Germany's leading dressage rider Isabell Werth has cancelled her entry at the 2016 CDI Frankfurt this weekend because of the unreasonable training hours the show organisation has scheduled for the dressage riders.
Werth was entered to compete Madeleine Winter-Schulze's Hanoverian gelding Don Johnson (by Don Frederico x Warkant) in the CDI big tour. Isabell confirmed to ST.GEORG that the trainings conditions in Frankfurt are unacceptable.
"This is unacceptable. I received the training times and it meant that we had to train the Grand Prix horses at 4 AM to get them acquainted with the arena atmosphere, followed by the horses for the finals for the Nurnberger Burgpokal and Louisdor Cup," Werth explained.
The Grand Prix itself begins at 7 AM in the morning, which also gives spectators a hard time to fill stands on time at such an early hour, with the organisation seemingly ignoring traveling and parking time.
"You have to imagine what that means. On Thursday evening it's Hessian Day and from experience that lasts a very long time, until midnight. It will only get quiet for the horses at 1 AM. And then i'll have to tell my groom, 'please be so kind to wak up and feed the horses at 3 AM.' That's not done. It will be without me. I think it's unacceptable for man and horse to schedule such training times," Werth stated firmly.
Frankfurt is not the only show which has been schedule impossible training times to accommodate a massively packed schedule with dressage, show jumping, sometimes indoor eventing and driving, as well as some exhibitions.
Photo © Astrid Appels
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