I am so tired of whiny, rich horse [people] complaining about WEG

[RPM]

@skydy

I think the footing is also an issue? They are going to have a lot of rain and they can’t have the dressage on the indoor reining footing.

Why can’t they? Are dressage horses really such speshul sNOflakes? Or are their riders? What about the dressage horses and riders who have performed demos with reiners? In the same indoor, on the same footing, at the same time?

[anotherera]

@Tiramit

I’m so tired of the weather bitching and facility complaints. I don’t get the point of all this negativity? For those complaining, is it to make yourselves feel superior for not going or are you trying to kill off the Games completely?

Yes, it’s hot, but gosh, it was hot in Kentucky and at the Atlanta and Los Angeles Olympics as well. Atlanta in the summer? Yeesh. Major hurricane disruptions are not the norm for Tryon. Had the storm shifted a little it could have easily dumped much more water on Washington DC, not a typical Hurricane zone.

The facilities aren’t complete. Shocker. It’s rained heavily up and down the East Coast all year causing construction delays everywhere, including my own farm. It’s been a crappy year for trying to build anything outside. Add to that a booming construction industry and finding workers on dry days has been a serious challenge. I have friends who have been waiting (and waiting) for crews to show up. I waited 6 months past a promised date. The TIEC had a ridiculously short timeline that would have required everything to go right for them to have had a 100% perfect facility. Mother Nature had other plans.

What I have seen from the people who are there is that the competition has been fantastic, the main part of the facility is incredible with dream footing and the staff and volunteers are eager and helpful. Spectator creature comforts have been addressed and issues are being resolved overnight. The Expo is fine and well attended, despite the weather. The horses, the most important part of the equation, are nicely stabled and didn’t experience a drop of flooding, again, despite the storm.

The dressage riders and their flight crew cancelled the freestyle, not the facility managers. The endurance riders had their issues long before the WEG.

How about we give the incessant bitching and nitpicking a rest and enjoy the amazing competition going on in the USA, ok?

There is NO comparison between the heat/humidity in Atlanta and the dry heat in Los Angeles. I’ve lived in both states. Georgia summers are miserable at best!

[ladyj79]

@RPM

Why can’t they? Are dressage horses really such speshul sNOflakes? Or are their riders? What about the dressage horses and riders who have performed demos with reiners? In the same indoor, on the same footing, at the same time?

No. Also wtf.

[fair_judy]

I cruised through most of this thread and did not see one mention of the obvious. CLIMATE CHANGE, folks. We can sit here and say a hundred more times that this RARELY happens… this is our new reality. YES they should have cancelled the events. I personally found the minimizing of the impact of this storm by management to be the most egregious. Hell, I have seen people using blow up kayaks to get around in the tents at WEF and the show still goes on because… no refund if the show doesn’t cancel the schedule. That, ladies and gents, is GREED. It is darn lucky that the call to cancel wasn’t entirely up to Bellissimo.

[Tackpud]

@skydy

Because, obviously “everyone” here is not a massive commercial entity that could commit to host an international event. This was hardly a charity gesture on Mr. Bellissimo’s part.

Apparently he thought that his company could manage and host the WEG successfully, make the U.S. look good (and no doubt profit from it). I think that he and his associates miscalculated.

Of course the company may still profit. Business on that level can be profitable even if only as a write off.

I don’t know. It just seems silly to say that if you don’t like how a huge corporation manages an international competition that you should do it yourself.

Well everyone here seems to feel they could do it better - or at least that’s what they’re intimating by bashing what’s been happening. All I ask is that they step up and either volunteer to help run it next time, or do it themselves since they seem to know better.

[BigDarnHorse]

RPM, this was on another WEG thread.

@fordtraktor

The reiners can wear boots and most do. They are usually some variant of a SMB type boot. and many wear bells or a combination boot for overreaches.

Reining horses need the deeper footing to slide. Jumpers and dressage horses don’t want to slide…thus totally different footing is appropriate. It also tends to be rounder sand where sand for English events is angular. If the footing is too grabby it is really hard on their hocks. Reining is hard on hocks to start with.

[MHM]

@fair judy

Hell, I have seen people using blow up kayaks to get around in the tents at WEF…

Really? I’ve never seen that, although I’m rarely near the tents. I have to wonder who packs a kayak for a horse show. :lol:

[fordtraktor]

@fair judy

I cruised through most of this thread and did not see one mention of the obvious. CLIMATE CHANGE, folks. We can sit here and say a hundred more times that this RARELY happens… this is our new reality. YES they should have cancelled the events. I personally found the minimizing of the impact of this storm by management to be the most egregious. Hell, I have seen people using blow up kayaks to get around in the tents at WEF and the show still goes on because… no refund if the show doesn’t cancel the schedule. That, ladies and gents, is GREED. It is darn lucky that the call to cancel wasn’t entirely up to Bellissimo.

Why should they have cancelled the events? The footing on XC held up perfectly, the jumping today didn’t have a puddle in sight, the horses did great…I am just puzzled as to why cancelling would have been better. Canceling would also have many long term repercussions including a lack of traditional means of qualifying teams for Tokyo.

[AffirmedHope]

@MHM

Really? I’ve never seen that, although I’m rarely near the tents. I have to wonder who packs a kayak for a horse show. :lol:

I’ve seen them cancel for the weather more than once down at WEF. They always have rain cancellations on the ESP WEF website throughout the season which shows the updated schedule for the next day. The 2017 series had a lot of them actually. Hell, they even rescheduled the big $500,000 Grand Prix in week 12 from the SNL to the next morning one year because of the rain!

[Palm_Beach]

@NCRider

I make it a point to never brag about a trip insurance policy

Why did you use the word “brag?” I don’t think Tiramit was “bragging,” but simply making a statement, and then answering my question about which company issued the policy.

[MHM]

@AffirmedHope

I’ve seen them cancel for the weather more than once down at WEF. They always have rain cancellations on the ESP WEF website throughout the season which shows the updated schedule for the next day. The 2017 series had a lot of them actually. Hell, they even rescheduled the big $500,000 Grand Prix in week 12 from the SNL to the next morning one year because of the rain!

Yes, there was some bad weather in 2016 as well. Including a tornado watch during the first week of WEF, as I recall. The radar map showed some crazy colors!

They do cancel at WEF if the weather is bad enough, and they’re good about communicating the schedule changes. Plus they’ve had a lot of practice over the years. And it’s 12 weeks long, along with all the shows before and after, so it’s not quite as huge a deal to drop a class here or there.

The situation at WEG is a bit different, since it’s just once every four years. Much higher stakes when the weather turns bad.

[TMares]

@Palm Beach

Why did you use the word “brag?” I don’t think Tiramit was “bragging,” but simply making a statement, and then answering my question about which company issued the policy.

I think the bit about bragging was in reference to how great the coverage is…until one has actually redeemed a policy, one can’t know how well it work IRL. That’s all I took away from it, nothing more.

[Belowthesalt]

@Sannois

Wow, all I can say is after watching that drone birds eyeview of the course, it looks huge, and long and maxed out.
And if folks had as good a rides as I have read here, no major spills then it is all good. Too bad I am too cheap to subscribe to FEI TV I would have like to have watched Ingrids Ride.

Not really. Some tricky fences (e.g., The corners), and many horses found the cascades off-putting, but really a moderate 3*** with high completion percentage. And Tryon got steady but not gusting, overpowering rain, not a hurricane. Poor contingency planning.

[yaya]

@Belowthesalt

Not really. Some tricky fences (e.g., The corners), and many horses found the cascades off-putting, but really a moderate 3*** with high completion percentage. And Tryon got steady but not gusting, overpowering rain, not a hurricane. Poor contingency planning.

And how do you think they would know that it was less than expected? Storms are tricky, uncontrollable things. They can turn at the last minute and either leave you dry, or destroy everything, depending on which side you end up on.

[Mardi]

@Gardenhorse

Except insurance is most needed when something is a financial stretch or a bigger than normal expense for you and you can’t just blow off the cost if something goes wrong.

This ^^ Many leisure travelers don’t consider their trip as an investment. Unless someone is willing to lose their money, travel insurance is always a good idea.

But I hope there’s a way for dressage freestyle ticket holders to get a refund…they deserve it. The decision to cancel the freestyle was made by people with little or nothing to lose financially.

[NCRider]

They should have scheduled any riders who were able to stay an extra day (ie not flying out on Sunday or Monday) as a musical freestyle demonstration after the eventing SJ and it should have been free. The people with tickets for the dressage freestyle should have been given free tickets to the eventing SJ and the freestyle demo if they wanted them. There was plenty of room

[BigMama1]

@RPM

Why can’t they? Are dressage horses really such speshul sNOflakes? Or are their riders? What about the dressage horses and riders who have performed demos with reiners? In the same indoor, on the same footing, at the same time?

I am so tired of the nasty comments and put downs of dressage riders because they didn’t want to risk their horses’ soundness by competing on unsuitable footing. If you really don’t understand why deep footing designed for sliding and spinning is unsuitable for Grand Prix dressage horses who have never trained or competed on it, well perhaps you should do some research. The horses’ safety comes first. If I refuse to enter certain local shows at First Level on my inexpensive draft cross because I know the footing won’t hold up in bad weather, why should the expectations of top international riders on their multimillion dollar horses be any different?

[BigMama1]

@RPM

Why can’t they? Are dressage horses really such speshul sNOflakes? Or are their riders? What about the dressage horses and riders who have performed demos with reiners? In the same indoor, on the same footing, at the same time?

I am so tired of the nasty comments and put downs of dressage riders because they didn’t want to risk their horses’ soundness by competing on unsuitable footing. If you really don’t understand why deep footing designed for sliding and spinning is unsuitable for Grand Prix dressage horses who have never trained or competed on it, well perhaps you should do some research. The horses’ safety comes first. If I refuse to enter certain local shows at First Level on my inexpensive draft cross because I know the footing won’t hold up in bad weather, why should the expectations of top international riders on their multimillion dollar horses be any different?

[BigMama1]

@RPM

Why can’t they? Are dressage horses really such speshul sNOflakes? Or are their riders? What about the dressage horses and riders who have performed demos with reiners? In the same indoor, on the same footing, at the same time?

I am so tired of the nasty comments and put downs of dressage riders because they didn’t want to risk their horses’ soundness by competing on unsuitable footing. If you really don’t understand why deep footing designed for sliding and spinning is unsuitable for Grand Prix dressage horses who have never trained or competed on it, well perhaps you should do some research. The horses’ safety comes first. If I refuse to enter certain local shows at First Level on my inexpensive draft cross because I know the footing won’t hold up in bad weather, why should the expectations of top international riders on their multimillion dollar horses be any different?

[BigMama1]

@RPM

Why can’t they? Are dressage horses really such speshul sNOflakes? Or are their riders? What about the dressage horses and riders who have performed demos with reiners? In the same indoor, on the same footing, at the same time?

I am so tired of the nasty comments and put downs of dressage riders because they didn’t want to risk their horses’ soundness by competing on unsuitable footing. If you really don’t understand why deep footing designed for sliding and spinning is unsuitable for Grand Prix dressage horses who have never trained or competed on it, well perhaps you should do some research. The horses’ safety comes first. If I refuse to enter certain local shows at First Level on my inexpensive draft cross because I know the footing won’t hold up in bad weather, why should the expectations of top international riders on their multimillion dollar horses be any different?