5-8 September 2024

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Joe Weller To Design And Build BE80(T) Championship Cross Country Course

Joe Weller has been appointed as the Cross Country Course Designer and Builder for the BE80(T) Championship at Defender Burghley Horse Trials.

Thursday, September 26, 2019 - 11:52
Joe Weller

Joe’s three year term will begin at the inaugural BE80(T) Championships to be held in the beautiful parkland of Burghley Estate in 2020 and will see him working alongside a Course Design Mentor. Joe has extensive experience of building and designing at the grassroots level of eventing, including at the Pony European Championship at Bishop Burton in 2018. No stranger to Defender Burghley Horse Trials, his skills as a course builder have previously seen him working with the team to deliver the carved rugby ball and Kukri knife for the CCI5*-L course.

A Silver Course Designer and Platinum Course Builder, Joe launched his own building and design company in 2005 before setting up Norton Disney Horse Trials, which runs two BE fixtures per season.

On his appointment, Joe said; “’It gives me great pleasure in accepting the design and building of the BE80(T) Championships at Burghley, and I look forward to the challenge of producing the course for this new and exciting competition. This prestigious site with its amazing terrain and setting will give riders a truly memorable experience.”

Defender Burghley Horse Trials Event Director Elizabeth Inman, added: “We are all looking forward to hosting this competition and to working with Joe. There may even be a future Burghley Horse Trials 5* winner amongst the entry and nothing would give us greater pleasure than to have set one of these aspiring riders on the course to competing at senior level.”

The selection panel, made up of British Eventing Chief Sport Officer Paul Graham, Burghley Horse Trials Event Director Elizabeth Inman and Jane Holderness Roddam representing the Bill Thomson Bursary, received a number of strong applications for this exciting opportunity which is being run in conjunction with the Bill Thomson Bursary.