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Just two weeks after the pomp and ceremony of the Royal Windsor Horse Show the Queen's back garden was in use again; this time hosting the Chubb Insurance Windsor International Horse Trials. The trials is classified as a "Two Star" event and is for Intermediate horses. For some of the horses competing it is a stepping stone on the way to greater things, such as Badminton, for others it will be the pinnacle of their career. Many of the horses entered are quite young and relatively inexperienced - some may never have competed in a three day event before - but all have completed at least five Intermediate one day events. The course winds around the Great Park and climbs a good hill, at the top of which is a copper statue of King George III, mounted on a war horse.PICTURE 1.

Once they have rounded the statue the horses drop back down the hill to complete the bulk of the course on relatively flat terrain. The maximum height for the fences is 1.15m but they are solidly built and beautifully decorated so that they can look a lot larger. Many of the riders were worried about the first element of the second water complex (fence 19), and eventually the fence was lowered by 9cm. This rails and drop into water still caused a lot of problems and was where several of the less experienced horses put the brakes on and would go no further.

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Unlike at Badminton, in which all the horses compete in the same "class", at Windsor there are three classes known as "sections". The Chubb section is for the more experienced horses; the Masterpiece section is for less experienced horses and the third section hosts the British National Junior Championship and is for riders aged between 16 and 18. The Chubb section was headed, after dressage, by New Zealander Paul O'Brien who is based with his compatriot the current Olympic, World and British Open Champion Blyth Tait. Paul was riding Michael Wates' Faceman, a 13 year old horse that was produced by Australian Matt Ryan. Faceman has fantastic paces which obviously impressed the judges. PICTURE 2.

In the Masterpiece section Frenchman Franck Bourny, who was riding the 10 year old Gamblers Fancy, impressed the judges even more and led his section by a remarkable 15 points. Gambler's Fancy, who is owned by Herve Texier, is lucky to be alive, let alone competing. As a foal he was trodden on by his mother and his hoof was almost completely severed. The vet told Mrs Gamble, his breeder, that he should be destroyed, but she had other ideas. After the foot was patched up by the vet she nursed the gelding back to health herself. PICTURE 3.

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18 year old Emilie Chandler took an early lead in the Junior section riding her own Weston Miskris. Emilie, who was second in the Junior Championships last year, is currently taking her A'Levels. "I'm afraid my exams have taken a bit of a backseat recently - this is the event I was desperate to win!" Although Emilie's leading margin was not as great as Francks, neither was going to be challenged in the two jumping phases. Emilie and Miskris jumped beautifully around the challenging cross country course and also in the final show jumping phase. They finished on their dressage penalties as did second placed Ibby Macpherson who had travelled down from her home in Scotland to compete in the Championships. 16 year old Ibby was riding McCallan a horse that is owned by her trainer Mary McFarlane.PICTURE 3.

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Although Franck Bourny enjoyed an easy victory in the Masterpiece section, despite incurring one time fault in the show jumping, those who came behind him had a more eventful time. Andrew Nicholson who eventually finished second on the 7 year old Fenicio, broke a stirrup iron at the first water complex, fence 11, and had to finish the course balancing in just one stirrup. Andrew joked "It must be part of the New Zealand team initiation ceremony!", referring to the ride that fellow New Zealander Mark Todd had with just one stirrup at Badminton in 1995. PICTURE 4

Daisy Dick was the highest placed Briton in the section, riding Our 'Enry. A time fault in the show jumping proved very expensive for Daisy as it allowed Andrew to slip into second place. In the Chubb section, the final show jumping phase saw several dramatic changes in the eventual results. Paul O'Brien and Faceman had performed a faultless cross country round maintaining their dressage lead, but in the show jumping everything fell apart. Having four fences down, Paul was left in eventual third place behind two Britons,Lucinda Fredericks and Darrell Scaife. Paul commented ruefully "I suppose I must be grateful for the new scoring system (see report on Badminton '99) - otherwise I would have slipped even further down the line!" PICTURE 5.

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Lucinda, who won the event in 1997 on a chance ride, Night Flight, was riding Darasass, a horse she and husband Clayton bought over the winter. "He is very quirky and rather workmanlike" said Lucinda, "and I really didn't want to buy him but Clayton persuaded me to have him." PICTURE 6. Darrell Scaife and Castle Hills, who won a two star event last autumn at Weston Park, quietly climbed the ranks and despite lowering a show jump still finished in second place on a score equal to Pauls. Fourth place went to 21 year old Mark Beattie and Gatton Royal Flush, a horse who was experiencing a three day event for the first time. Clayton Fredericks finished 7th on a chance ride, Mr Pracatan. Matt Ryan was due to ride Mr Pracatan as well as Paris Of Coolalee (on whom he finished 8th in the Chubb section), but Matt was wisked off briefly to hospital due to stomach problems just before he was due to ride the dressage phase on Mr Pracatan. Clayton stepped in admirably and later said "He was very easy to ride - Matt has done a great job.

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I was very aware that I should give him a good confidence- building ride and that I shouldn't let him come to any harm - he has a long future ahead of him." Both Paris Of Coolalee and Mr Pracatan are 7 year olds. PICTURE 7 Sunny weather graced the entire cross country day although quarter of an hour after the last horse completed there was the most incredible downpour of rain and hale and an impressive thunderstorm which left homewards bound spectators cowering under any shelter available. The whole site was temporarily turned into a water garden. Fortunately the water drained away quickly so that the going for the final day's show jumping was near to perfect.

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