The FEI Eventing European Championship was born in 1953 when the FEI asked Badminton to be the host and has definitely come a long way since then! Team GBR got off to a great start at this first event taking Team Gold along with Individual Gold for Major Laurence Rook on Starlight (GBR) and Silver for Major Frank Weldon on Kilbarry (GBR).
On the 37th running of this bi-annual Championship, Blenheim Palace is extremely honoured to be hosting in 2025 – ten years since it was last in the UK and twenty years on from it last being at this much loved and iconic venue. The event also coincides with the 35th anniversary of the first ever international horse trials at Blenheim, in 1990 when Lucinda Murray (now Fredericks) won on Just Jeremy.
British athletes have dominated the FEI Eventing European Championships from the start, accumulating a total of 20 gold medals in the individual category, more than all other nations combined, including two very high profile wins by members of the British Royal Family – HRH The Princess Royal in 1971 and her daughter Zara Tindall née Phillips in 2005. In the team category, the British have also been dominant, winning the gold medal in 24 out of the 36 championships. The British have left empty-handed on only three occasions in the team competitions. France is the second most successful nation with the most medals, totalling 18 (none of them gold), while Germany (combining Germany and the Federal Republic of Germany) has achieved 17 team medals, six of which are gold.
Team GBR’s longest run of dominance was between 1995 and 2009 when they won Team Gold at the Championship eight times in a row. A feat only broken by Team Germany in Luhmühlen in 2011 when Team GBR had to settle for Bronze, behind France in Silver position.
When the FEI Eventing European Championship was last at Blenheim Palace in 2005, Team GBR once again took Team Gold. Zara Phillips (GBR) took Individual Gold on Toytown while William Fox-Pitt, the rider to also have won most times at Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials, took Individual Silver on Tamarillo, the horse he came second on at Blenheim in 2000.
At the most recent FEI Eventing European Championship, held in Haras du Pin (FRA) in 2023, Ros Canter (GBR) and her horse Lordships Graffalo, along with Team Great Britain, were crowned champions.
What will the 2025 Agria FEI Eventing European Championship look like?
The Agria FEI European Eventing Championship at Blenheim Palace will see Europe’s best eventers compete for the coveted Championship title in front of the spectacular UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Championship class will be run in a 4*-L format, with horse and rider combinations completing a dressage test on day one, followed by cross-country on day two and showjumping on day three.
The event is honoured to welcome Captain Mark Phillips as Course Designer for the CCI4*-L Championship alongside Assistant Course Designers David Evans, Helen West and Jay Hambly. David will be the Course Designer for the CCI4*-S class which he has designed for many years.
Attending the Agria FEI Eventing European Championship is a rare, often once-in-a-lifetime experience, as well as offering the unique opportunity to witness the sport’s rising stars in the 8 & 9-year-old class. Tickets can now be purchased for the event here.
