[QUOTE=RAyers;8519864]
Bellissimo IS PURE BUSINESS.
Thise who think he is doing things for the good of the sport are kidding themselves.
In Colorado, once he bought the horse park he tossed every low level show and the dressage out. Permanently, as for as I understand from those who ran those shows. …[/QUOTE]
I’ll suggest some things with hypotheticals, since I’m not privy to the inside story of Belissimo’s finances. From my background as a corporate financial analyst, here is why that it could be a good thing for a large, high-end facility to avoid the smaller shows:
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Give the smaller shows back to the smaller local barns that are a better fit for that capacity level. Don’t compete with them directly. Don’t take their dates. That may not be the real reason for the decision, but it’s a helpful side effect.
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Big infrastructure, especially high-end, requires higher-revenue generating productions to sustain itself. There won’t be high-end facilities to enjoy from time to time if they don’t stay in business - and many have not.
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Capacity - There are so many show days per year. Wasting some on low-level activity that doesn’t generate enough revenue on those days to keep the business healthy, long-term.
Just for starters. 
[QUOTE=RAyers;8519864]… He tossed every trainer and boarder out by jacking the board prices up to the point of insanity (about $1200 a month just for board).
He WANTS money. He intends to fully develop the adjacent 50 acres as high end housing and hotels with a high end equestrian facility as the core. That means only top end completions. Sure the pros and ultra rich amateurs will be accommodated and the bottom end of every discipline will have to recreate what they had somewhere else.
Don’t kid yourself. The eventing showcase was just for the rich and pros.
Reed[/QUOTE]
So what? That’s what COHP was designed and built to do, and there are more moderately-sized and ambition’ed eventing facilities within 20 minute of COHP - even more going further out. Let them benefit from COHP not competing with them head-to-head, but bringing a different market strata into play.
Far from crushing the smaller-budget eventers, it actually benefits the pond they play in by not drawing as much business away from those facilities. Some smaller local barns just got a lot of new boarders and training horses, I would surmise. Perhaps some are even getting the kind of boarder who will help them upgrade, and that’s good for the quality of care for the horses.
Failing to actualize the COHP high-end design may well be what has doomed one operator after another of that facility. Expanding the market and leaving the middle-range to the several other barns in the area will bring opportunity into the local horse community, on several fronts.
Belissimo is looking to integrate horse-keeping and the horse community into the housing development. This is essential for the long-term survival of equestrian sport. The distances from suburbia to the barn are becoming too great for the common lot of lesson students that used to find their way into horses. Sure, MB is going high-end, but that’s not a bad place to start given that horses are expensive.
I don’t know if Mark B. is a good guy or not so much, never met him. But his approach to business makes sense to me. He is integrating equestrian sport, along with - maybe instead of - golf courses. Most developers are not doing anything with horses. It would be far better to make the best of what Mark B has to offer - and there is a lot of good to work with - than fall down crying and screaming because the times they are a’changing.
Time will not be scrolling backwards to the good ole days. Eventing must adapt, or perish. That’s where we are. Eventers in denial are a risk factor for the future of the sport. Far better to work with the adaptation to preserve the values that are most important.
No reason to limit the size of the pond. Variety is very often a good thing. That’s my opinion.
