Badminton Horse Trials in Gloucestershire has been a very firm part of our event calendar for a few years now, and we’re very excited about this year too. This year, not only will be bringing one of our Turnkey Shepherd Huts to Badminton, we’ll also be bringing an amazing Swinging Day Bed from our friends at Sitting Spiritually, which we’ve built a rather beautiful canopy for.
What’s Badminton Horse Trials?
The Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials is a firm entry in many an equestrian or country lover’s diary. As one of just a handful of five star horse trials in the world, it’s a really big deal. The top event riders from all over the world bring their horses to compete for the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials trophy, and a pretty sizable monetary sum too. All horses that compete in an event like this are expected to excel in dressage (which takes place on Thursday and Friday), cross country (which takes place on Sunday) and showjumping (the grand finale is on the Sunday). Every stage with eventing is influential. A good dressage score can allow you a little more time cross country, and a foot perfect cross country round inside the time can give you a pole or two showjumping, which can make all the difference.
Of course, we’re big fans of all the equine action, but we’ll be in the Shopping Village (luckily pretty close to the big screens – so win/win for us!). This incredible village pops up in the grounds of Badminton House and serves eventing fans from Wednesday morning (it opens at 10am) until closing time on Sunday during the event. And there’s everything in this village! From boots to bridles, tweed to taxidermy. And everything else in between!
Where can you find Blackdown Shepherd Huts during Badminton Horse Trials?
We’re on stand 266- well, when we say ‘stand’, we’ll be in one of our Shepherd Huts in this location. And as for our location, it’s a good one – here’s a link to a printable PDF of the Badminton Shopping Village. (https://d24vhgczuo2t5j.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Site-Plan-2019-1.pdf). If you look on the right and see the Pig & Whistle, we’re next door, just by the Mark Todd Big Screen… so we’re really easy to find.
And what will you find on stand 266 at Badminton Horse Trials?
If we do say so ourselves, you’re in for a treat! We’ll have one of our Turnkey huts on the stand, of course, and invite you to come and say hello and have a good look around. We love seeing people at events; customers, people interested in Shepherd Huts… and people who have never met them before! Our doors are always open and we like nothing more than a chat about anything and everything Shepherd Hut related! What’s more, we think it’s really nice for people to see our huts in the flesh, so to speak. We have the most amazing team here at Blackdown HQ and you can see how much work and care goes into every element. Not only are our huts designed to make the most of small spaces and look beautiful, they’re designed to be durable and used… and nothing proves that more than a steady stream of people and their dogs coming in and out of our Shepherd Hut over the event, does it?! In all seriousness, whether you’re seriously interested in Shepherd’s Huts or just fancy a bit of a nose, come on over and have a look!
Now, in addition to our own Shepherd Hut, we have something else very special on our stand. We have a Sitting Spiritually Swinging Day Bed with bespoke Blackdown Canopy feature starlight lights. Now, we can not quite put into words how much we love this… but we’re going to try!
We recently released a ‘Blackdown Loves’ blog all about Sitting Spiritually and the great day we had at Blackdown when Martin came to see us. We loved the brand’s ethos and how Martin and his team are as dedicated to craftsmanship and the highest quality as we are. That’s important to us. So when we saw Sitting Spiritually’s Swinging Day Bed, we knew we needed one for Badminton (not just for a cheeky nap), and we knew exactly what to build to make it an all weather place to enjoy!
The Swinging Day Bed is beautifully made from oak and comes in three different sizes. It’s made to order so you can pick the colour of cushions (and how many cushions) you like, and you can even add a place to keep your wine and glasses!
And we added a little Blackdown magic too. We made a bespoke canopy that sits over the top of the Swinging Day Bed and then we added a larger central light and some tiny lights into the canopy, so the starlight lighting glints away when you turn it on. As you can see from the pics below, it’s pretty special… and we’re inviting you to come and have a seat at Badminton… you’ll need to have a rest at some point (because there’s SO much to do there!), so you might as well have a seat on the Swinging Day Bed? It would be rude not to really!
So come along and see us on stand 266 – we’re looking forward to it!