After 25 years of hosting dressage shows in Ontario, John Taylor and Barbara Mitchell have announced that they will no longer host the CornerStone Dressage shows held at Caledon Equestrian Park in Palgrave.
In a letter to supporters, the couple wrote:
After 25 years of hosting Dressage shows we have decided it is a good time to hang up our hats! Entries are down and expenses are up making the shows very difficult to run. We would like to thank our many sponsors, officials, volunteers and staff for 25 years of fabulous service. Many thanks to the competitors who supported us over the course of 25 years. Our thanks to Equestrian Management Group and Craig Collins for being such cooperative and helpful landlords at the park.
Thanks for coming down the centre line with us but now we are at X – we halt and salute you … and you know the rest!
Good luck to all our Dressage friends!
Married in 1992, the pair leased Leitchcroft in Thornhill, Ontario, the same year and were immediately recruited to host the dressage Olympic trials. JT had some experience in eventing and Barbara in the hunter/jumper world, but together they quickly figured out how to set up a dressage ring. “I didn’t even know where the letters went,” laughed Barbara. Four years later the show moved to Palgrave, Ontario, where it has been hosted ever since.
The couple were disappointed that declining entries had made the difficult task of organizing the event even more challenging. In earlier years, their gold level shows would attract over 250 entries, but participation has waned and the past three years the show wasn’t able to attract 150 gold competitors. The less-expensive bronze level competition was added to help defray the costs of running their shows.
The couple had invested heavily in order to host FEI-rated CDIs for local riders. International events cost about $55k more than a national show to run, but Barbara and JT felt it was important to have such events to encourage local participants. The CDI they hosted in May 2015, prior to the Pan American Games at the venue, however, only managed to attract 29 entries. Many other shows are suffering similar issues with depressed entries, particularly after the launch of the Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Florida.
Olympian Jacqueline Brooks, who competed at the venue for many years, commented, “While I was of course saddened to hear about the end of the era of CornerStone Dressage, I think a 25-year commitment to our sport is something we should be celebrating. JT and Barbara have supported our local dressage growth, while also supporting our world-class athletes. You always knew their shows would give you opportunity to introduce a new horse or rider to the sport and allow you to polish a Grand Prix freestyle on the same day at the same venue.”
Brooks stressed the value of local, accessible shows to the development of future generations of riders. “These types of shows are so important for the development of our athletes, both equine and human. If we don’t have local learning environments, our staircase to high performance is shattered. I, personally, cannot thank Barbara and JT enough for providing that staircase for me and my horses. I think if I totalled the number of centrelines I have cantered down at all levels at their shows, the number would be staggering!
“Without this staircase, taking a young horse or a young rider up the levels to high performance will become even more expensive and out of reach due to the increased cost of travel. For the amateur who enjoys a weekend out and also supports most of the businesses of the high performance rider, it will mean the same financial decisions. Fewer shows entered due to the increased expense of travel, and the spiral continues to lower entries.”
Regarding why there are fewer participants these days, Brooks offered, “Of course the finger always points directly to cost. It is becoming so expensive to host shows that it is less affordable to the athletes. And that extends beyond the show ring; caring for and training a dressage horse has become a monumental expense as well.”
Brooks has a deep well of fond recollections of the CornerStone shows. “I have so many memories of CornerStone, but my first Grand Prixs with Finnegan definitely are etched in stone in my mind. He travelled Barbara and JT’s staircase from Basic One up to Grand Prix CDI’s. And I am honoured that D-Niro is the final CornerStone Dressage Grand Prix Champion.”
Barbara concluded, “It’s bittersweet. We enjoyed the shows and made fabulous life-long friends, but it was time. We were down 30% from two or three years ago and that, combined with age and health and the timing with our anniversary ‒ it just seemed like a good time to call it a day.”
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