Autumn fixture at Weston Park welcomes the KBIS Festival of Youth

he popular end of season Weston Park International Horse Trials will now incorporate a ‘Festival of Youth’ following generous sponsorship from title sponsors, KBIS British Equestrian, one of Britain’s leading equestrian insurance specialists.

In addition to the International classes, the Shropshire-based event has hosted the KBIS ON U-18 Regional series, Charles Owen Pony 3DE and National Under 21 Championship for numerous years so it seemed only fitting that British Eventing created an official Festival of Youth to offer an aspirational celebration of the riders just starting out in the sport who make up for over 25% of the BE membership.

KBIS add the Festival of Youth at Weston Park to their extensive BE sponsorship portfolio  which includes title sponsorship of the British Young Rider Team, Young Rider Programme, the Open Novice U-18 qualifying series and Championships as well as the National U-21 Championships.

British Eventing's CEO Mike Etherington-Smith said of the new event and sponsorship: “KBIS have been generous supporters of British Eventing for a long time so we are extremely pleased to be able to offer Guy Prest and his team the opportunity to be associated with this show case event for up and coming stars of the future.”

Guy Prest said: “We are delighted to be working with British Eventing and the team at Weston Park to help develop the Festival of Youth, into what we hope will be a real celebration of young rider talent. It will provide a championship that will truly encompass the whole of youth eventing and we are pleased to further extend our long term support of junior riders to include this exciting  new festival.’

Weston Park International takes place in Shropshire from the 4-7 October 2012 by kind permission of the Weston Park Trustees.

For more information on our national and regional championships please visit the Fixtures and Results pages on www.britisheventing.com