What now for the WEG???

1990 to 2018  – Christopher Hector reflects…

The historic 1912 Stockholm Olympic stadium was back in action for the first WEG

Nicole Uphoff and Rembrandt entrancing the crowd on the green sand arena 

Carl Hester and Rubelit,, representing Great Britain in both 1990 and 2018

Twenty eight years and it seems like only yesterday when we fronted for the first ever World Equestrian Games in Stockholm. Of course we had no idea of what to expect but the Swedes put together such a perfect show, fabulous organization, that despite the fact that the retiring President of the FEI, Prince Phillip envisaged the WEG as a one off, farewell to his tenure, the Swedes made it happen so seamlessly, it prompted the question – why not do it again?

Sven Rothenberger and Bo at Stockholm – 28 years later his son was a star at Tryon..

Well what happened four years later in Den Hague provided plenty of why nots. It was an organizational chaos, nothing was finished, nothing was ready. Poor Judy Dierks, first out in the dressage was riding down the centre line while they were hammering the advertising signs to the fence. A group of lost souls were looking with bewilderment at their tickets for seats that did not exist. What had happened was that they had built the grandstand (one of two promised for the Games, the other was never started) with just two exits. The local OH&S guy arrived and said, no no, you have to make six more exits, so the punters now had a ticket to a seat that had disappeared. That wasn’t the only thing to disappear. They had a score board but never got around to constructing a frame for it, so they hauled in up above the height of the grandstand with a crane. Nix, says the OH&S man, the wind has come up, that is now a safety threat. So the scoreboard disappeared, only to reappear like the Cheshire Cat, repeat, repeat. I could go on, at the end of the day the WEG had lost fourteen million guilders and some of the directors had to reach into their own pockets to cover the bills.

To add to the organisational chaos, The Hague WEG also suffered a record heat wave. You can have coffee or air-conditioning in the press room, we were told,
the generators can’t do both.

If that wasn’t warning enough, four years later the Irish bid for a WEG in Dublin fell in a heap, not before they had squandered a large quantity of cash.

The arena at Rome….

Rome stepped in at the last moment, and put together a pretty nice show, even if one of the great cities of the world didn’t really register the presence of the WEG.

Cut to 2002, and Jerez de la Frontera. The Spanish had their share of chaos, but they did it with such style, with such a twinkle in the eye, that you went with the flow and had a lovely time. Again the WEG lost money…

Leave it permanently at Aachen is the cry – trouble is they don’t want it. The super smart organisers at Aachen have worked out that they get just as large a revenue flow from the five major days of their annual CHIO as they do from a two week long WEG which comes with massive extra costs…

The next venue was the world’s greatest horse show. Aachen, where they had been holding a horse show since 1925, and really most of the infrastructure was in place. It was a lovely, smooth running show, although even Aachen found it difficult to manage all the disciplines, and as I said at the time, it was a great WEG but not such a great Aachen. This was the only WEG to turn a profit.

Four years later with were in Lexington, Kentucky. Again, the Horse Park was an established venue and the events took place without too much trouble. What stopped Lexington being the triumph it should have been was the outrageous profiteering by the local hotels, transport companies, etc. The Europeans voted with their feet and stayed home. The largest number of foreign visitors was from Canada, followed by Australia and there were no more than 500 Aussies on the ground. They too lost heaps, with the Altech head, Pearse Lyons bailing them out time after time with large wads of cash.

Altech bankrolled the next WEG, in Normandy. Again it was a great location, and we loved our little village of Coursailes sur la Mere, but the event itself was chaos. There are certain basics like toilets, and food, and they weren’t there. The actual competition was good enough, again Mr Lyons had to rescue the organizers out financially.

Casall over one of the amazing fences, Van Gogh themed.

The real tragedy of this WEG in Tryon, North Carolina, is that it could have been so wonderful with another twelve months to get ready. They took on the challenge when Bromont fell over, but really they didn’t have enough time and they were further hampered by bad weather in the months leading up to the WEG. It really was like a construction site, half built buildings all over the place. The grooms had a rough time of it, but the riders I spoke to were quite happy with their facilities, in particular the cross country surface and the going in the arenas.

Once you got up closer the Tryon Arena started to look like a construction site…

The area around Tryon is perfect. It is a fashionable resort area, the idle rich tend to spend their winters in Florida, and drift up to North Carolina for the summer. Kerrie O’Dea has found a succession of great places for our THM travel group to stay. A series of historic chalets, set in a great rolling expanse of park land. Huge trees, acres of neatly mown lawn, and our own lake, not to mention organic vegetable farm.

We have our own live-in bus driver, and each day we get driven right to the front door – just half an hour – and he’s waiting there to take us home at the end of the day. True there were queues several hours long for those dependent on public or shuttle transportation, but we learnt a long time ago, your own bus is essential at these things.

Then came a couple of disasters that the organizers really couldn’t have foreseen, a Hurricane and the Endurance fiasco…

The Endurance was cancelled in great controversy, you’ll find stuff about it all over cyber space, including lots of hate mail for yours truly. But I stick to my guns. Endurance has nothing to do with the classical principles that should govern all horse / human interaction. Indeed mega-rich Arabs can win medals on horses they have never ever sat on before the day of the event. Get rid of it say I and you can take another horse abuser, Reining, with you.

I admit that I last watched Endurance, by mistake, when I was sitting in the arena at the race finished in The Hague in 1994. What I saw was disgusting and I have made sure that I don’t have to watch it again.

Here are some comments on the Endurance here at Tryon, from Chris Stafford, one of the most experienced journalists on the equestrian scene:

“To set this in context this is not my first WEG, I’ve covered several in the 40 years I’ve been a media professional as a print journalist to photography, TV and radio to digital, I’ve watched and worked from different angles and always try to appreciate the many perspectives and stories that abound at a major championships. I normally focus on the three Olympic disciplines for the most part covering other disciplines as assigned so when WEG comes round I pay much more attention to endurance, vaulting, reining and carriage driving than usual. As for endurance I’ve tried to be more interested and engaged but to be honest as someone who has been in the horse world since I was knee high to a fetlock and spent my first career as a professional, groom, rider, trainer, instructor dedicated to the welfare of the horse I struggle with this. In my first book Fit to Compete I included a study of fitness for endurance horses and studied the sport more closely with the help of some professional riders. It’s a sport that has never endeared me and as I watch it at a world championships I can still not get past the level of horsemanship that we see at international level. From the condition of the horses to the horsemanship and skills of the rider, any observer can see that this does not generally paint a pretty picture for equestrian sport. I’m generalizing here because there are riders who are competent and prepared and look like they belong on a horse, but far too many do not.”

“This discipline traditionally kicks off the World Equestrian Games, starts at the crack of dawn and lasts all day. The die-hard enthusiasts and eager journalists arrive before dawn for the start, which is normally quite a spectacle with so may horses departing in a mass start. I was not one of those here in Tryon, instead I followed from the media center and then as the chaos ensued with the restart late morning I went to the first vet gate to try and understand what was going on. It was a state of utter confusion with no-one, including the officials I spoke to, knowing what was going on. Horses standing or being walked around and none of them looking like they were enjoying it. Later in the afternoon I walked the cross country course and as I came back passed that vet gate l learned that the race had been cancelled so I watched and wondered as horses stood around with their heads hanging down as if they had given their all. It was a sad sight to see with too many of them in poor condition. Watching the race that ran adjacent to the cross country course I saw some very poor riding. This wouldn’t happen in the other disciplines at this level. Far from it. And that’s why after all was said and done about poor organization, venue not ready, course not established, etc. and all the scandals of cheating that we’ve seen in the sport, I strongly believe that the governing bodies need to take a firm grip of this sport. Why not take it out of the Games and revert to its own world championships again? Or even remove it from the FEI family until the National Federations and National Governing Bodies assert better control over the standard of horsemanship, riding and equine welfare before it’s allowed back in the fold.”

“From what we’ve seen yet again, especially with so many being vetted out at the first vet gate—over 50 I understand, this must surely speak for itself! Endurance is doing a disservice to equestrian sport and goodness knows we do not need that. There are enough critics and mis-educated observers who are too quick to criticize horse sports in general. This is not what the world needs to see when it has a rare window into the sport every four years on the international stage. So please, let’s set endurance to one side while it gets its house in order and earns a place in the family of international equestrian sport for the sake of the horses.”

These observations were posted by Chris on her Wisp (Women in Sport) facebook page… see. www.wispsports.com

What was of real concern was the cancellation of the final leg of the Dressage – the Freestyle. Hurricane Florence was heading our way. The arrival time kept shifting back, and by the time we got the weather, now a storm not a hurricane on the Sunday – Freestyle Day – when the worst was expected to arrive, the organizers had decided to cancel the Freestyle. They tried to re-schedule for the Monday but Pedens, the horse transporters, said that they could not change the time for the plane to leave. The plane would leave on Monday.

more follows

In a last ditch pitch by Mark Belissimo, the teams were offered the option of competing in the covered Reining Arena, early on the Sunday morning. That would have meant pulling the deep reining surface out and making a dressage surface in there, after the last Reining final, and Isabell Werth, for one, said that she would not ride on the Sunday morning if she hadn’t had a chance to work on the new surface on the Saturday night. Again, the teams were unanimous – they were withdrawing from the competition, and taking their horses home. It was shaping up as one of the great finals, and really, while the rain was heavy on the Sunday, I have seen dressage tests ridden in worse, although the one covered stand would have been a bit squishy. The riders were right in the end, they had come for a championships, and given us three days of fabulous competition, they were not going to compete in sub-standard conditions.

Israeli show jumper, Danielle Goldstein did her bit to brighten the jumping at Tryon…

The showjumpers had already voted with their feet. Showjumping has become more and more dominated by money, lots and lots of money. There were richer pickings to be had in Europe, and perhaps the five day format is past its use by date. The riders did not want to subject their precious charges to such an ask. The list of riders who stayed home is a who’s who of showjumping. Daniel Deusser, Christian Ahlmann, Kent Farrington, Scott Brash, Ben Maher, Simon Delestre, Edwina Tops-Alexander, Luciana Diniz, Philipp Weishaupt, Rolf-Göran Bengtsson, Jeroen Dubbeldam, Maikel van der Vleuten, John Whitaker, Denis Lynch, Bertram Allen, Daniel Coyle, Shane Breen, Margie Goldstein-Engle, Lauren Hough, Marlon Módolo Zanotelli, Rodrigo Lambre, Jérôme Guéry, Olivier Philippaerts, Werner Muff, Pius Schwizer, and Julien Épaillard.

Perhaps it is time to abandon the WEG concept altogether. Usually by the time one WEG starts, the venue for the next has been announced. This time there is no hat in the ring to stage the event. There is a group in Holland who are looking to bid for the 2026 WEG, but if there is no 2022 edition, I can’t see that happening. We can do what Prince Phillip envisaged in the first place, and go back to individual championships in different locations – although, and here is a wild card, if Mr Belissimo still has cash to burn, why not come back to Tryon in four years time? I, for one, would be up for that…

next we meet the man behind the Tryon WEG

I caught up with the man himself, outside the press centre. He looks not unlike his friend, Donald Trump, only fitter, healthier and with much nicer hair. I suggested it was a pity that they didn’t have twelve months more to get the place really ready, because the basic structure is great. He thought it would have been right with another four months work. I asked if he would put in a bid for a 2022 WEG: “I’ll tell you on September 24 (the day after the WEG finishes) but we have built this place to hold championships, yes, I would really consider doing it in four years.”

During the WEG we held, as we always do, a meeting of the International Alliance of Equestrian Journalists. A quick poll of the attendees revealed that there were only three of us who had been to all the WEGs, but 70% of the world’s most experienced equestrian journalists thought this had been the last WEG.

Sönke Lauterback is the head of the most successful equestrian organization in the world, the German FN, with just on half a million members. I put to him that the journalists thought it the last WEG, are they right?

“I wish that they are not right because to me, the idea of WEG is still the most fascinating event that we have, all disciplines coming together, everyone mingling, watching and benefitting from the other disciplines. For the spectators, for the media, for everyone, I think it’s a fantastic opportunity.”

“Having said all that, we know there have been quite a few challenges here at this Games, and there have been challenges at previous Games as well. Out of the six we’d had, all of them had financial difficulties and organizational challenges. Here at Tryon there have been some exceptional issues.”

“I appreciate that the organizer took it over only two years ago, and it’s a big ask to get it done within two years. Rome had to do something similar, twenty years ago, but then it was much smaller. We all came here knowing that with the time  frame, it wouldn’t be perfect, it couldn’t be perfect. Afterwards, we must sit down and make our analysis. It was already discussed at the press conference by Ingemar de Vos of the FEI, whether they will open a bid for the next WEG, this they have to consider.”

But normally by now in a WEG, we know where the next one will be held…
“In the past, this was the case, the flag was handed over to the next organizer of the WEG.”

If the only person who wants the next WEG is Mr Belissimo, do we come back here to Tryon in four years?
“I’m not in a position to answer this question today, it’s too early, we are still in the middle of WEG and everyone now should focus on getting over the second week in the best way. We can wholeheartedly say that this second week is running much much smoother already than the first week, and by the way, this has been the case in several of the most recent WEGs as well. I remember going away from Caen after week one, saying this wasn’t perfect  and after week two, people came back and said, oh it was nice. The situation has become much better already.”

Is it time to kick Endurance out of the FEI and out of the WEG?

“We will have to discuss the potential formula for future WEGs after this and we should wait on the outcome of report into what happened here.”

But it is not just what has happened here, it has been happening week after week for years, something awful is being revealed about Endurance all the time…

“Here it was a challenging start, we had terrible weather and we had problems with the time-keeping, even the great Aachen had challenges.”

A horse died and the organizers  said never again Endurance at Aachen…

“Exactly. I was part of it there, and I know that organizing Endurance is the most difficult but it is too easy, now, because this went wrong to simply say, we’ll kick it out, then everything is fine. I don’t have a clear answer from my point of view, today because it wouldn’t be fair to decide this while we are still at the Games and focusing on the Games and getting our teams to the finish.”

Do you think we might alter the eventing format to a CIC?

“That’s possible, that for me is a detail and there are people who like the format as we have it, there are people who are in favor of having the cross country last. Both have good reasons for their opinion. We are talking here about the philosophy of WEG, changing the eventing format doesn’t change the philosophy. I’m quite open minded about this question, it’s something for the technical specialists to decide. ”

One of the stars in the eventing at Tryon, Andrew Hoy and Vassily de Lassos

A lot of the world’s top showjumpers said they couldn’t come here because they didn’t think their horses could cope with a five day format, is it time to go to a simple Nations Cup then rest day, then Grand Prix?

“I have actually not heard a rider saying this. We had discussions in the past that the format was too long. We know that some people aren’t here but for me, there’s another reason than having to have the horses compete four days. It is because they want to use the horses in other events, fair enough, everyone has to make their own decision but we shouldn’t pretend that it is because the format is too difficult – we have always had it and now it is even shorter because we don’t have the final four any more. We knew it was too demanding. There was the question, should we scratch the Table C in the very beginning or the Final Four, and in the end, the vote was to scratch the final four. It is shorter now, and I think top horses should be able to do this. If they make another decision for another reason, fine, but they should say what it really is.”

No problems with the format for gold medallists, Simone Blum and DSP Alice…

The temperature for this WEG was too hot. I was told by one of the people who works here, that in two weeks time, it would be much cooler, nicer. Why are we wedded to holding the WEG in August / September, why not October?

“I can’t tell you. Normally it would have been in August but because of the climate it was postponed four weeks. It is still very very warm, we have climatic conditions that are very comparable to what we had in Hong Kong, Rio was not as humid but it was hot… I’m sure it might have helped here to go later in the season at the beginning of October. This would have affected the calendar of the first indoor shows but now in the middle of September, it affects the calendar of the last outdoor shows. There is always someone affected and I cannot tell you why it was not put to October.”

In principle there is no reason it can’t be held later?

“Maybe there is, but I don’t know it.”

So there we are. Have I attended the last WEG? I think I probably have, and despite the hassles at Tryon, I leave with some fond memories – great competition, and wonderful friendly people. There was none of the don’t go here, you can’t do that, officiousness that seems to come with any sort of offical job, it was smiles all round, and the organizers were a bit like that. Instead of pretending that it was all great and that criticism was unreasonable, they smiled, admitted their problems and tried very hard to fix them. It certainly won’t go down as the worst WEG of them all…