I have recently been told that our show managers are feeling very stressed by what they feel are unfair rules being applied to them as well as all nations, regardless of the strength of the sport in their respective countries. The costs of putting on FEI recognised competitions, they feel, is extremely prohibitive. while I completely understand their feelings, I believe American show managers need to get together, form an organization which they can bring their collective experience, energy, and talents to, and figure out a way to create a model which raises the bar for all recognised shows.I know that I am going to take considerable heat for saying this but here are my reasons.

Our shows were actually more exciting and had greater prize money in the biggest classes back in the early 80’s. That is a very sad commentary on how the sport has evolved in the U.S.  The early 80’s saw the beginning of the Florida dressage circuit and show managers trying to entice northerners to make a major life change and head south for the winter. They did this by creating high-profile shows with lots of prize money and very fun parties full of pomp and circumstance. And not only did it work but then the show managers found themselves actually competing with each other to make a better show to lure the top riders to. We even had quite a few top Europeans spend full winter seasons, believing they could enjoy the great weather, ride in some very nice shows, and sell their mounts to Americans before returning home with lots of U.S. dollars in their pockets. Everyone had fun and Dressage bloomed until the mid- nineties when things began to change.

Sponsors were still giving money for dressage but show managers, I believe, had learned a formula of running our shows. They figured out that, especially in competitions that were qualifiers for teams, they would get large numbers of our best riders, regardless of whether or not they offered prize money at all. Slowly the bar began to drop and even our top U.S. shows have not increased their prize money; if anything, even they have reduced it. And since it did not require huge amounts of resources to put on shows, we began to see more of them, allowing riders to pick and choose between them and thereby lowering the number of top riders and horses one would see at any given competition. Now we have major CDI’s where there might be no more than 8 or 9 Grand Prix riders in a class, which is very sad for the shows, the sponsors, the vendors, and the spectators.

So I say we have to raise the bar! We need to look at the model already existing for the huntger-jumper industry in which all major competitions have prize money for all top classes. They need to or else the riders would just go elsewhere to find better shows with more money offered. I say that if a show wants to be recognised by the USEF, all FEI classes must have substantial prize money offered. And if they want to hold champioship classes or CDI’s, they will need to have a minimum in all GP classes of $10,000 for 1 star and go up to $25,000 for 3 stars and so on. We need to see more classes like the upcoming Masters Class which will offer $115,000 and we will see a new resuurgence of our sport.

Why you ask am I so sure of that? The top money classes will bring top riders from all around the world to our shows. When top riders come, so come the spectators to watch them, and where great numbers of spectators abound, so come the vendors to sell them their wares. Great numbers of vendors relate to greater sponsorships at shows and this brings more money back to he managers. Look at any great European show, but even better, look at Spruce Meadows. Who would have thought that a competition in Canada could rival even the grandest of European shows in every sense of the word. The key is in the prize money!

Our show managers need to get together and figure out an approach to pool their resources and find one or preferably several new major sponsors like Rolex has been for so long. It is not enough to wish one might come along while our shows remain dismal- we need to mandate that they do something about it if they want to remain sanctioned. I guarantee you that, just like many of the same managers find a way to sponsor their hunter-jumper classes, they will find a way to do the same for dressage.

Posted: Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Filed under: Dressage, Everything Horsey, FEI