The British Eventing One Day Events at Draycott House was one of the high spots of the 2006 Eventing calendar and returned on June 2nd and 3rd - once again partially sponsored by Merlo. Draycott House is a beautiful 18th Century Manor House near Derby, built for William Evans and owned until 1939 by relatives of Sir Walter Scott. Grandson, Charles Hirons now farms the property and, together with his wife Lynne, has turned the site into a major UK centre for affiliated horse trials, set in 120 hectars of immaculate park land. Developing the Eventing course, together with the farm activities, required machinery that is well on top of the job and after a couple of disappointing machines Charles bought a 9m Merlo from local dealer Cooks Midlands. Charles says his Merlo is basically ‘bullet-proof’ and happiest worked hard. “After 3½ years, I would never even consider going back to a conventional transmission” he says, “It’s done everything I’ve thrown at it and it’s saved a huge amount of time and money in building the course. I hardly ever have to use the lower gear and a 12 mile tow is not at all uncommon.” Developing the course has been a trial of its own for Charles and Lynne, but their vision of an environmentally friendly Eventing and riding centre has really come to fruition this year with British Eventing official describing the course as ‘foot perfect’! The inaugural Trials in June 2006 attracted 600 horses and some 4,000 people from as far away as the USA and Australia.

Over 170 volunteers (and no less than 7 Merlos) helped to make the day a success and Merlo were delighted to be sponsoring again this year.