The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials are here again! We just got done with the Olympics and off to Burghley we go! I thought before we got serious about covering who the favorites are and all that serious stuff, we would look at some fun stats I came across.

Burghley begins September 4, 2008 and do I wish I was there. Could you get any more beautiful setting for any kind of show?

Burghley has been doing the horse trials since 1961 and it has become one of the highest attended sporting events in the horse world.

Let’s take a look at some of the fun stats of Burghley:

• More than 5875 man-hours are involved in setting everything up and taking it all down.
• There is nearly one mile of booths and stands.
• In 2007 approximately 600 dogs participated in the Pedigree Fun Dog Agility Challenge held at Burghley. (I do like when they have dog shows at horse trials. It just adds another dimension to an already fun day.)
• Approximately 70,000 photocopies are made over the four days of the Event.
• Annually Stamford XT provide over 350 volunteer stewards for the cross country crossing points.
• Over 80 hours are spent mowing the cross country and grounds getting ready for the horse trials
• Over three miles of rope and over 1,000 metal pins are used to mark the parking lot.
• On Saturday of the Event over 140 acres of land are parked with visitor vehicles.
• On Saturday, over 150 staff are involved with handling parking alone.
• They use 26 generators at Burghley with a capacity equal to 2.5 megawatts of power, enough to supply a small town.

And because food is one of my favorite things, here is just some of the food consumed during the event:

• 11000 Baguettes
• 1.5 tons of Pork
• 7000 Glasses of Pimms (Never heard of Pimms? Check this out.)
• 40,000 cups of tea and coffee
• 50,000 bottles of drink

If you are going to Burghley, we would love to hear from you. Drop us a note here.