Equestrian Articles

3rd October 2023

Ben Way, Head of Butler Sherborn Equestrian, comments on the 2023 Season……

‘We are now coming towards the end of our 2023 eventing season. I have just returned from a trip competing two young horses in France, where we made the most of the Autumn sunshine. Quite a few of the other horses have gone out on holiday after their runs at the bigger Autumn international events, notably Cornbury and Blenheim. I think that Bicton International in Devon will be our very last event towards the end of this month.  

Looking back, 2023 has been a really good season, with... more

25th April 2023

The Badminton Horse Trials (presented by Mars Equestrian), is just around the corner and will this year be starting on Thursday 4th May.

Due to the clash with the Coronation, there will be a slightly different timetable  with the dressage days running on the Friday and Saturday, cross country on the Sunday, and the show jumping on the Monday.

This year’s entries look strong, with the equine line up being a really good mix of established campaigners and younger horses stepping up to the level. The one thing that did jump out at me, when looking at this year’s entries, is that there are very few Badminton first timers... more

26th January 2023

Ben, Associate Partner of Butler Sherborn, looks at the prospects for the coming eventing year

The horses came back in from their holidays just after Christmas, and their pre-season fitness and conditioning work is in full swing.  At this time of year, they all get a full ‘MOT; which includes visits from the dentist, physio and chiropractor. Our competition season starts in March and runs through to October. We have got an exciting string for this season, with a good mixture of older horses establishing themselves at the higher levels, and some younger horses moving along, together... more

7th November 2022

Ben competes at Advanced Level, running a string of event horses with his wife, Sarah under the Team Way banner, whilst also very actively buying and selling equestrian properties for Butler Sherborn across the Cotswolds and beyond.

Tell us a little bit about your career to date.

I graduated from Cirencester in 2010 having completed the Rural Land Management Degree. Following my graduation, I had a couple of months at home before starting with Butler Sherborn in October of the same year. My father, who works for Knight Frank, always said that I could ride eventing full time if I wanted to do so, on the condition that I qualified first, so that I had something to fall back on, if needed.

How many years have... more

22nd March 2022

The Butler Sherborn team, including Sam Butler, Sophie Keogh, Katy Freeman and Laura Negus really look forward to welcoming all who wish to join them for Refreshments in their boozie boots in the Reserved Car Park Spaces 29/30.

Butler Sherborn Feather flags should help you find us! It will be lovely to see you.

Entry £15 per person. Book online. https://embed.futureticketing.ie/c/point-to-point-uk/?ftredirect=1  

10th March 2022

As February turns into March, there is a certain air of anticipation at Seven Barrows, Nicky Henderson’s Lambourn yard, as he arrays his battalions for the battle that is The Cheltenham Festival. Spring is just around the corner, and with it comes what Nicky regards as the four most prestigious days of the National Hunt Calendar.

With 70 winners already on his Festival score sheet to almost match his number of years, Lambourn’s senior NH trainer once again approaches this week with a formidable team, while not so long on quantity, certainly as deep as ever in quality.

The first race on day one, Tuesday, is always a good place to start, The Supreme Novices Hurdle. It always a good one to get in the bag. Constitution Hill, under Nico de Boinville, unbeaten in two runs, including the Grade 1 Tolworth,  has as... more

30th September 2021

The 2021 Eventing season is drawing to a close as Team Way heads to the Young Horse Championships at Osberton this week, for one of the last events of the season.

The 2021 Eventing season is drawing to a close as Team Way heads to the Young Horse Championships at Osberton this week, for one of the last events of the season.

We have had a really good season, with many of the horses stepping up levels, and some very smart young horses coming through. It has been brilliant to see some of the more prestigious events now open to the public. This has resulted in crowds returning and brought the atmosphere back to some of the larger events.  Ben has... more

20th April 2021

We have been very lucky at Team Way Eventing with both Sarah and myself meeting the criteria for ‘elite athletes’.

This  has enabled us to keep travelling and training during lockdown, and to run our horses at some of the elite only events in March.  The cancellation of Badminton was very disappointing. However, we are now looking to Luhmuhlen in Germany at the end of June, as a replacement aim.  

All of our horses have had their first runs of season. Now our biggest challenge is that the ground conditions have gone from soft mud to very firm in the space of two weeks. The ground permitting we are... more

4th March 2021

At Butler Sherborn, we receive this Budget with cautious optimism. The Chancellor seems to have found a balance between supporting families, businesses and the self-employed, as the effects of the Covid Pandemic role on short to medium term, whilst looking to properly address and correct the deficit in the future.

For the property sector, there are some helpful measures, albeit the Stamp Duty holiday is probably a two edged sword.

In the short term, the nil rate SDLT band remains at £500,000 and this has been extended from 31st March 2021  to 30th June 2021. This nil rate band then reduces to £250,000 until 30th September 2021, before returning back to £125,000 from 1st October 2021.  At some point therefore, there will be the cliff edge to face, but the phasing will certainly help maintain the... more

19th November 2020

Given that in the spring it looked unlikely that we would have any international competitions at all during 2020, at Team Way Eventing we have managed to have a surprisingly successful productive season!

The positive side of the spring lockdown was being able to spend so much time working on the basics with the young horses, without the pressure of having to take them to competitions. Interestingly, I think they ended up progressing more quickly than normal.  The major blows for us were the cancellations of some of the big international events, such as Badminton in the spring and Blenheim in the autumn.  However, we are able to get some good 4* runs into our top horses, and qualify all of... more

7th August 2020

Gently through the summer, equestrian events, from racing, eventing and polo to Pony Club activities and Fun Rides, have begun to take place again.

These activities are all subject to Covid regulations of course and there are no spectators as such. It is a great relief to all competitors, owners, trainers and those in the industry that the horses are now able to compete and work in their respective disciplines.

Butler Sherborn’s Head of Equestrian Property, Ben Way of Team Way Eventing  comments – ‘We were lucky enough to be able to keep all of our horses in work during the Lockdown period which allowed us to get going straight... more

cotswolds mist

Mrs Tucker June 2020

Butler Sherborn was a delight and pleasure to work with. Once again thank you so much for all you help and exceeding our expectations and much more.
— Nicki and Brian Lee