Badminton organisers are hoping this year's event will be the best ever as the highlight of many horse lovers' calendar returns after a two-year enforced break caused by foot and mouth disease.

Traders in Malmesbury are preparing for their busiest weekend of the year as the town is swamped by thousands of tourists who flood the district for the prestigious three-day event.

For keen horse rider Fiona Gale, who has spent each of the last three Badmintons in hospital, this year will be extra special.

She is now well enough to hold centre-stage as a judge in the dressage section.

Ms Gale, who lives in Sherston, has not been at home for Badminton since she was 20.

She has brittle asthma, which means she could suffer respiratory failure at any time, and she also suffers from a thinning of the bones brought on by steroids to treat her asthma.

The last time she went to Badminton four years ago, she was in a wheelchair.

The 27 year-old has been out of hospital since February, when she spent two weeks at Bath's Royal United Hospital because of asthma.

She will be at Badminton bright and early at 8am Thursday to take on a role as one of three judges in the two-day dressage section.

Meanwhile, Sherston company Optimum Mobility is seeing to it that people with disabilities will have access to some of the far corners of the Beaufort Estate over the Badminton Horse Trials.

The firm, based at Pinkney Park, supplies and services manual and powered wheelchairs and is providing 21 electric scooters and wheelchairs for free use at the event.

This year's Badminton Horse Trials will also see top equestrian fence builder, Alan Willis, of Malmesbury, receiving an honour.

The award, a British Equestrian Federation Medal of Honour, will come as no surprise to the renowned fence builder, who was told he would receive the honour a year-and-a-half ago.

Mr Willis's family firm Willis Brothers has been supplying Badminton with its fences for more than 30 years, so Badminton is the perfect place for him to receive the award.