Organisers 'devastated' after cancelling Fairfax & Favor Rockingham International Horse Trials 2023 at Rockingham Castle

Organisers are ‘devastated’ after cancelling this year’s Fairfax & Favor Rockingham International Horse Trials.

Due to the prolonged adverse weather, all competition scheduled to take place at the Fairfax & Favor Rockingham International Horse Trials from today (Thursday) until Sunday (May 21) has been abandoned.

Despite a positive drying forecast the site, including the ground for all three phases, has not dried sufficiently to allow the event to proceed in a safe manner and the decision has been made to abandon the event by the BE & FEI officials.

Horse trials organiser, Lizzie Saunders Watson, said: “We are absolutely devastated that this call had to be made.

“But the safety of horses and riders is paramount.

"We were conscious that the weather was against us and had been taking every precaution we could to enable the event to run.

“Tracking has been installed for vehicle access and our stabling and marquee suppliers have gone above and beyond to get the infrastructure set up on extremely challenging ground.

“Despite these best efforts, the biggest test was always going to be whether the ground was going to be safe for our competitors.”

A full ground inspection took place yesterday (Wednesday) with FEI and British Eventing officials.

Lizzie said: "Following this, we were told that it would not be safe to run.

“We are working with our insurers to establish next steps in terms of refunds and will be in touch with everyone as soon as we know more.

"As you can imagine, this is a huge task to undertake so please bear with us.”