A Perfect Storm

WEG dressage freestyle cancelled

 

A too-brief shining moment: Team USA's Kasey Perry-Glass, Laura Graves, Steffen Peters, and Adrienne Lyle take a lap of honor after winning the silver medal in the 2018 WEG dressage competition. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

It’s a desperately sad break for FEI World Equestrian Games Tryon 2018 dressage spectators, Tryon WEG organizers, all of the participating nations, and the horses, riders, and supporters who worked so hard to get here: The WEG Grand Prix Freestyle, which was scheduled for tomorrow, has been canceled. It will not be rescheduled.

In an extreme stroke of bad luck, the worst of Tropical Storm Florence is scheduled to arrive tonight in the area of the Tryon International Equestrian Center, and Florence is expected to hang around tomorrow, bringing rain and high winds to western North Carolina. Speculation about the fate of the dressage freestyle has been running rampant for days. As of yesterday we were hopeful that the competition could be rescheduled for Monday, which is supposed to be the “dark day” of no competition between the two weeks of the WEG. But the dressage horses are supposed to fly out Monday, and this afternoon the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) confirmed that the freestyle is not to be. 

Here is the text of the FEI’s statement announcing the cancellation:

Following yesterday’s announcement of the intention to hold the Helgstrand Dressage Freestyle competition on Monday morning due to extreme rainfall forecast for Sunday’s original time slot of 8.30am, further discussions have been taking place to review the options available to reschedule.

Despite the best efforts of the whole Tryon 2018 team and the Officials, who have been working on plans for rescheduling since yesterday evening, including meetings with the Chefs de Mission and Chefs d’Equipe, the logistics of putting all necessary elements into place in time have proved insurmountable. As a result, and very regrettably, the Dressage Freestyle will now be cancelled.

“This was not an easy decision, but we have explored every option, including trying to reschedule the horse departures, and even looking at moving the competition into the indoor with a change of footing, but the logistics of making all this happen are just not possible,” Tryon 2018 Organising Committee President Michael Stone said.

“We know this is desperately disappointing for the 15 athletes who had qualified their horses for the Freestyle, and of course for all the spectators who had bought tickets, but the weather has simply left us with no choice. Horse welfare has to be the top priority and flying the horses out on the same day as competition doesn’t work, so sadly the decision to cancel the Freestyle had to be taken.”

“Although we are devastated that this decision has had to be taken, we’ve had two absolutely world-class competitions here at Tryon, including yesterday’s Grand Prix Special, and to see Germany’s Isabell Werth and Bella Rose taking double gold and Team USA claiming silver was a real treat for Dressage fans.”

The decision does not affect the Olympic qualification process, as this was completed on Thursday. The teams that have earned their ticket to Tokyo 2020 are Germany, USA, Great Britain, Sweden, Netherlands and Spain.