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Landrover 2021 Cancelled

I have questions. If they are not able to raise $750k in 72 hours, do donors get their donation back? If not, where do the funds go?

First you can’t hold it, then you can if you get almost a million dollars in 3 days. Whatever. The fact that my FB is full of people telling me that I don’t care about the sport of eventing if I won’t donate money is ridiculous.

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I read it goes to “Landrover Kentucky” no matter what. If not this year then the next year
if that happens.

I feel like there are a lot more appropriate ways $750k in donations could be spent than on this event right now and asking for that kind of money in donations at the last minute feels in very poor taste to me.

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So Lee Carter of EEI went from saying they had explored all options to “The possibility of running the event “wasn’t on our radar” until the last 24 hours or so, Lee said.” I want to believe him but this seems fishy at best. (https://horsesport.com/due-south/last-ditch-effort-launched-to-save-kentucky-3-day-event/?fbclid=IwAR3rWDiyVs6MQIlZqTf5urC3QYocl-NUrAtxwabsw1t0G-4riWk1FYCKkkY)

Don’t get me wrong, I hope it runs. I’m glad I already donated. But as of this morning, where its literally all over horsey social media, they have raised just over $21,000 of the $750,000 goal.

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Glad I’m not the only one who thinks its a ridiculous ask to raise $750k in 72 hours. I’m sorry but is it really THAT important? We are kind of in a Pandemic, no? Sorry life is on hold for most.

You want riders who already pay memberships, fees, and travel just to get to the event to also donate an excessive amount of money?

I love eventing, but this is just a little bit of a far ask. Plus, its not like we didn’t know a pandemic was going on for the last year, and didn’t know this event was trying to run again. Kentucky is one of the best events, always well run and beautifully done, but I just don’t see the need for it this year.

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The hashtag though :joy:

I wonder if there is more to this story?

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Well you can request your donation to be refunded if it doesn’t happen at least.

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Last I heard (which was last night) they also had almost 200k in private donations already.

Do the riders still get $150,000 in prize money if we pay for it? :face_with_monocle: They can go ahead and roll that into some reduced ticket prices in 2022

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Sad it took almost a year to raise that for the Frangible pin fund.

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I haven’t seen EN share anything about the fundraiser yet. I am surprised at the lack of visibility and marketing around this effort.

I donated. I am surprised and honestly a little frustrated to see the response of the community. I see a lot of the same people who disparaged the organizers for cancelling, now disparaging the organizers for throwing together a last minute fundraiser. I get why people are upset with the logistics, but I also understand there is a lot of work and planning that needs to be done to run a 5* and I understand why they need to set a deadline to know whether or not to move forward.

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Is this in addition to the approx 25k they were publicizing they had raised as of about 12:30pm EST today (Friday)? Just trying to understand how any private donations are being defined and how they are being communicated in regards to the public fundraising efforts.

Yes, in addition to whats online. Latest update is that they’re at around 300k now.

I’m with you on this. I wonder if EEI saw all of the BS online accusing them of not trying all angles to run this and knowing the goal was unrealistic, made this a way of telling those people to put their money where there mouth is. As predicted, many wont put up the money to help.

I donated. I love Rolex but was 100% for canceling it this year as I am a local and I was really unhappy at the thought of having all of those spectators from all over the country and the world here in our town (especially since they all tend to stay where we shop etc since it close to the KHP. We don’t even have schools open right now even with decreasing cases and I feared it could set us back to what happened last spring with everything closed.

But I also didn’t want to lose this event, so if they can run it without spectators (hopefully with livestreaming) I am all for that so we can hopefully all be back to enjoy it in 2022.

I also donated to help do my part to give EEI a chance to survive thus and run AECs this year. I have friends who are qualified and I want to see them go. If EEI goes under, I don’t know that it would happen.

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What the 
??? Is this about Covid or about money? I’m hard pressed to understand the strategerie here and the lack of long term planning at EEI, what a clusterf*ck. It does indeed, seem more like a hostage situation than anything else.

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I mean I think its pretty straightforward and they have explained it quite clearly. USEF will not let them run with spectators due to COVID. Ticket sales cover a large portion of the costs and with no ticket sales, they cannot run.

I also truly believe this was a put up or shut up reaction from EEI. They got TORE apart on social media with people screaming “WHY DIDNT YOU ASK FOR HELP?!” “HOW DO WE GET RIDERS TO TOKYO” so as a response, they said okay here’s what we need and now people are mad about that. They can’t win.

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The update on LRK FB page on Saturday morning says $67k

It’s a non-profit. If they don’t end up running, you can request a refund of your donation if you want, or just let it go to support their work in general or next year’s event. (I am not sure if this was a directed donation, I didn’t read that carefully.)

I find it odd that the prize money requirements of the FEI haven’t been on the table for discussion. Some riders are saying, “let me get this experience” and clearly that’s not about prize money. So what if the British and Europeans don’t come to carpet bag the top placings: it’s a global pandemic. If you’re going to run, let the locals run.

Frankly I don’t believe it’s that important to run a horse show in the current situation but I understand why some people do, and I sympathize with those who have had to rethink their plans and even careers.

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Regardless of what happens, hopefully the “you’re all a bunch of smurfs” and “unless you’re running at the 5* level, you have nothing to say or give to the sport” crowd will be quiet for a bit. Since this is an appeal to fans and lower-level riders.

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