Endurance competition cancelled at World Equestrian Games after problems on-site

“This was a difficult decision to make, but it was done with horse and athlete welfare in mind as the conditions this afternoon after the rain resulted in extremely high levels of humidity and, combined with rising heat, it was deemed unsafe to continue the ride,” said Thomas Timmons, President of the Veterinary Commission at the Tryon Games. Officials said the choice to end the race was made using a heat and humidity index which showed a measurement of 31, with anything above 25 requiring monitoring.

Still, despite the declared threat to horse welfare, there was criticism from athletes, team officials and outside observers, for example from countries such as France and Spain who were leading at the time. They argued that conditions were manageable, that their horses were fine, and that other factors were potentially influencing the decision.

“Today there were many organisational errors and a lack of oversight by the FEI,” said Sophie Dubourg, National Technical Director for the French team. As the situation unfolded, there were reportedly heated exchanges between athletes, support crews and officials, with police even called in. 

The race had earlier been re-started following misdirections given on the course, and the FEI said it had asked its independent Equestrian Community Integrity Unit (which is onsite at Tryon) to do “a full investigation into the circumstances that resulted in some horse/athlete combinations being misdirected. The investigation will include interviews with the officials, volunteers, Organising Committee and all other relevant personnel to provide a full picture of what happened. The findings will be presented to the FEI Bureau and the conclusions will then be made public.” 

Meanwhile, competitions in the other seven disciplines at the Games will take place over the next 10 days as officials monitor the evolving situation with Hurricane Florence. In Reining, Team medals were awarded Wednesday to the United States (gold), Belgium (silver) and Germany (bronze).