Wills Oakden and Oughterard Cooley. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.
Defender Burghley Horse Trials (31 August-3 September 2023) has appointed Horatio’s Garden as its official charity for this year.
Horatio’s Garden, whose Main Avenue show garden won Best in Show and a much-coveted gold medal at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show last week, nurtures the wellbeing of people after spinal injury in beautiful, accessible, restorative sanctuaries within the heart of NHS spinal injury centres. The charity’s gardens are vital places for reflection and adjustment for people facing these life-changing injuries and long stays in hospital, and have a profoundly positive impact for patients, their loved ones and NHS staff.
The charity is named after Horatio Chapple, who had the original idea to create a garden for patients with spinal injuries and their loved ones while volunteering at the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre in Salisbury during his school holidays. The first garden opened in 2012 and following its enormous success, a nationwide charity was henceforth formed with the mission to open a Horatio’s Garden in all 11 UK spinal injury centres.
The eighth Horatio’s Garden will open at The Princess Royal Spinal Injuries Centre Unit at Northern General Hospital in Sheffield in 2024, also designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg of Harris Bugg Studio who created the charity’s award-winning show garden for the 2023 RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Horatio’s Garden’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show installation, designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg. Photo by Marianne Majerus.
Dr Olivia Chapple, Founder and Chair of Trustees at Horatio’s Garden, said: “We’re delighted to be chosen as this year’s charity partner of Burghley Horse Trials. It’s with the support of organisations like Burghley that we are able to continue our vital work to nurture wellbeing after spinal injury in beautiful, vibrant gardens in the heart of NHS spinal injury centres. We are really looking forward to working together on the partnership, which is well timed to coincide with our major appeal to open the eighth Horatio’s Garden. Located in Sheffield, it will support the whole region from the West Midlands to East Anglia, South Yorkshire to Lincolnshire.”
Defender Burghley Horse Trials Director Martyn Johnson said: “Rehabilitation after spinal injury is something all riders support, and Horatio’s Garden provides wonderful sanctuaries for patients to escape from the intensity of hospital life. We are so pleased to be able to support this very worthy charity and look forward to welcoming Horatio’s Garden to Burghley this year.”
