At tonight’s U.S. Hunter Jumper Association Town Hall meeting, the question of when the public will be allowed to return to U.S. Equestrian Federation horse shows was asked several times–most notably by Hampton Classic Executive Director Shanette Barth Cohen–but no one had the answer.
Happily, I do; at least to a certain extent. The fan ban was enacted when shows resumed June 1, 2020 following a no-show hiatus to sort things out after the Covid pandemic hit. The idea was to enable competition to proceed while keeping everyone safe, despite the virus.
But now it’s been nearly 10 months with empty bleachers across the country. I happened to be talking this afternoon with USEF CEO Bill Moroney, and asked him when USEF-licensed competitions can once again be open to the public.
“We’ve been working on what the protocol will look like,” he said.
“I’m not sure yet of exactly when we’ll be able to do it. I can say pretty comfortably it won’t just be an open floodgate…that it will be limited in the number of spectators. We will have a methodical, graduated approach to getting back to what I’ll call pre-Covid normalcy of spectators and fans and public coming to competitions.
“But it’s going to take some time and we’re not quite ready to pull the trigger to say we’re ready to start. But we’re preparing for that day so that we’re not behind the eight-ball when it comes.”
Remember when crowds were allowed to fill the stands at the Hampton Classic and other U.S. Equestrian Federation shows across the country? (Photo © 2018 by Nancy Jaffer)
I asked him if it might happen during the spring, which runs until June 20 and the beginning of summer.
“I’m hopeful by that point that we’re seeing some level of spectators back by the end of spring,” he commented.
“Our environment is out in the open, it’s not like you’re in a stadium where you can say one person every six feet or something like that. It’s a lot harder to manage. It’s nice to hear that people on the management side are doing everything they can to enforce it (the protocol) and on the exhibitor side, people are actually saying,`This is how we are going to keep our sport open.’ ”
By the way, I asked Bill last September when he thought the whole Covid thing would have “pretty much released its grip on us.” He told me then December 2021, and I hoped he was wrong. But probably not….
“Our country is doing really well compared to a lot of countries…in the vaccine department,” he said.
“We’re getting a lot of people vaccinated. On the one hand, we’re ahead of the game, but on the other hand, I have concerns over the fact that so many people are getting vaccinated that people will forget to keep being vigilant. Just because they’ve been vaccinated they haven’t proven yet you can’t carry it to someone else. There’s rightful concern that even though you have been vaccinated, you still wear a mask and still socially distance, so we can get more people vaccinated.”
