When the team at World Equestrian Center heard that the historic Devon horse show was canceled, we spoke to Devon-qualified exhibitors and immediately began plans to host a ‘Devon’ concept show here at the World Equestrian Center in Ohio.
Our planning efforts included appealing to the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) for the approval of either an upgrade to our current license, or a special event license to host the concept show. Our team would need access to USEF qualifying lists so that we could properly begin to take applications and accept horses.
After numerous conversations with the USEF and our own extensive internal planning efforts, we were informed by the USEF that it could be May 5th before we would receive an answer as to whether this event was approved. Given the timeline of less than 21 days, it is simply not possible to properly plan a schedule and produce a horse show of Devon’s caliber.
We considered asking NSBA for the possibility of sanctioning this event, but would still have had no access to USEF qualifying lists to maintain the exclusivity and stature of the ‘Devon’ concept horse show. We also feel it would be against the standards of the NSBA to ask them to sanction this horse show while putting priority to those horses that carry USEF points. Unfortunately at this point we have exhausted every avenue with the timelines given to us to make the event happen for the Devon exhibitors.
The team at World Equestrian Center will continue our planning for the creation of new events such as a Devon Concept Horse Show for the future. We continue to wish our exhibitors a safe and successful 2021 competition season and stay tuned for some exciting announcements from the World Equestrian Center.