IN four days’ time, Tryon International Equestrian Centre (TIEC) in Mill Springs, North Carolina, will host the first competition of the 2018 World Equestrian Games, welcoming over 800 horses and, if predictions are correct, close to 400,000 spectators over the 12-day spectacle.

TIEC was developed by billionaire Mark Bellissimo, CEO of Equestrian Sports Productions, and opened the doors to its 1,600 acre facilities in June 2014.

They were awarded the 2018 WEG just 18 months ago after Bromont (Canada) pulled out of their commitment to host due to lack of finances.

WHAT IS THE WEG?

The FEI World Equestrian Games are held every four years in the middle of the summer Olympic cycle and are the property of the FEI, the world governing body for horse sport recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The inaugural Games were hosted in Stockholm in 1990. Since then the Games have been staged in The Hague in 1994, Rome in 1998, Jerez in 2002, and Aachen in 2006. The first Games to be organised outside Europe were the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Game in Kentucky (USA) 2010.

The Games came back to Europe for the 2014 edition, the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy (FRA), which attracted more than 500,000 on-site spectators and a worldwide television audience of 350 million, as well as delivering an economic impact of €368 million to the French economy.

Tryon will be the first private entity to host the WEG. The Tryon 2018 Games offer qualifying slots for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

ABOUT TRYON

TIEC is based at the foot of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains Polk County, a region with 20,000 residents. Bellissimo and his partners have pumped an investment of €160 million into the centre and continue to do in the run up to the Games and afterwards.

With 12 rings, an endurance course and a cross-country course, TIEC has over 12,000 permanent stables onsite and has built a 17,000 temporary stadium for the Games, of which 5,000 seats will remain after.

It is no secret that TIEC has encountered problems on the road to hosting the 2018 renewal. Now employing 300 permanent staff, they will have close to 1,000 employees for the 12-day Games, as well as volunteers.

One of the biggest challenges for the small region was housing all of those travelling to the Games, among other factors like roadway infrastructure. Polk County only has up to 230 hotel rooms, meaning athletes and visitors are housed in surrounding areas from Asheville to Greenville, and even Charlotte, up to one hour away.

With just 18 months to build the necessary infrastructure, TIEC ultimately fell short in terms of onsite lodging. In an interview with The Irish Field earlier this year, Irish man Michael Stone, President of Equestrian Sports Productions, said his hope would be that all show jumping athletes, managers, grooms etc, would be on site.

News filtered through last week that the onsite accommodation for the grooms and vets would not be ready. Triona Connors, Horse Sport Ireland’s Equestrian Sports Manager, said: “There was a proposal to put them out in hotel but we said it is not acceptable to have grooms and vets away from horses. How do you get from the hotel 40 minutes away if there is a problem? We are being positive and we have to be.

“We (Ireland) put pre-emptive steps to have accommodation closer to the venue. So we are not too bad, we have houses. Sally (Corscadden) has a house, Amanda (Renouard) has a house.

“This is my third World Games and I have done two Olympics, these things happen.”

Connors added: “It’s so big that it is exceptionally difficult. Over the years we have learned not to rely on what the OC are saying and to have a back-up plan. Everyone is in the same boat. All the riders are all in the official hotels.”

Future expansion includes 180-room resort hotel, apartments, additional mixed-used retail, visitor centre, and sports complex.

GETTING TO TRYON

The ongoing movement of horses to Tryon from every corner of the world is the largest commercial airlift of horses ever undertaken in the history of horse sport. The first of the 550 equine athletes coming from oversees arrived to TIEC last Sunday. They will be joined by a further 270 equines coming overland.

Peden Bloodstock, the same company who brought the horses to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, are once again transporting horses from six continents to Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in South Carolina and to Miami, Florida.

The horses will be flying into the USA on a total of 23 flights from Liège (BEL) and Dubai (UAE), plus flights from 11 South American cities including Buenos Aires (ARG), Sao Paolo (BRA), Santiago (CHI), Lima (PER), Montevideo (URU) and San José (CRC). The horses are flying on a specially designed Boeing 777 freighter aircraft in customised stalls, with independently air conditioned at a temperature between 14 and 17 degrees celsius.

“This is the largest commercial airlift of horses in history, with only wartime shipments of horses coming close, so the military precision involved in the logistics is incredible,” FEI President Ingmar De Vos said.

Horses will arrive at the airport with one haynet, while Peden will supply water bucket and water on the flight. They also supply one ‘overnight’ bag per horse, which should contain a bridle, rug etc.

All Irish horses will arrive in Greenville after the nine-hour flight and will be transported directly by truck 82km to TIEC where they will enter post arrival quarantine for two days. High performance managers Rodrigo Pessoa and Sally Corscadden have organised the logistics of who will go into quarantine with the horses.

The five team horses in each disciplines will be accompanied by two National Federation attendants (normally grooms) and a team vet. They will hand walk only for the two days before being released into the stabling area.

Lead vet Marcus Swail sent his associate Peter Hannigan on Monday’s flight with the five event horses and the single dressage horse, while Cian O’Connor’s operations manager Ross Mulholland will fly with the show jumping horses next Wednesday, September 12th.

Peden Bloodstock ensure that one of their experienced flying grooms also accompany every shipment, as well as one NF-nominated vet.

SUPPLIES

The freight carried from Europe alone – not including the horses – will total 123,500 tonnes of equipment, ranging from saddles, bridles, rugs and grooming kits, wheelbarrows and pitchforks, to horse shoes and all-terrain studs, as well as 51,000 kilos (51 tonnes) of feed, in-flight snacks and 20 litres of water per horse.

Connors has been working with the riders and grooms to ensure all the specific feed for their horses has been pre-ordered. Kentucky Equine Research are the official feed suppliers and are assisting the National Federations with their feeding documentation.

The domestic Irish arrivals – Shane Sweetnam’s Chaqui Z; Bernard O’Sullivan’s This Guns For Nic, and two endurance horses – will arrive with their own feed and haylege, which must all be sealed and branded.

BBC RED BUTTON

NUMBERS

550 overseas horse arrivals

270 domestic horse arrivals

82km from GSP to Tryon by truck

34 flights of horses into the USA (23 from Europe and 11 from South America)

14-17°C – inflight temperature

Follow www.theirishfield.ie to read daily blogs and news stories from Judith Faherty who will be in Tryon for the Games.

Follow The Irish Field on Facebook, Twitter (@TheIrishFieldHW) and Instagram (@the_irish_field) for live updates.