Hi all! I’m back from my pre-WEG chill out and am excitedly counting down the 18 or so days until departure for La France. I came back from my break all bright eyed and bushy tailed, but my post-vacay energy bubble suffered a severe blow from an FEI press release that was lying in wait for me this morning. “Nominated entries confirm record number of nations for Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ 2014″ the headline shrieked at me. Reading on, I learned with growing trepidation that the ‘record entries’ previously reported by the FEI a couple of months ago have swelled to even greater numbers.
It’s all great and wonderful that the globalization of equestrian sport has brought so many nations to the biggest horse show in all of Creation. But I fear that there exists the possibility of too much of a good thing, such as too many bay dressage horses tracing the same path in the same sand hour, after hour, after hour. AFTER HOUR. Before all you bay owners start clacking angrily at your keyboards and accuse me of slagging the colour bay, I would like to stop you in your Konigs and mention that I currently own a bay dressage horse. I love bays. My Theo is an especially peanut buttery hue of that lovely colour, too. I adore all sorts of bays: bright, mahogany, dark, etc etc. But I have a vivid memory of my first WEG dressage experience in Jerez de la Frontera in 2002. By lunchtime of the first of two days of the team Grand Prix, my eyes were glazing over. It’s a lot even for an avid fan and follower like me to get through the entire team competition, and now it’s going to be longer than ever.
According to the FEI’s missive of today, there are no fewer than 25 countries with nominated dressage team entries, and six individuals from other countries. The expected number of competitors is listed at 103. Even if we don’t count the four or so minutes between each horse – because presumably we will be running to the toilette or for cafe au lait (extra shot please!) or checking our mobiles and not actually staring at the ring – at six minutes per test, that’s 618 minutes or just over ten hours of dressage. And I’ll bet you right now that well over half of the horses will be bay. They just will. There will be the odd stand-up-and-take-notice performance to wake us all up, and those will come fast and furious in the second half of day two. But I will be stocking up on Taurine pills to get through what is going to be a potentially grueling marathon of dressage.
Of course, all the disciplines will enjoy (if that is the right word) greater numbers of entries as well. A staggering 54 nations have nominated entries in the jumping, with 38 of them qualified with teams. 38! Show jumping is somewhat faster paced than dressage, but I still predict profound spectating exhaustion at the end of the first team rounds. The Eventing is a bit less insane with only 16 teams (only!). My fear with Eventing is always to see under-qualified riders and horses over-faced, a risk that only grows with the growing numbers of entries. But there isn’t a way around that particular problem until the FEI decides to get a bit stricter with the qualifications. Which leads me to my next point.
I can appreciate the FEI’s mandate to create as global an event as possible, but if they don’t exercise some discretion the whole thing will sag under its own weight like a Motel 6 mattress – to the point of not being fun to watch. Equestrian sport remains at best a ‘b’ list spectator sport in most of the world. A WEG with too many competitors, many of whom are not even close to being contenders, is in danger of turning off the aficionados among us, never mind the general populace. I know how much the FEI just loves getting advice from me, so here is today’s free tip: before 2018 rolls around, toss around the idea of stiffening the qualifications or imposing quotas. Otherwise diminishing returns may be in store for poor Bromont and those who might think twice about bidding for 2022.
See? Just like peanut butter.
