What Happened at the 2018 WEG Endurance Championship?

Thehorse.com - Full Article

The ill-fated WEG endurance competition was abandoned amid delays, disruptions, and dangerous heat. Here’s a look back at what went wrong.

Posted by Jennifer O. Bryant | Sep 25, 2018

Medals in each of the Fédération Equestre Internationale’s (FEI) eight disciplines are awarded at the 2018 World Equestrian Games (WEG), which wrapped up at the Tryon International Equestrian Center, in Mill Spring, North Carolina, over the weekend.

Make that seven disciplines.

The very first competition to get underway at the FEI WEG Tryon 2018 on Sept. 12, endurance, suffered delays and chaos at the start, was hastily revamped into a shortened version of the race, and, within hours, was canceled altogether.

Officials with the FEI cited three primary reasons for the cancellation:

A sudden brief downpour that made the Blue Ridge Mountain foothills of North Carolina feel like a torrid jungle after Mother Nature turned off the spigot and the late-summer sun emerged with a vengeance;
An unusually high number of horses exhibiting signs of metabolic issues; and
Deteriorated footing conditions on the trail following the rainstorm that required even more exertion from the endurance horses...

Read more here:
https://thehorse.com/160866/what-happened-at-the-2018-weg-endurance-championship/

Looking past the ‘chaos in Tryon’

TryonDailyBulletin.com - Full Article

By Ted Yoakum
Published 3:42 pm Monday, September 24, 2018

Despite WEG setbacks, TIEC leaders pushing forward with vision

MILL SPRING — While taking responsibility for the setbacks that have made headlines over the past several weeks, Tryon International Equestrian Center’s Mark Bellissimo is hoping that people will remember the 2018 World Equestrian Games for its positives, rather than its negatives.

A few days before the international sporting event’s final day of competition on Sunday at the Mill Spring facility, Bellissimo, the managing partner with Tryon Equestrian Partners, fielded questions from the press during a special media cocktail hour Friday evening. The equestrian business mogul addressed the issues that have surrounded WEG and TIEC over the past several weeks, while also expressing optimism for the future of the facility and its planned residential expansion project.

WEG — organized by TIEC and international equestrian sport governing body Fédération Equestre Internationale — ran from Sept. 11 to Sunday at TIEC. The event drew equestrian athletes and horses from nearly 70 nations — who competed in eight different disciplines for both team and individual awards — as well as thousands of international spectators to the rural community.

The event was rife with setbacks from the beginning, however, including issues with inadequate housing for grooms (attendants responsible for the care of horses), the cancelation of the endurance race and the freestyle dressage competition, and the death of two horses following competitions. Adverse weather stemming from Hurricane Florence also caused a dip in attendance, Bellissimo said...

Read more here:
https://www.tryondailybulletin.com/2018/09/24/looking-past-the-chaos-in-tryon/

Should Tryon Ever Be Allowed to Try Again?

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

Cuckson Report | September 24, 2018

Over the past 12 years I have written six lengthy pieces for various publications asking “what is the point of the World Equestrian Games (WEG)?” Anyone over 50 will recall the kudos and success of single-discipline world championships that were the norm till 1986.The first WEG, Stockholm 1990, was only ever meant to be a one-off.

I have never really understood who the all-eight-sports-in-one-basket format is aimed at. Why do so many promoters assume that anything with a horse in it is of automatic, overwhelming interest to all? Most people like music, too, but show me a successful international festival with classical, jazz, country, hip hop, opera and rock all on the same bill! Even the FEI didn’t have figures available for spectators attending two or more disciplines till we got past WEG number three. I recall asking for them several times.

Yet whenever anyone has queried the validity of WEG, the FEI has firmly stated it’s by far the best way to showcase elite sport and that everyone likes it. This remained the stance even after it was common knowledge that WEG is a licence to shell out millions in unrecoverable cash.

Nowadays, experienced organisers would rather pull out their own fingernails than be lumbered with WEG. The FEI will allocate WEG to the last man standing rather than admit it isn’t a goer. At least twice the FEI has failed to ask governments direct if they are supporting the bidder – presumably for fear of hearing something it doesn’t want to know.

Ironic then, that just now we’ve found an Organizing Committee (OC) keen to repeat the WEG in, say, eight years’ time, the FEI has decided to re-evaluate the whole concept and contemplate breaking it up into more sustainable components. FEI president Ingmar de Vos said this at two press conferences this past fortnight. This significant shift was noted by just about everyone apart from the Tryon OC, which has the hide of a rhinoceros...

Read more here:
https://horse-canada.com/cuckson-report/tryon-allowed-try/

‘We made a ton of mistakes’ admits WEG boss

Horseandhound.co.uk - Full Article

Eleanor Jones
18:48 - 24 September, 2018

“We made a ton of mistakes,” the boss of Tryon has conceded, but he is “unbelievably proud” of what has been accomplished at the World Equestrian Games (WEG) venue.

Mark Bellissimo, of Tryon Equestrian Partners, spoke to reporters at WEG on Saturday (22 September).

He spoke of the challenges faced by the venue, which had had less than two years to prepare for the Games, having stepped in when original hosts Bromont, Canada, pulled out.

“I’m so very proud of all the things that have happened in the last two weeks with the exception of the things we started on [early problems such as with grooms’ accommodation] I take responsibility for, I made mistakes along the way,” he said.

“If that’s what’s remembered about this WEG then shame on me, shame on all of us, as I think what we’ve seen is probably some of the best sport WEGs have had.

“All the people who said this would never be done: they were wrong. What’s most important to me is that we’ve stepped up in difficult circumstances and did our best. It wasn’t perfect but perfect is the enemy of the good. We accept the fact we’re human and we make mistakes but in the end they’ll hopefully become afterthoughts...”

Read more at https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/made-ton-mistakes-admits-weg-boss-665923#yF8e84558oeDRZGM.99

World Equestrian Games over but Bellissimo back in saddle

Reuters.com - Full Article

September 24 2018
Steve Keating

TRYON, North Carolina (Reuters) - Mark Bellissimo, the man who brought the FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG) to this bucolic corner of recession ravaged North Carolina is widely viewed as a savior for bringing jobs and hope to the depressed region.

Not so says Bellissimo, deferring to an elderly employee who works in one of the sprawling facility’s kitchens who has apparently taken credit.

“I interact a lot with our staff and a woman who is our baker, she comes up to me and says, ‘I just want you to know I am responsible for the success of Tryon’,” Bellissimo told Reuters.

“I said, thank you and I would love to hear more and she said, ‘eight years ago I prayed that someone would rescue this community, someone with a million dollars and you came and it is because of me’.”

Situated in the U.S. bible belt, all this would seem a very plausible explanation for an equestrian Taj Mahal popping up under the gaze of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

What is not plausible is that Bellissimo rode to the rescue with a million dollars.

To get the Tryon International Equestrian Center (TIEC) ready for the WEG, Bellissimo and his partners pumped more than $200 million into the effort.

By the end of the year that number will rise to $250 million as he pushes ahead with plans to make the TIEC the world’s premiere equestrian lifestyle destination...

Read more here:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-equestrian-world-bellissimo-idUSKCN1M41D2

South Africa: TZANEEN: A case of the tortoise and the hare

LetabaHerald.co.za - Full Article

The approach was quite different from other events, where speed is usually essential. It was a definitely a case of ‘slow and steady wins the race’.

24 September 2018

The Letaba Endurance Riding Club (Letaba Uithourit Klub) organised a horse riding endurance event in Mokopane on September 8 and 9. Many local riders hooked up their trailers and headed across to take on competitors from far and wide.

A total of 55 entries were received which included riders from Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Gauteng .

Competitors had a choice between a 80 km or 120 km endurance rides which catered for different aged groups.

For the not so brave, both 16 km and 40 km fun courses were on offer...

Read more here:
https://letabaherald.co.za/56747/tzaneen-case-tortoise-hare/

Polish National Championship at Dolina Gawora

Endurance-world.com - Full Article

15 September 2018
Race Report made with the assistance of Michal Tul and Dustin Jerominek

Dolina Gawora, Malichow, Dobrodzien, Poland. Friday –Saturday 31 August – 1 September 2018. For the third time in a row, Dolina Gawora hosted the Polish National Championship for CEI2* 120km and CEIYJ1* 80km.

Once again Dolina Gawora hosted the biggest international endurance competition this year in Poland with riders from Czech Republic, and for the first time from Lithuania and Finland, 61 combinations in total.

The first start was given early morning on Saturday. The longest distance started at 06:30. This year the competition was a little bit easier compared with the previous year. The morning was very cloudy. Riders started in temperatures of about 17 degrees Celsius, but in later hours the sun showed up and it was beautiful weather. Due to the good conditions of the tracks, riders had a chance to end the competition with excellent results.

The most important category was CEI2* 120 km. Within this category there was also the race for Polish National Chamionship with 12 entries. Rivalry from the beginning was led by two competitors – Tanja Turunen – FIN (Kuvaharjun Valedro) and Ryszard Zieliński – POL (Odwet)...

Read more here:
http://endurance-world.com/polish-national-championship-at-dolina-gawora/