British Dressage Plans on Competition Schedules, Aiming for July 1 Re-Start
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May 7, 2020
British Dressage on Thursday issued an operational plan for a phased resumption of sporting activity that abandons this year’s summer season but hopes to begin winter qualifying July 1, all dependent on government-imposed restrictions.
The 12-page plan outlines four stages of ride, train, compete and qualify leading to full resumption of competition.
“Inevitably the summer season will have a very different look once competition resumes and riders should use competitions as a measure against their training progress, rather than a method of qualification, as championship opportunities will initially be limited as the sport builds back up to full strength,” BD said in a statement. “Unfortunately a large part of the qualifying period has been lost during the suspension period, resulting in the difficult decision to abandon the remainder of the 2020 summer season.”
Competitions and series cancelled include all remaining Premier League fixtures; summer regionals and national championships; summer area festivals and championships; young horse and pony qualifiers and semi-finals.
“On a more positive note, we still hope to be able to commence the winter qualifying season from 1 July 2020 onwards, providing restrictions have been sufficiently relaxed by that point,” it said.
Planned competition proposals:
–Completion of 2020 Winter Championship by splitting it into three smaller competitions-Winter National, Winter Music and Area Festival championships, if numbers permit;
–Mechanism to carry over full or part summer qualifications into the qualification period for the 2021 winter championships from July 1 to to Dec. 31, 2020;
–Replacement small, medium and big tour competitions at High Profile Shows and/or Premier League equivalent competitions, when restrictions allow;
–Alternative qualification structure and final for Young Horse and Pony Championships in 2020;
–One-off Under-25 British National Championships for Ponies, Juniors, Young Riders, Children on Horses and U25 Grand Prix, to take place before the end of the year;
–Equissage Summer Para Bronze and Silver Championships to continue in August, incorporating a rescheduled Gold Championships, with a revised qualification route;
–Eight Quest Regional Finals to remain in place as individual championships for each region, and
–Alternative mini-championships for all regions to encourage competition and participation.
