Bigger grandstand for World Equestrian Games rejected

There is no chance of extra tickets being released for eventing fans who have yet to secure seats for the dressage phase of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG) in Normandy (28-29 August), organisers told H&H.

The final tickets for this, the eventing showjumping and reining final sold out within hours on 4 March, first day of the third phase of sales (news, 13 March).

The dressage phase will be held at a temporary stadium at Haras du Pin national stud, which only has capacity for 5,000. It was planned to take place at the main D’Ornano stadium in Caen, which can hold 21,500.

But at the request of the FEI, it was relocated to where the cross-country takes place, for horse welfare and the convenience of riders and trainers.

At the last WEG, the eventing dressage took place in the main arena, but the venues were more centralised.

H&H asked organisers if there was a possibility of increasing the capacity of the temporary stands due to demand. But this has been ruled out due to logistics.

“It is in front of the beautiful castle and it is not possible to put in more seats,” said WEG’s Amélie Patrux. “We allocated tickets according to normal demand, and cross-country is usually most popular — for which there are still tickets available.”

Ms Patrux also stressed there were “a lot of seats for eventing dressage and jumping” when the final tickets were released, but that the majority for the general public were sold in November in “bundles”.

This article was first published in Horse & Hound magazine (20 March 2014)

Martha Terry

H&H features editor

Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on dogs of all shapes and sizes. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs, one a street dog from Gambia who was abandoned at three weeks old. Now, her constant companion, whether by her feet at her desk or walking cross-country courses, is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.