Capital Challenge moved to WEC

Musical horse show venues…

WEC almost stuck the landing for 2020. We side eyed them when they cancelled the winter series back in May. We knew it was probably an effort to force people to go to their Ocala opening. Then with how things are trending with covid, they were about to look pretty smart after all. But this? This confirms they closed up north to send people south and covid wasnt the reason. Also what a slap in the face for all the locals who have supported them for decades before it became what it is now, who will never go all the way to Florida for the winter.

Ultimately I suspect all the indoor finals will be cancelled. And it wouldn’t surprise me if the winter series in florida (all of them) are in jeopardy depending on how the fall goes.

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I did not see it in person, but it sounded like Wellington had some of the best and most effective protocols in place when they started back up this summer. So hopefully they will be able to pull it off next winter, although it may look a bit different next year.

Plus so many of the people who show in Wellington own farms and houses there, and just trail ride over to the facility to show. So that cuts back on the issues with staying in hotel rooms and show stalls for many of the exhibitors.

I think the situation in Ocala was impossible to predict for next winter even before there was a pandemic involved.

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So they announced back in April that they are closing the facility on Sept 1 because of COVID concerns, but now they are planning on hosting a show at the end of September that will draw people in from all over the country?

I’m seriously starting wonder what the hell these show organizers are smoking.

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From a Chronicle article in May:

”On May 12, the World Equestrian Center owners announced they would close the Wilmington, Ohio, facility from Sept. 1, 2020, to March 21, 2021, in response to the predicted resurgence of COVID-19 in the fall months. Roby Roberts has seen first-hand the effects of the coronavirus, and after taking into account the enclosed nature of the WEC Ohio facility and advice from Wilmington’s health department, he felt he had no choice but to err on the side of caution.

“We have friends that are very ill from this,” said Roberts. “My daughter’s pediatrician that we’ve known her whole life, he’s been struggling with this. He’s had a lot of real challenges with it; we’re very concerned about him. And then we have some employees with it and things like that, so we know it’s real. If there’s the possibility, like they say, of it coming back, then [if] one kid or one grandparent would get sick and die or get sick and not have the quality of life they had before—no dollar amount is worth that.”

So what changed??!!

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They only closed the indoor. They’ve been showing outside

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PG Equestrian Center is owned by the county - from a press release "Due to the Prince George’s County Parks Department’s tightened regulations surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and its decision to decrease the number of horses allowed at the facility, management made the difficult decision to move the horse show.” The WEC has been a presenting sponsor of the Capital Challenge since 2016 so that may have had something to do with the move to WEC as opposed to Florida.

The WEC press release back in May said they would be closing the facility September 1 due to COVID. I know they’ve been showing all summer outdoors, as they always intended to do, but why the decision now NOT to close the facility in September?

Is that statement about “if only one child or grandma gets sick it’s not worth it…” no longer valid?

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Don’t shoot the messenger. I am of the opinion that no national finals should be offered at all this year

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(Bolding mine). The fact that it took this person until May to realize there was a problem, after his daughter’s doctor was struggling “with this”, and then, being concerned that he had “some employees with it and things like that so we know it’s real”? :cool: Not understanding that the virus is “real” until people you know are affected, is a devastating example of the ignorance that has allowed the U.S. to be the leader of first world countries in ineptitude and the inexcusable death toll and illness that have been the result.

There is no excuse for people in a country such as ours, with the science and information so easily available to us, to be so woefully ignorant. Did it really take the employees and the doctor getting sick for this person to “know its real” ? How many more people have to become ill and die before people understand that this is an emergency?

I can’t imagine what has “changed” in this person’s mind, Quite possibly nothing, since they didn’t seem to have a good grasp of the facts about the pandemic three months ago, until the virus infected their pediatrician and their employees.
Perhaps no one they know has been affected since then and it has now become an abstract problem for them (again). It seems that someone they knew being infected was what it took to make them realize that this was “real” in the first place.:no:

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Oh but they didn’t. Most classes were held outside yes, but every single indoor ring also had something going in it.

Honestly I’d be more concerned about the fact that all of the stabling is enclosed as opposed to shedrow type setups or even outdoor tent stalls. Some of the barns at WEC seem pretty tight. People spend a lot of time at the stalls and from what I’ve heard that’s where people are also more likely to disregard mask rules.

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https://www.wihs.org/lower.php?url=a…estrian+Center

and looks like all the equitation finals will be at Tryon in October…did they not have some cases and mismanaged COVID enforcement earlier in the year? :confused:

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USEF press release:

http://links.usef.mkt7856.com/servlet/MailView?ms=MTc3MzE2MDgS1&r=MTMyMTYwNTg5NzAyS0&j=MTk0MTI0NDIzMQS2&mt=1&rt=0

The same could probably be said for almost every location that held a horse show this year.

Someone this slow shouldn’t be allowed to make decisions that impact other people…

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I agree. Too many people are making decisions without understanding the consequences. The Kentucky Horse Park cancellations should have brought it home that shows which draw so many entries, many from states with very high rates of COVID infection, are a bad idea.

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I wonder if the September show at KHP will go… right now it is scheduled.

Just discovered gravity is real after crashing his plane. Now running the FAA. WTF? Is there no leadership anywhere?!

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There is very, very, little. Most of our experienced leadership had no desire to stay when it became apparent that intelligence experience and education were not a priority for the administration, and those that did were pushed out. They were replaced by often woefully unqualified “acting” leaders, to circumvent congressional approval of their credentials. The result is that we have a huge leadership vacuum in many areas and many “leaders” that are clueless about their jobs. Sorry, off topic.

I suppose that whether these USEF shows actually take place will depend on what is happening at the moment they are scheduled to begin. As we move into fall, the rate of COVID is expected to increase. They’ll just have call it off again if people are infected and have symptoms on the show grounds. How many people are willing to chance spreading the virus through interstate travel and how many are willing to travel only for the show to be cancelled at the last minute, remains to be seen.

I can’t imagine what USEF and these show’s management are thinking.

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