal?

In the relaxed, i.e. non-erect state, the horse’s penis normally remains within its protective sheath where it is held in place by muscles. When these muscles relax and/or the penis fills with blood and becomes erect, it becomes exposed. At the tip of the penis (the glans) is the opening of the urethra. This is surrounded by a deep ‘pocket’, or fossa. Apart from the glans, which is covered by a thin sensitive membrane, the rest of the penis (shaft) is covered by smooth, supple, well-oiled skin, much of which is normally folded within the prepuce. Debris from the normal secretions of the skin glands and normally-dying cells from the surface of the skin within the sheath may accumulate in these folds and in the urethral fossa and sinus. This accumulation of waxy material is called ‘smegma’. It may be black, grey or cream coloured in normal horses and has a slightly greasy feel. It occasionally forms into bean-shaped lumps which lodge in the urethral fossa and sinus. Some horses produce very little smegma whereas others produce large quantities. In such horses, smegma can often be seen staining the opening of the sheath and on the inside of the thighs and hocks.

The penis and sheath have a permanent population of normal bacteria on their surface, just as all skin surfaces do. These bacteria do not cause disease, they undoubtedly help maintain the health of the skin and may help prevent infection by controlling ‘unwelcome’ bacteria. The urethral fossa and sinus, in particular, can harbour potential venereal disease producing bacteria (specifically Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Taylorella equigenitalis). Infection with these organisms can cause venereal disease in mares following mating but rarely cause signs or symptoms of disease in the carrier stallion, who is usually infected by a carrier mare. When stallions become infected, these organisms may survive on the penile skin alongside of the ‘normal’ bacterial population and can then be very difficult to remove.

What harm can sheath washing do?

Although sheath washing sounds a good idea and has been recommended by horsemen universally over the years as an important routine equine management procedure, it can have a detrimental effect if the normal ‘ecological’ balance of skin bacteria is disturbed. Washing the penis and sheath with strong detergent solutions can remove the natural skin oils, resulting in dry penile skin which cracks as it folds and unfolds, causing irritation and damage followed by inflammation and secondary infection. If this infection is caused by bacteria which are easy to treat, the problem may resolve spontaneously once washing with detergent has stopped. Local (creams or ointments) or systemic (by injection or by mouth) antibiotic treatment may be necessary.

Repeated washing with antiseptic, i.e. antibacterial washes or detergent solutions can result in alteration or removal of the normal penile skin bacterial population. This may result in colonisation by unwelcome bacteria which are not normally present, either from the stable environment or following mating with a venereal disease carrier mare, and severe penile skin and sheath infections can result. The infection results in inflammation, swelling of local tissues and a profuse foul-smelling discharge which is much more unpleasant than smegma.

These infections can be extremely difficult to treat due to the resistant nature of some unwelcome bacteria. In such cases, prolonged treatment with specific systemic and topical antibiotics may be necessary, followed by a period of rest and then the application of a specially-prepared ‘normal’ penile skin bacterial broth culture to re-colonise the area. In some cases even this treatment may be unsuccessful and chronic infection may result in thickened cracked penile skin and extreme discomfort.

How should sheath washing be performed?

If your horse appears to have a healthy penis and sheath there is almost certainly no need to wash it at all. In horses which produce large amounts of smegma and appear uncomfortable, and in show horses or others where this would be considered unsightly, excess smegma can be wiped or rinsed away with warm clean water using simple soap which contains no antiseptics or detergents. A small amount of light mineral oil (such as baby oil) may help to loosen lumps and make excessive smegma easier to remove. It is important to be gentle and not abrade the skin and to rinse all trace of soap away. For healthy breeding stallions, rinsing the relaxing penis with warm clean water immediately on dismount is all that is required.