Earlier this week, the moving picture archive collection British Pathé uploaded 85,000 historic newsreels to YouTube in an effort to make them more accessible to viewers. Among them were dozens of fairly high-resolution clips of horses racing, ‘chasing and competing in various equestrian competitions, including, naturally, three-day eventing. Badminton Horse Trials made the news for many years running, as evidenced by the following videos which cheerfully capture the spirit of the sport “back in the day.” Not much in the way of context is available for them so — I’m looking at you, eventing history buffs! — if you have any insight into their back stories, please share in the comments below.
1954
1957
1958
1964
1965
1968
Learn more about the British Pathé project here or check out the new YouTube collection here — there’s a lot more Badminton footage where that came from, much of it bits and pieces that didn’t make it into the broadcast. And keep it locked on EN for complete coverage of Badminton 2014, which is fast approaching May 7-11.
