The FEI World Cup Jumping that I course designed last weekend at Thai Polo & Equestrian Club was more of a holiday than a real show. With four shows to come before the FEI Asian Equestrian Championships in December, Thailand has a surfeit of shows. Consequently entries were low as riders planned their path, careful not to over-show the horses.
Only six riders started the World Cup at Thai Polo. Sai Limpichati and her irrepressible Irregular Choice were the only clear rounds. Siengsaw and Courville L were the runners up. It was nice to see Akkara Konglapamnuay back riding World Cups again. He bagged third place. Here is my track (pic right).
If you think six starters is a small number of starters, consider this: at 1.45 m, it is still six more than we would have had in Malaysia if we held a World Cup here.
Malaysia doesn’t have the Thai problem of too many shows. Just the opposite. Yet, with only one other show in Ipoh before the year is out, riders still stayed away from the STCEC Horse Show, causing the organizers to pull the plug and cancel the show.
If shows can’t at least break even, don’t expect too many shows.
What are you going to do with your dressage and jumping horses then? Turn them into endurance horses? Or polo ponies?
Polo and Racing have put out their calendars for 2020. Here is the RMPA’s schedule for 2020 (pic right). There are 13 dates, spanning 18 weekends. The RMPA calendar doesn’t include club tournaments, just the national and international ones are listed. It is pretty busy.
If you look at the bottom, you will see this is version 12 of the calendar. The planning for 2020 started months ago. Quite a bit of thought goes into it.
I reckon between these 18 weeks of national and international polo, add the club polo that I will play prior and during the season and I’ll probably be involved as an official or as a competitor around 28 weekends of the year. I usually have a couple of weeks in Argentina. If you add the six or so weekends that I devote to course designing, and another 6 or so to KL Academy of Polo shows, and that’s 80% of my weekends gone already.
It takes a bit of planning.
Anyone seen a 2020 Equestrian Calendar of Horse Shows to be held in Malaysia? Nope? Neither have I.
It brings back the old competitor’s mantra: Fail To Plan = Plan To Fail.
