Fuchs and Guerdat boycott Longuines shows because of venues and lack of spectators

[findeight]

WEC south is growing into a flexible sized convention and event center and special event venue plus a huge, regional soccer center. More shows are going there, not just FEI level shows for elite levels.

That means sharing centrally located space in a demographically suitable area to support year round operation. The minus is sharing more utilitarian space the plus is making the sport more accessible to new fans and sponsors. Suck it up guys. Things change, even for ultra elite people who need to support the sport.

Thought about going to watch the Longines both this year and last but don’t want to drive 2 hours each way and end up sitting in the rain. Would not mind paying more for covered seating but individual covered seating not available. You bet I would not be waiting for a long drawn out awards ceremony Sorry for the “insult”.

[Peggy]

Aah.

[kenyarider]

I think their point is that they didn’t like the change to places were there was no sense of history and no audiences . . . . . Or they just like showing only in Europe.

[2bayboys]

My interpretation from this article is that these celebrities don’t want to go perform where they’re not treated like…celebrities.

[fivestrideline]

I totally understand not going to compete if it isn’t fun or rewarding. And hey, these guys have plenty of accolades already - defending a title or coming back for more may not be worth it to them. That’s fine. Calling it a “boycott” though? Kinda tone deaf.

It wouldn’t bother me so much if it was something like “hey we love the atmosphere and making this special is part of why we compete - that’s lost when it is run in a concrete plaza in the middle of a huge ring with the spectator areas super far away”. Instead, it comes across as out of touch and whiny. And perhaps a bit of “we only want to compete in Europe”.

[Nikki]

I feel that same way too. It’s America and we just don’t have the crowds like in Football, Basketball and Baseball. He sounds very out of touch and needs to tone down his ego.

He won’t be missed. The riders at the LSJ in Tryon loved the venue. I even got to talk to my favorite top riders of past and present. The seats were filled and the crowd was loud.

[halla]

I think Philadelphia could manage a nice indoor show, the stadiums are very accessible from both downtown and the highways, surrounded by a ton of parking space, and with Devon we do have a show that non-horse people go to as an event. But of course the serious horse people understandably leave over the winter.

[Tini_Sea_Soldier1]

I’m not sure I’d want million dollar animals stabled on Broad Street. That’s asking for a lot of trouble and a huge security expense.
Sure, we did it for years for Washington and ages ago in NYC for NHS, but I do think community entitlement with zero regard for safety and social media platforms has made it worse in terms of spreading the news quickly that ridiculously expensive animals are plunked down in the middle of the city. I know they do the Central Park show which prohibitively expensive to attend (IIRC tickets were like $250+) and I’m curious how well-attended that show has been? Never really paid much attention to it, because it seemed like a money grab and could just go to the Hamptons and see a lot of the same characters for a fraction of that cost.

[FLeventer]

I understand what he’s saying on the prize giving, but I agree with others that it’s not his “real” motive. If you go to the event, it’s rather polite to stay for the prize giving ceremony. Idk maybe that’s just me.

To have just won a large class and then most of the fans leave before the awards, is kind of disappointing. Especially, if you traveled across the world to get there.

St. Gallen getting the axe is just kind of nuts to me. I’m upset about that too.

Yes, I think they should have events all over the world. It’s a GLOBAL circuit. I’m glad the US gets venues and international riders coming especially since we have sent riders to Europe for decades to complete.

Was the prize giving ceremony the final straw or is he finding it difficult to handle the travel, trip, jet lag, expenses, logistics, etc when he can stay in Europe and have his cake and eat it too? No shade on him, but be outright if that’s the case.

On a side note: I can’t support UAE, won’t and even boycott watching. Qatar and Saudi too. So many sports organisations bending over backwards for them. Stadiums built on slave labour and human rights abuses. Glitz it up and throw money on it but it’s still a turd.

[nutmeg]

I’m betting that most of their ire is that St Gallen was so cavalierly tossed overboard after they put in a lot of work to upgrade the showgrounds to accommodate the FEI. We can’t know what went on behind the scenes. Who owns the St Tropez venue? Are they… transactional?

[MHM]

@Tini_Sea_Soldier1

I know they do the Central Park show which prohibitively expensive to attend (IIRC tickets were like $250+) and I’m curious how well-attended that show has been?

What Central Park show?

They ran one with primarily jumpers there for a few years, but that was probably about a decade ago by now.

I went to it once, which was plenty for me. It was quite an experience, and I’m not sorry I went. But the logistics were a bit of an uphill climb.

When we took some hunters in, first they had to ship into the USET barn at Gladstone in New Jersey. Then they got on a commercial shuttle from there, which left at something like 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. They spent the day in the city, and then got back to Gladstone at probably 3:00 the next morning. As I recall, they would only let the shippers go in before and after certain hours so they would not be messing up the traffic with the big rigs going into Central Park.

So that meant the people who were hands-on with those horses were up for those 24 hours straight, unless they managed to sneak in a nap on a hay bale somewhere.

As far as the security there, I believe they had the stable area fenced off so that random people could not get in. But the stable area was not close to the show ring, so it was a little bit of a hike through the park to get back and forth.

We certainly saw some very surprised New Yorkers as we were going through the park with the parade of horses.

Or actually, considering how surprised they were, maybe they were tourists. Lol.

[Baybear]

As far as crowds not sticking around for prize giving, that’s pretty much a given in a lot of sports in the US, and particularly for horse shows. We already have a low spectator base with most of the spectators of the big GP classes being spectators themselves. I used to meet friends at WIHS when it was in DC - during the day there was 0 need to plan where to meet as we’d be the ONLY people in the stands. When you have a GP that can run late in the evening/night people need to get going. In other sports, how often do the crowds start filtering out the last quarter of a game? I generally like to stay to cheer on a victory especially if it’s been a really good class, a victory gallop can seem pretty lame in front of an empty stadium. I’ll be heading to Badminton again this year - the prize giving there is a huge hoopla, military band and lots of prizes. Few people leave. I was on a post-Paris call with a British group and it was so touching to hear Tom McEwen and his groom talking about the cheers of the crowds during show jumping and out on cross country, and then the thunderous crowds during the awards ceremony. I nearly got choked up just hearing them talk about it. So I see Fuchs’ point about the lack of crowds, and I will make more of an effort to stay to show my respect and admiration to these athletes during the awards… Might not be every time, but will try.

[Aussie_2020]

People leave concerts and other events early to avoid traffic etc. The only thing that bugs me is to see people leaving an opera or live theater before the final curtain call. A horse show, meh.

[Madison]

@Baybear

When you have a GP that can run late in the evening/night people need to get going.

This was exactly the case for the 5* at WEC that MF is referring to - it was a Thursday night, it was a long class, and frankly they take too long to get the prize giving set up and horses back in the ring. So, you lose people at that point, especially on a school/work/show night.

And WEC could have had a larger crowd if they had chosen to use the stadium instead of the Grand Arena (the hotel ring), but they of course wanted to use the ring with the hotel in the background and be able to use the terrace for sponsors and events, etc . . .

[Baybear]

I live outside of Washington DC and when the International Horse Show was downtown, many of us took the subway and often the darn Presidential Cup wouldn’t even start until close to or after 10pm. they’d have some exhibition and maybe special awards, then finally what we all came down for. I often thought how hard that might be on the horses and riders to jump around 1.60+ at 11pm. Especially at that Washington Venue, the horses are stabled on the street! by the subway so you have all kinds of commotion all night long. And for those of us riding the metro - my stop would be at the end of the line, can we talk really creepy. So yeah, plenty of times it was see ya, and if it wasn’t a nailbiter, many left earlier.

[alwaysforward]

I do think it’s a note that there were lots of people there for the actual Grand Prix but it was down pouring during the award ceremony so there’s not much you can do if people don’t want to sit through that. Of course in Europe I think they have more of the indoor venues and I do think there’s a little higher appreciation and interest to watch over there. At the end of the day someone’s always not gonna love the venue chosen and I think realistically boycotting won’t change a thing so they’re just missing out on competing.

[BAC]

@MHM

What Central Park show?

They ran one with primarily jumpers there for a few years, but that was probably about a decade ago by now.

I went to it once, which was plenty for me. It was quite an experience, and I’m not sorry I went. But the logistics were a bit of an uphill climb.

When we took some hunters in, first they had to ship into the USET barn at Gladstone in New Jersey. Then they got on a commercial shuttle from there, which left at something like 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. They spent the day in the city, and then got back to Gladstone at probably 3:00 the next morning. As I recall, they would only let the shippers go in before and after certain hours so they would not be messing up the traffic with the big rigs going into Central Park.

So that meant the people who were hands-on with those horses were up for those 24 hours straight, unless they managed to sneak in a nap on a hay bale somewhere.

As far as the security there, I believe they had the stable area fenced off so that random people could not get in. But the stable area was not close to the show ring, so it was a little bit of a hike through the park to get back and forth.

We certainly saw some very surprised New Yorkers as we were going through the park with the parade of horses.

Or actually, considering how surprised they were, maybe they were tourists. Lol.

I went to the very first CP show, they did have some hunter classes too but I found it a poor excuse for a horse show and never went again even though I live in the area and it was very convenient for me. I don’t remember the cost of the tickets but I do remember that the horses had quite a “commute” from their stables through the park, it just isn’t suitable for a horse show IMO. Does it still exist? I haven’t heard anything about it in years.

[MHM]

No, that one had a relatively short run.

Not to inject politics into a non-political thread. But there was an absolutely hilarious picture of Kent Farrington getting a trophy at that show with Trump standing near him for the award ceremony. The look on Kent’s face was priceless.

[MHM]

Looking at the timestamps from my pictures at that show, the horses left Gladstone around 4:00 AM, got to Central Park around 5:30-6:00 AM, and then had a chance to chill for a bit in their stalls after that.

Then they went up to flat in the ring in the morning, and show during the afternoon. The trucks started to load up to leave town with those hunters around 10:00 PM, and after sitting in a little bit of traffic, they got back to Gladstone around midnight.

I think there were some people who put their horses right on their own trucks and left from Gladstone immediately after that, and some people stayed over there for the night and left in the morning.

But one thing I remember is that there was a little bit of a traffic jam because there were still horses coming back from Central Park as some of the other trucks were trying to get out of Gladstone. And it is not a wide driveway there!

[Aussie_2020]

Wow! The arena in that setting is beautiful. What a treat to see horses in the park.