Equestrian FEI Eventing & Driving World Championships 2022

[dcro 10,210]

12 minutes ago, Rafa Maciel said:

Why would Brexit make GB Eventing stronger? 

GB traditionally has the strongest competition circuit. After Brexit the entry of horses became a bit of a logistic nightmare, so the amount of international (European mostly) riders attending these events has nosedived since.

[dcro 10,210]

Team standings after Day 1:

https://live.rechenstelle.de/2022/pratoni_09/nationcup01.html

 

In terms of Olympic qualification, my predictions have been spot on so far. Only Italy, now in 8th, is holding a ticket instead of Switzerland, but it's all marginal.

Ireland was a sad sight today. Wow. Looks like they went back to their traditional poor dressage, which was definitely not the case in 2018 when they picked up two silvers...

[JoshMartini007 2,538]

The three Group G nations are on pace for Olympic qualification. This opens up the F/G qualifier greatly. Europe is going to have another tough time qualifying.

[dcro 10,210]

 

[Rafa Maciel 1,594]

49 minutes ago, dcro said:

GB traditionally has the strongest competition circuit. After Brexit the entry of horses became a bit of a logistic nightmare, so the amount of international (European mostly) riders attending these events has nosedived since.

Whilst I don't disagree with your comments about the logistical challenge of post-Brexit I don't think it has had such a large impact on the volume of European competitors in British competitions.

 

The majority of international competitors in British competitions have, from what I can see, generally come from New Zealand, Australia and America. Part of the reason for this is that many of these international riders are based in UK. From European perspective, pre-Covid, Ireland and Sweden tended to make up the majority of European riders - Germany and to a lesser extent France didn't really take part in British competitions. 

 

Arguably, we're still seeing the impact of Covid unwinding as the equestrian calendar gets back to normal - historically you could travel to UK for 10-14 days and be able to compete in 2-3 high quality events but that is more difficult in 2022 as there are bigger gaps in the calendar still. 

[dcro 10,210]

28 minutes ago, Rafa Maciel said:

Whilst I don't disagree with your comments about the logistical challenge of post-Brexit I don't think it has had such a large impact on the volume of European competitors in British competitions.

 

The majority of international competitors in British competitions have, from what I can see, generally come from New Zealand, Australia and America. Part of the reason for this is that many of these international riders are based in UK. From European perspective, pre-Covid, Ireland and Sweden tended to make up the majority of European riders - Germany and to a lesser extent France didn't really take part in British competitions. 

 

Arguably, we're still seeing the impact of Covid unwinding as the equestrian calendar gets back to normal - historically you could travel to UK for 10-14 days and be able to compete in 2-3 high quality events but that is more difficult in 2022 as there are bigger gaps in the calendar still. 

Eventing is specific in that you can only really aim for one major competition in about 4-6 weeks. Even if you focus on the short format events, you still need 10 days between two cross-country completions in regards to welfare. So the gaps in a calendar are a fixture here.

 

British competitions have indeed been largely reduced to just domestic riders (Britons and internationals residing there, mainly from Australia, New Zealand and Japan), plus the usual dose of Americans who make the trip. The amount of riders from the continent has gone down, and that's across the board (in particular Germany and Sweden, but also Ireland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain).

Edited September 15, 2022 by dcro

[Nickyc707 382]

2 hours ago, dcro said:

Eventing is specific in that you can only really aim for one major competition in about 4-6 weeks. Even if you focus on the short format events, you still need 10 days between two cross-country completions in regards to welfare. So the gaps in a calendar are a fixture here.

 

British competitions have indeed been largely reduced to just domestic riders (Britons and internationals residing there, mainly from Australia, New Zealand and Japan), plus the usual dose of Americans who make the trip. The amount of riders from the continent has gone down, and that's across the board (in particular Germany and Sweden, but also Ireland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain).

First thing to say is the madness of Brexit hasn't made anything better but that's a political issue.

 

So far as eventing goes I don't see that it has been a positive for GB, rather its been neutral. Until the last twenty years or so continental riders didn't seem to compete in any depth in Britain even at events like Badminton and Burleigh. It was largely British riders in a sport in which we have great depth, together with riders from Ireland and Oceania. If it has had a negative impact on continental riders - and I don't know that it has - then I suppose that has benefited GB but I guess we"ll have to wait and see.

[Dragon 1,844]

3 hours ago, Rafa Maciel said:

Whilst I don't disagree with your comments about the logistical challenge of post-Brexit I don't think it has had such a large impact on the volume of European competitors in British competitions.

 

The majority of international competitors in British competitions have, from what I can see, generally come from New Zealand, Australia and America. Part of the reason for this is that many of these international riders are based in UK. From European perspective, pre-Covid, Ireland and Sweden tended to make up the majority of European riders - Germany and to a lesser extent France didn't really take part in British competitions. 

 

Arguably, we're still seeing the impact of Covid unwinding as the equestrian calendar gets back to normal - historically you could travel to UK for 10-14 days and be able to compete in 2-3 high quality events but that is more difficult in 2022 as there are bigger gaps in the calendar still. 

One thing you have to factor in is that it's now more difficult and expensive to import young horses into Britain from the rest of Europe.

Remember that only one of the horses competing this week was bred in the UK.

So that might be a negative in the future

[dcro 10,210]

5 minutes ago, Dragon said:

One thing you have to factor in is that it's now more difficult and expensive to import young horses into Britain from the rest of Europe.

Remember that only one of the horses competing this week was bred in the UK.

So that might be a negative in the future

In dressage there is an opposite issue. Competition is stronger on the continent so every now and then a news comes out about some British rider having to withdraw last minute after their horse got stuck at Calais or somewhere.

[Dragon 1,844]

5 minutes ago, dcro said:

In dressage there is an opposite issue. Competition is stronger on the continent so every now and then a news comes out about some British rider having to withdraw last minute after their horse got stuck at Calais or somewhere.

In case I didn't make it clear, I meant buying horses from the rest of Europe rather than just travelling.