Bromont Horse Trials has announced their withdrawal from the FEI Eventing Nations Cup series for 2023 as they unable to field the required number of teams for the event set to run from 11th – 13th August.
The minimum requirements to run an Eventing Nations Cup is three teams participating and, with just days left to the entries deadline, only Canada and America had confirmed their participation.
Event organizer Sue Ockendon says that, while teams from Spain and Mexico had expressed interest, logistical issues relating to travel and quarantine were preventing their participation.
“We are obviously frustrated and incredibly disappointed after working so hard to provide the only North American leg of the series in 2022 and again this year,” says Sue Ockendon. “Our core focus at Bromont has always been to further the development of eventing in Canada and North America, in particular our Teams and Young Riders. We are still 110% committed to delivering a world-class event in 10 days’ time and have already started the application and approvals process to host a Nations Cup again in 2024. We want to thank the FEI, Equestrian Canada, the EC HPAG Eventing and those Government officials who left no stone unturned in our attempts for this year. In the end we have simply run out of time.”
Although the Nations Cup team competition will not run, the event will still take place, hosting CCI4*-S, CCI3*-S, CCIU253*-S, CCI2*-S, CCIU252*-S, EV110 and EV100 levels including a Team Challenge.
Many top riders are entered including American Olympian Boyd Martin with Tsetserleg and On Cue; Canadian Olympians Jessica Phoenix with Freedom GS and Watson GS and Colleen Loach with FE Golden Eye; Australian Ryan Wood with Cooley Flight, Great Britain’s Lucienne Bellissimo with Dari and Tremanton; Belgian Jan van Gysel with Eiffel de L’Abbaye and Spain’s Susana Tezanos-Moreno with French Kiss, with some using it as a lead-up competition to the Defender Burghley Horse Trials CCCI5* in September
Emily Gilbert, Chair of the EC High Performance Advisory Group, Eventing says that the event will still provide Canadian riders with experience and exposure in a team setting.
“The named riders for the Bromont Nations Cup Team will continue to receive the bursaries we dedicated to them, and the Riders will be led and supported by Chef D'Equipe and Technical Advisor, Rebecca Howard with additional support from Equestrian Canada High Performance in place.”
