Why the US shouldn’t host the FEI World Equestrian Games
In 2010, the Kentucky Horse Park was chosen to host the first ever FEI
World Equestrian Games in the US. It was a huge landmark event, and American
horsemen flocked to it in droves.
It was, to be blunt, excrutiating. Not the horse events, mind you. No,
it was the tsunami of relentless, ubiquitous and obnoxious advertising by
Alltech.
The fact that this was the FEI’s World Equestrian Games was almost lost
in the flood of Alltech advertising. It was, in reality, The Alltech Games.
You could not do a thing without seeing, hearing or having Alltech
advertising in your face. A plane circled the Park every single day, all day
long, towing a gigantic banner with the words Alltech on it. It was so low
that, during the Dressage tests, the audience was silent...but the plane droned
and droned and DRONED overhead.
Everything had the Alltech brand on it. Shirts, hats, horse blankets,
you name it. They had an entire tent...a gigantic one..filled with nothing but
Alltech stuff.
A year before the Games, Alltech put out a request for volunteers to
‘help’. I did, and was accepted as a scribe for MY veterinarian who was going
to serve (and paid) to be one of the Endurance ride vet checks. I even got an
official Acceptance from Alltech as a scribe. I was assured I’d have a place to
stay during my work as a scribe, and that they’d contact me ‘soon’ with more
details.
But months went by, without another word from Alltech. I emailed, I
called (and got a ‘this number has been disconnected” ) without any luck. One
month beforehand, I, using a phone number my vet had, managed to contact
someone at Alltech regarding my acceptance email. First, she snapped, "how did
you get this number." When I told her I was going to be working with my veterinarian, she was very pissed, and proceeded to tell
me that there was ‘no record’ of my being accepted as a scribing volunteer. Somehow,
my acceptance letter had disappeared into the internet black hole.
Wisely, I’d made other arrangements..to go as a spectator, not as a
volunteer. I went with 7 other women. We got our tickets, rental cars and motel
rooms arranged. Had I not done that, I would never have gotten the tix, nor the
motel rooms. Those were booked or snapped up within days of the tickets going
on sale.
BUT!
Within days of that call, I received an email from Alltech, saying that
I HAD, actually, been accepted as a volunteer, and they really, really wanted
my free labor.
But not doing what I wanted to do.
No, they bamboozled me and many,
MANY other horsemen into doing the shitty jobs, the dirty jobs, the Nothing to
do with Horses jobs that Alltech didn’t want to pay a company to do.
Tasks like recharging portapotties with toilet paper. Handing out maps.
Picking up garbage and trash, bussing tables, standing guard -they had a lot of people doing guard duty-at the entrance to
the stadium or the cross country course. Jobs like managing the parking, the
bus station, jobs that needed to be done but Alltech didn’t want to pay a
company to do it. No, the hoodwinked volunteer did that. I talked to a few of
them. They were, by the way, told not to answer questions about Alltech’s bait
and switch tactics. Nevertheless, they did. One woman told me “If I’d known I’d
be stuck refilling the portapotties with toilet paper I would NEVER have
volunteered.”
The volunteer was given an Official Alltech fanny pack with a box lunch
(Alltech logo prominently displayed) consisting of a white bread sandwich, an
oatmeal cookie, and a bottle of water. For an entire day of work.
If you happened to be actually working in the competition arena, (for
instance, showing people where their bleacher seats were), you were allowed in
to that venue ONLY. You weren’t allowed to WATCH. Should you want to see
anything else in the Games, you had to buy the tickets for it, just like
everyone else.
No free parking was given to the volunteer, and despite the original
assurances that you’d have a place to stay, no accommodations (i.e. motel room)
were provided.
The most onerous of Alltech’s disgusting advertising onslaught was at
the main entry gate.
Well, let me back up.
Alltech provided A food court. The tables were few, especially
considering that the average daily attendance was in the thousands. The
culinary choices were typical horse show food: pop, mystery meat hamburgers and
bubble gum pink hot dogs, all horribly over-priced. I purchased a plastic box
(with a plastic fork) of wilted lettuce with one half frozen cherry tomato and a
slice of soft cucumber, accompanied by a tiny packet of industrial grade raunchy
I mean ranch dressing. I think it was supposed to be ranch, anyway. Price:
$9.50, tax not included. A bag of M&M’s was $4.50.
Oh, I could have paid $35 to enter the VIP tent where real meals were
served...but that was just to enter the tent and sit down, I’m told. But the
hours were unrealistic and the food smelled no better outside the tent than in
the ‘food court’.
Alltech wasn’t done gouging. If you were wearing a shirt or cap that had
the logo of a company NOT Alltech but horse related, you were told to remove
it. Even the vendors for things like riding boots and saddles were discouraged
from displaying any form of advertising if it didn’t say Alltech.
That still wasn’t good enough for Alltech. They had Gate Nazis. I don’t
believe they were volunteers. The Gate Nazis INSPECTED your bags...for food.
They didn’t want you bringing in so much as a peanut butter sandwich. One woman said, “I can’t believe Alltech has this
World Class Event and is feeding horse show food.”
But they were. One of the friends I went with made the mistake of having
a bag of potato chips in her bag.
The Gate Nazis took it. They literally confiscated it and did not re-imburse
her for it. I’m surprised they let her
in, but she DID have a ticket.
They even gave me a hard time over a Nalgene water bottle I carried in. The
gate Nazi asked me what was in the bottle. I said “Water” and looked her dead
in the eye, daring her to take it from me. She backed down, but still... it
rankled. Yet I sure in hell wouldn’t have wanted to do that job. I am truly
astonished that they didn’t frisk us. I think the only reason they didn’t is
that it would have held up the lines of people wanting in.
So from then on, we hid our lunches on our person. Before we went
through the gate, I carried four Subway sandwiches (only one was mine)
underneath my sweatshirt. All of the rest of my friends did the same. Between
us, we all managed to carry in chips, sandwiches and snacks, food that was much better and that we’d bought outside
of the park, at much more reasonable prices.
Now fast forward to today, 11 Sep 18. (let me pause here for just a
moment. :-(
The 2018 Games are being held in a little town in North Carolina called
Tryon.
The grounds are owned by someone named Bellisimo. He promised great
things but in reality, never gave a thought to the support staff of the various
countries sending teams.
For instance: this World Class Event, only the second to ever be held in
the US, made sure that the riders had motel accommodations. But the grooms?
Well, Bellisimo-if he thought about them at all, decided at the last
minute to put the grooms up in TENTS. Big tents, similar to those used by the
Army. In the tents are bunk beds.
 |
| Snipped from Horse and Hound online magazine, 10 Sep 18 |
I spent too many years in the Army to say that tents are suitable
accommodation. In a war, they’re better than sleeping in the rain, but in a
world class athletic event? Nope. Imagine, if you can, the stink that would be
raised if someone here in the US said, hey, we’ll host the Olympics and the
athletes can sleep in tents!!
Bunk beds are not suitable for grown-ups. These tents, from what I
understand, have no air conditioning (a necessity in the Southeast). Bathrooms?
Nope. Showers? Nope.No place to store your clothing, your wallet, your passport, nothing. Not a bit of privacy. This looks like something out of the 1940's open bay Basic Training.
Maybe the grooms can bathe underneath a garden hose?
Nor are tents suitable for the people who traveled half way around the
world, to care for the very animals that are the whole reason for the Games:
the horses. Most of the horses are worth
thousands of dollars and who, overall, make an awful lot of money for the FEI.
No, the tents were an afterthought. Someone said to Bellisimo, um, where
are the grooms going to sleep? And he said, “Grooms? You mean like at a
wedding?” That’s about as far as he went, I suppose.
If you’ve have never been to North Carolina, I (having been stationed
there for three long, miserable years) can tell you, it’s not a very nice place
to live. It is humid...100%, usually, hot, and mosquito filled. The grass is
full of chiggers and the trees are full of ticks. The water is horrible
tasting. But somehow, the FEI thought this was a suitable place for the Games.
Although I think it may be due to a last minute thing. I believe I heard
that Montreal, Canada backed out of hosting the Games at the last second,
leaving the FEI scrambling for another venue in which to hold them.
Let’s also consider that at this moment, a Category 5 hurricane,
Hurricane Florence, is headed for the North Carolina/South Carolina coast. She
is packing winds of 140 mph.
Once she makes landfall, after tearing the coastal cities to shreds,
will trek inland and dump FEET of water in torrential downpours.
If the winds don’t tear down the tents, the barns and the grounds, the
flooding will. Both states are putting out evacuation orders...and where will
those people go? Inland.
Once the hurricane hits, even if the winds don’t hurt the tents, the
water will do what it always does: destroy the power lines. Flood roads, bring
down hillsides, tear out bridges, strand living things on tiny islands, bring
in torrents of filthy water carrying dead animals, floating sewage, wreckage of
houses, terrified cats and drowning dogs, tossing cars atop
houses, into people, uprooted trees carried like battering rams...
What happens when the rain drowns the grounds? All the hay, the bedding,
the horse trailers, all flooded? The arenas, hock deep in water? No power, no
water, no way out? It’s going to be a dreadful mess.
What to do? Honestly, the thing to do is to cancel the games, take the
horses farther inland...like to Colorado, evacuate the area and refund the
money for the tickets.
That’s the smart thing to do but I admit it’s infeasible and once rich
men have money in their wallets, they sure in hell don’t ever give it back.
But also, honestly, the thing to do is, I’m sorry to say, cancel the
concept of the Games altogether...or keep it in Europe.
Americans have proven they cannot do it right. First, with Alltechs all
consuming advertising, so bad that is was really the Alltech Games, not the
FEI and a coalition of riders from all over the planet, and now, with lousy
planning and a refusal to accept that grooms are people, too as a background to
the very real possibility of lives being lost in Tryon’s upcoming
flooding...no, we just aren’t up to it. There’s just too much fixation on how
much money can a few rich men make rather than it hosting a showcase of
international horsemanship.
