Rocky Mountain Show Jumping has announced the cancellation of this year’s Royal West show jumping tournament, which was scheduled for October.
The show, which debuted in 2014 at Calgary’s Stampede Park, was established by John Anderson’s Rocky Mountain Show Jumping (RMSJ) as an opportunity for riders to compete at another major indoor tournament in Canada, and to give his team experience hosting a large scale event at an indoor city venue.
“We have had such incredible support for the event in the past five years, especially for our FEI divisions,” said Anderson. “We consistently had over 30 riders compete in almost all of the ranking classes, which speaks volumes to the success of the event.
“We have a great team here at RMSJ, but it is a small team, and Royal West is a huge annual commitment.”
He added, “Most of you know that my father’s health was deteriorating rapidly when we announced Royal West, and one month prior to the 2015 event, he passed away. I’ve never really had the opportunity to sit back personally and reflect upon what he has done to help me to be able to contribute to the growth of the equine industry in Canada. I want to take that time, and am going to do it this fall.”
Anderson said that during the break, RMSJ will take the “time, money and effort, to keep on with the development of the RMSJ facility.
“We, as a team, have aspirations at some point in the future to apply to bring the World Cup Finals to Canada, and wanted to gain experience in putting together a major event in a short time span. Royal West helped us achieve this goal, and we are 100 per cent confident that we could pull of the task if and when we make and are successful with a bid to host the finals.”
More from Horse Sport:
