Dressage-News

LEXINGTON, Kentucky, April 18, 2020–The number of scores required to qualify for the U.S. Festival of Champions, young and developing horse finals and North American Youth Championships of juniors and young riders has been cut sharply as the competition schedule has been decimated by the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. Equestrian Federation announced the sharp cuts for combinations for most of the seven festival classes–from children up to Grand Prix–will require only one qualifying score instead of two or three as initially set for the levels.

Similar changes were made for young and developing horse championships as well as for the North American Youth Championships of team and individual competitions representing different regions in the United States and Canada. The Canadian federation makes decisions on qualifying for Canadian teams.

The North American Youth Championships are scheduled for Traverse City, Michigan Aug. 4-9 and the Festival of Champions in the Chicago suburb of Wayne two weeks later.

The U.S. federation has held off making a final decision on whether to go ahead with the championships as the virus has more than 700,000 confirmed cases in the U.S. and, according to the closely followed Johns Hopkins University’s global tally, continues to increase.

Only one CDI, a 2* plus junior and young rider events, at Sacramento, California remains on the calendar before the end of qualifying July 27, but several national level qualifying events are still listed throughout the country in which combinations can seek to qualify for the youth championships.

Both international and national competitions are suspended for at least the next two weeks, and longer in some countries. Suspension of competitions were imposed in mid-March, typically for a month but have since been extended, often by government decree.