How is eventing ever going to survive?
Eventing is my number one discipline of equestrian sport. No, come to think about it, that is not entirely true. Standardbred racing and eventing are my number one disciplines of equestrian sport.
In all I have lived and breathed both eventing and standardbred racing my whole life.
Did I ever ride five star [CCI5*-L] competitions?
No, I would never have dared to. I made sure to keep myself on a more moderate 1.10m level.
Did I ever watch five star [CCI5*-L] competitions?
Yes, since I was about 14 years old me and my late father watched every single copy of Badminton and Burghley Horse Trials.
In adult life I’ve also been fortunate enough to visit the European five stars many many times.
But not only did I have the opportunity to visit these amazing events. By doing so I also had the opportunity to walk these cross country courses with some of the most experienced riders, course designers and trainers in the world.
Getting experience, no matter how and what, is how you learn.
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I have also visited and followed the various championship levels of eventing. You know the ones stretching from the European championships for ponies, juniors and young riders up to the top level senior championships.
Back in the day I have also been part of the organising committee for national events. Once upon a time I even fiddled around as a speaker during the cross country phase.
Last but not least, I’ve probably walked thousands and thousands of kilometres along various national and international cross country tracks across Western Europe and Poland.
Horses, riders and cross country
After walking, I’ve been watching. Some days [on a single day] I’ve watched over 350 combinations making serious, and sometimes maybe not so serious, attempts to jump and finish these tracks.
So in all, I have seen it all.
A lot of horses.
A lot of riders.
A lot of cross country.
Epic rounds.
Epic saves.
Epic wins.
Epic fails.
Tragic falls.
Sudden deaths..
Am I an expert? Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. What I do know is I am confident enough to claim I have seen more, and know more, about eventing than most people out there.
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Worlds apart
During all these years of nerding down in eventing I have also had the opportunity to follow and study up close the ups and downs of some of the many changes to the rules and regulations of the sport.
One of the most epic changes, and fails [all in one] was the one when FEI decided to change the level of classes in between the season of 2018 and 2019.
For the ones that are not aware what happened, all classes were suddenly labelled one level higher than their previous ranking.
Suddenly one star [CIC1] eventing was two star [CCI2-S], and four star [CCI4*] took on the complete new five star [CCI5*-L] title. To fill up the void of the now missing one star format, they introduced the CCI1*-Intro.
Personally I believe upgrading Badminton and Burghley to the new five star [CCI5*-L] format was genius.
Cause these two events are basically the mother ship off just about everything, and anything, eventing. These two events also sum up all the reasons me and my dad fell in love with, and started to follow, eventing up close in the first place.
But that’s where it stops!
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The automatic upgrade of the other four, back then, CCI4* events to the new CCI5*-L format was always [still is] questionable.
Even though I love both Pau, France and Luhmühlen, Germany they are not even close to what either one of the two top notch events of Badminton and Burghley has to offer. They are literally worlds apart!
The fact that all events were upgraded at the same time, plus the introduction of the CCI1*-Intro may in itself be one of the biggest mistakes, and downfalls, in the history of the sport.
Seriously troubling is the trend where we see more and more events, both national and international ones, succumb to the new climate of rule changes as well as the financial state of the world, to basically just vanish.
According to my calculations, eventing now lost three former championship hosts and FEI Nations Cup™ organisers on the mainland only. Waregem in Belgium, Fontainebleau and Haras le Pin both in France.
Vairano, Italy is another former FEI Nations Cup™ host that is now gone from the international calendar.
The amount of "smaller" but equally important events that have gone M.I.A. [missing in action] during the past 10 years seem to be countless. Leading to the obvious question, how is eventing ever going to survive?
To be continued..
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