Ton's Tale: Letters to the Editor on "Impossible World Equestrian Games"

Mon, 05/24/2010 - 17:48
Opinions

Ton Corbeau's column initiated much discussion about hosting the World Equestrian Games on a different continent than Europe. Here is a selection of a few letters to the editor on this topic:

Elitist Approach?!

All I can say is in response to “Ton’s Tale” welcome to the real world as most of the rest of us experience it. Imagine what the expense is like for our competitors from New Zealand, and it’s not just the US WEG, this is equestrian sport as we know it. For our competitors to compete internationally at the highest levels the expense is immense. Sponsorship is almost non existent at the levels required, and many of our competitors are forced to sell their horses when the competition has finished because they cannot afford the expense of bringing them back home. That’s equestrian sport as we know it. Our competitors rely upon the generosity of their overseas hosts to a large extent, and to all those dedicated equine supporters worldwide who help our New Zealand competitors, you have our sincerest gratitude, without your support our sport will be much poorer.

My real question to Ton is why should you think that just because you are from Europe that you should be treated any differently? Your “opinion” reeks of an elitist attitude, and it’s attitudes like this that do a lot of harm in what is a worldwide sport enjoyed by thousands.

Thank you to the FEI for taking an inclusive approach to grow the sport.

Kerry Sixtus, Napier, New Zealand

 


 

Euro-centrism

I find the current Eurodressage opinion article "Ton's Tale" a most offensive and overt display of Eurocentrism.

Unfortunately for Ton, Equestrian Sport is a global sport and if it is to remain an Olympic Sport and retain credibility in the world sporting stage, then it must continue to evolve in a more global direction.

It seems Ton is shocked by the notion that some riders/drivers/vaulters will have to "pay to play". Some European riders have been rudely awoken to the fact that it is not a god-given right for a person to represent their country in their chosen sport. And some European NFs have been forced to deal with the enormous costs and the risks of international horse transport. Sometimes worthy participants just can't afford their dream.

The costs and difficulties Ton describes are an everyday problem for riders/drivers/vaulters around the world. Riders, their families and their NFs make enormous sacrifices to meet the costs of training and travel to represent their countries.

Ton's inflated sense of entitlement for European riders is a slap in the face for every other rider around the world. It says to them "Your sacrifice means nothing. You have no place in Equestrian Sport".

World sporting powerbrokers would find such an attitude as Ton's absolutely laughable. Football, Golf and Tennis would be very pleased to take disillusioned participants from Equestrian to swell their fast-growing global player ranks and further increase their global sporting influence. The FEI is to be applauded for its work to make our great sport accessible around the world and helping to prevent this loss of participants from occurring.

Ton does the sport a disservice to propagate such a divisive and blatantly Eurocentric view. I am sorry to see that one of my preferred web sites, Eurodressage, which appears to celebrate Dressage in all corners of the globe, is helping to spread this message which will be deeply offensive to so many Eurodressage readers around the world.

Author known by the editor

 


 

"WORLD" Equestrian Games

I'm not sure whether Ton Corbeau hates the whole concept of WEG, is still ticked off that The Hague was such a financial disaster or simply hates that WEG in 2010 is in the New World and the Europeans will have to re-invest a tiny sliver of what they have reaped from this side of the Atlantic over the past half century in selling horses and "letting" us into their shows. Or maybe all of the above.

I don't work for WEG, don't have any financial stake in the WEG. Like everyone else, I will have to shell out my money to get to Lexington and then pay for hotels and meals.

To put things into perspective, in any given year (depending on the cycle), I report Olympics, WEGs, World Cups, regional championships (Europeans, Pan American Games) and at least a dozen other major competitions in the United States and Europe. No one picks up my tab anywhere. I pay for my own experiences.

Let's get real about the WEG in Kentucky. It was not suddenly sprung on the Europeans like it was on Rome in 1998 when financing for the Games in Ireland fell through and the Italians came to the rescue. In the same way that the folks at Aachen traveled the world in advance promoting what turned out to be by far the best WEG to date in 2006, so, too, have representatives of WEG in Kentucky. I have seen them at Aachen, in Rio for Pan Am Games, in Windsor for the European Championships. Are we to believe that none of the European national federations woke up until right now to the fact that horses and humans and equipment would all have to be shipped to Kentucky in September, 2010? Didn't anyone in Europe start putting aside a little bit here, a little bit there to fund the costs of Kentucky. For the past four years, Europeans have asked me about the costs of Kentucky? How awful that the Dutch federation, for one, is being forced to engage in fund raising.

Once again some perspective, please. The U.S. Equestrian Federation has about 86,000 dues paying members. Forget powerhouse Germany, The Netherlands has about 200,000 members, the Swedish federation more than twice as many members as the USA, both with a fraction of the population. And unlike many nations in the world, U.S. athletes are not funded by governments. The USEF and the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation are constantly fund raising to underwrite participation at home and abroad.

In all the years of covering horse sports around the world, I have never once heard a European express some understanding about the massive costs borne by Americans competing on the European circuit, although they all admit having the Americans (Canadians, Mexicans, etc. included in the broader sense of "American") adds to the quality and credibility of the competitions. The U.S. typically funds three teams of five horse/rider combinations for the European Nations Cup series; up to a half-dozen Grand Prix dressage combinations; eventing teams and individuals; developing rider tours; young horse championships; four-in-hand, pairs, and individual drivers; reiners, vaulters and endurance riders.

Not for a once-in-a-generation trip across the Atlantic, but every year, year in, year out.

The Hague in 1994 was a financial disaster. Jerez will be paying the costs incurred for 2002 for many years to come. Rome used existing facilities and no one expected too much because they picked up the ball at the last minute, but did it with a lot of style, and being in the heart of a major world capital and tourist mecca hotels, restaurants, etc. were no problem. Aachen, well, they just know how to do it. They do it every year with the CHIO World Equestrian Festival with jumping, dressage, eventing, driving and vaulting that in itself is a near-WEG.

How will Kentucky be?

The competition will be the best in history, maybe for all disciplines certainly for the Olympic sports of jumping, dressage and eventing. The plots and sub-plots surrounding jumping could turn that discipline into a Robert Ludlum thriller. Just trot out the names for dressage: Totilas, Parzival, Ravel, Satchmo...  The Rolex Three-Day Event, one of the world's best, was just a preview of what to expect when ALL the top guns come to Kentucky.

The Kentucky Horse Park is superb--amazing fields of competition in a grand panorama compared with the postage stamp that is Aachen, wonderful opposites and both in their own way the best in the world.

Has Kentucky blown it in some critical areas? You betcha, and big time. Ticket prices are outrageous. Whether by sleight of hand, stupidity or smart-aleck number crunchers, selling half-day tickets for the same price as a full-day ticket in Aachen is shameful and unforgivable. Hotel costs are even more horrendous. Rooms that typically cost $80/90 a night during Rolex are in the $250 range for WEG. Who's doing the gouging: WEG or the hotels?

WEG Operations are horribly over budget--in round figures estimated at about $80 million now compared with $50 million projected four years ago, and more than three times the operational budget of the Aachen WEG. Even if all the remaining tickets are sold--highly unlikely--there will be a large shortfall. The organizers insist that the Games will break even, thanks to well heeled sponsors. Truth is, it doesn't matter to any competitors--European or otherwise. If the competition is as good as expected and management is a little better than mediocre, everyone will be long gone when creditors start knocking on WEG's door.<

Among the unknowns: the effort to enlist an army of volunteers has so far been badly botched; the potential nightmare of crowds being moved in and out of the Horse Park, and how large will be the vendor village that has been an ongoing tussle over costs that are so high most vendors expect to lose money.

But you know what? If you get to see McLain Ward and Sapphire (plug in the names of your favorites) on the podium, or Moorlands Totilas and Jerich Parzival and Satchmo competing against Ravel for the first and perhaps only time in North America, they will be memories to cherish for a lifetime.

One can only hope that the awful ticket and hotel prices will tumble before WEG. As to the high cost of competitors getting to Kentucky once in 20 years: Get over it! The next Olympics and the next WEG are in Europe.

These aren't the European Championships or the Pan American Games or the Asian Games. They're the WORLD Equestrian Games. Last time I looked, the United States of America was part of the world.

Ken Braddick
(editor Dressage News)
Wellinton, FL, USA 

Read the original column: Ton's Tale: Impossible World Equestrian Games

Photo © David Charles