Don’t forget about the wind. It will pick up even wet sand and blow it around so it feels like needles hitting you. Moving sand in and out of an indoor arena in this wind would be almost fruitless.
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Are you even reading the responses you disagree with, or just arguing for the sake of being argumentative?
NO WHERE in my post did I say that the event ABSOLUTELY should have run. What I’m saying is that the reasons we are being given for the decision do not hold up to close scrutiny. Either we’re not being given the whole story (which is ENTIRELY possible and not necessarily by nefarious design), or the FEI is bowing to certain interests ahead of the good of the whole. We don’t have enough information to judge which is the case here - and we may never have that information, as it isn’t really “our” place to have all the details.
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I think it is difficult to question the cancellation. Weather and flight logistics etc. It does seem unfortunate that an opportunity to allow an exhibition of freestyles with those who could stay would promote the sport and give ticket holders something to see. Does not have to be medals etc but a good school for some and a public relations mend.
Ok I’ll say it. Horses can run and slide and spin but will get hurt doing freestyle dressage in similar footing? I understand they dont want it as deep because of lateral movements but I have confidence that the guy in charge of the reining footing could have worked with them. At least the person I know who has done footing for FEI reining could have.
I understand not wanting to use the wet footing in the planned arena.
But I am with Montana Girl. This is not solely about footing or flights. It is a combo problem of multiple reasons. I think there is no way to really effectively communicate all of the issues though.
And they will not get hurricane force winds 400 miles inland.
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No. You are wrong :lol: this is still hilarious.
It’s always a pleasure to see how ignorant and yet willing to argue people are about footing/conditions they dont understand, and how real professional riders with exceptional and valuable and precious horses are “playing politics”, and would be totally like just fine riding in footing and conditions that are antithetical and dangerous to their sport and animals. You all are hilarious. Oh and they should do so for the entertainment of an audience. Because priorities.
as Oscar Wilde said better to remain silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
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Dressage doesn’t have public relations to mend, bellissimo and Tryon do. A better start would be returning money to patrons and riders alike.
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Please explain the workings of this “power play” ?
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Apparently you’re skipping over the “feels a lot more like” portion of my post.
What something appears to be isn’t often what it really is, as I noted above. From a PR perspective, cancelling an event due to the desires of one particular group of competitors, no matter how large, and not offering a logical, well-laid out rationale is going to raise suspicions. Neither you nor I (speaking in general terms about ALL of us here) have enough information to know whether this was a reasonable decision, is my point.
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Except there’s a super rational and clear reason, you just don’t understand it :lol:
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Many of the dressage horses are stallions and few if any of the event horses are. If there is CEM quarantine, is that the reason the horses have to be out on Monday?
I’m kind of amazed that everyone thinks they’re entitled to more of an explanation than we’ve been given, or thinks there’s some kind of conspiracy behind all this. Geez - we had a major hurricane hit the state in which the Games are being held and the weather went to pot. Plans that were made for transportation of the horses have to be adhered to in order for flights to work. Footing that is correct for one discipline isn’t for another. That’s it. Shit happens…
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Kinda scratching my head here. We were there last week. The uncertainty about the weather and how it would affect Sunday was discussed at length - my opinion is that there is no way in h#ll I would have my million dollar dressage horse doing a freestyle in a tropical storm for the 3 people who would be crazy enough to watch it in the outdoor. And there wasn’t enough room in the indoor to accommodate all the ticket holders. And people (like us) were leaving ahead of the storm to avoid the mudslides etc. And the footing. And the air travel problems. And people getting stuck in the parking lots.
I don’t know how much more logical it could be??? It was not one group of competitors controlling the situation. It was anyone with a lick of sense understanding that sometimes it just ain’t gonna happen.
You can speculate all you want but really it is just that simple. But carry on…
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But I think that is what @Montanas_Girl and I are saying. They should have said something about logistics of everything instead of just choosing to say the footing or the flights. It was a combination of occurrences. And politics is ALWAYS Involved to a certain extent. It is after all still a horse show. LOL
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Exactly, @roseymare. It’s the (lack of a coherent) explanation that is problematic, not the decision to cancel.
For those who are unable to “understand” nuance, at no point have I argued against cancelling the event. Questioning and seeking clarification is not the same thing as railing against something, despite what some choose to believe.
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I just watched the plane with the dressage horses take off from GSP. My plane was right behind them! They were bang on schedule at 7:00 pm!
So cool to know that Bella Rose, Cosmo, Freestyle and others were on it.
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My understanding is the event horses wherentnscheduled to fly out until Tuesday so the schedule change didn’t affect their plans
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I couldn’t agree more. We were there and they cancelled the class. Even the airlines refunded money for the flights that were cancelled. We should get something back. Why should we be penalized if we had nothing to do with the decision?
As far as the footing, they knew well in advance that this may be an issue… we did see the storm coming and the chance of a hurricane in the south east US in Sept is a real possibility why not a contingency plan?
To think they would award the US another WEG in 2022 is a stretch… Wish it had been at Bromont…might have been better… All WEGs have issues but these were bad… edurancegate? Really?
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