Barbury Horse Trials are being televised this weekend – free and live

This weekend the St James’s Place Barbury International Horse Trials are host to Leg Three of the inaugural year of the Event Rider Masters (ERM) contest – and this new organisation will be live streaming events during Saturday and Sunday (July 9 and 10.)

It will begin at 8.00am on Saturday with the ERM dressage stage.  On Sunday ERM TV will show Barbury’s CIC3* cross country stage as riders gallop across the famous Marlborough Downs course.  This will be followed by the ERM cross country with the pick of the top international eventers.

With eleven nations represented, the winners of both ERM Leg One and Leg Two back in action, and the British contingent led by four of the five riders named for this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio, the stage is set for a thrilling competition at Barbury.

The Barbury leg marks another innovation for the Event Rider Masters team: for the first time they will be producing a full television ready show – streamed for free through www.eventridermasters.tv

With a multiple BAFTA award winning production team, the wonderful setting of Barbury Estate will be used to film the ERM TV pilot and they will be using new cameras, graphics and special effects come.

There will be a ‘jib’ camera in the main arena, a super slow-mo at the St James’s Place water, a ‘Batcam’ drone flying overhead and a ‘Steadicam’ on the back of a vehicle, all adding to the excitement on cross country day.

ERM is bringing big prize money to the sport and making it more available to the public.  This new sporting series is showcasing the world’s best event riders with a total of £350,000 in prize money on offer and with each leg promising a minimum prize pot of £50,000.  It comes too with a touch of Formula One glamour – complete with generous spraying of champagne on the winners’ podium.

The Event Rider Masters (ERM) competition is able to capitalise on the steady improvement in the quality of eventing horses and riders over the past eleven years.

Research for the ERM organisers by EquiRatings has looked back over Barbury’s CIC3* class since 2005 – and winning scores.  They found that the winner in 2015 – Andrew Nicholson on Avebury – was 25 marks better than the winner in 2005 [see graphic below.]  The improvement has been steady over the eleven years – with a few bumps along the way.  But it does prove how far the sport has come in that time.