There will be no crowds at Luhmuhlen in June but Germany is back in business
New Zealand may have lifted all restrictions, Australia is looking at its first event in July and British Eventing is also hoping to be underway in early July but it is the USA and Germany that have been the trailblazers in the sport's resumption
The USA kicked off the first eventing competitions in a Covid-19 world last weekend with three events running at River Glen in New Market, Tennessee, Feather Creek in Norman, Oklahoma, and Plantation Field in Unionville, Pennsylvania.
The USEA was on the ground at Plantation Field, which ran Beginner Novice through Intermediate levels with Intermediate, Preliminary, and Open Training all running as one-day events on Friday and the remaining Training divisions, Novice, and Beginner Novice following suit on Saturday. They reported that ‘From contactless packet pick-up and temperature checks at the entrance to drive-thru fence judge orientation, there were plenty of changes to be seen around the event designed to keep competitors, staff, and volunteers safe’
“We knew we had to get this right and we had to do it in a way that people outside the eventing world could see that this is a no-contact sport where we can maintain social distance,” said Mary Coldren, Plantation Field’s event organiser.
“It was important to us to show that this can be done in a way that follows CDC guidelines and hopefully it will benefit other events for the rest of the season. I sent an email to the competitors last week that said, ‘All eyes are on us. This will not look like pictures you see at the beach. We are going to wear masks and we are going to social distance. We’re going to do this right.’”
Germany too has started competition with small events already having taken place in the past two weeks and this week sees CCI2*-S, CCI2*-L, CCI3*-S classes underway at Westerstede, the venue for the 2019 European Cup
The CCI3*-S at Luhmuhlen is also scheduled to go ahead on 27th & 28th June
Looks like we’ll have some event reports for you soon, in some shape or form!
