The Jersey Fresh International Three-Day Event May 5-9, the Garden State Horse Show on the same dates and the Essex Horse Trials July 17-18 will be welcoming the public after the U.S. Equestrian Federation announced this week it will allow a limited number of fans to attend competitions starting May 3.
With restrictions on public attendance eased, the Essex Horse Trials again will host tailgaters. (Photo © by Nancy Jaffer)
USEF has barred fans since last June 1 in an effort to keep things safe during the Covid pandemic. Under the new protocols, 40 percent of the ticketed spectator capacity will be allowed at USEF-licensed outdoor venues that operate with a ticketed gate. The alternative is a maximum of 400 spectators for competitions that do not ticket spectators, whichever is greater.
Sponsors, participants, competition staff, support personnel, volunteers, and service providers are not included in the spectator capacity numbers. Meanwhile, the USEF’s definition of sponsors has been expanded to include individual persons or business entities that have an agreement in place with the competition to provide goods, services, or financial support integral to the sustainability of a competition. Everyone who comes to a showgrounds must continue to wear a mask, unless they are on a horse, and will have to social distance.
Having a lot of space makes it easy to do that. Garden State, one of the state’s oldest shows, is being held for the first time at The Ridge at Riverview, 3 Wolverton Road, Asbury (Warren County) where there’s plenty of land to spread out.
The same goes for Jersey Fresh at the Horse Park of New Jersey in Monmouth County. Presented by B.W. Furlong & Associates, Jersey Fresh is the final selection trial for the U.S. Olympic eventing team. Already entered are three favorites to make the squad, Boyd Martin, Phillip Dutton and Liz Halliday-Sharp, the country’s leading eventing rider of 2020, as well as New Jersey native Doug Payne, who now lives in North Carolina. More entries are expected after next weekend’s Land Rover Kentucky 5-star Long and 4-star Short, as horses often reroute from Kentucky to Jersey Fresh if things don’t go as hoped in Lexington.
Tickets for Jersey Fresh can be bought on line or at the gate. Go to this link for information about tickets., Morgan Rowsell, co-organizer of Jersey Fresh with Jane Cory, said arrangements are being finalized on how to handle admission. Guidance will be posted here as soon as it is available. In addition to B.W. Furlong & Associates, the event’s sponsors include Zoetis, AIG and Boehringer Ingelheim.
Morgan is also the co-organizer of Essex in Far Hills with Ralph Jones and he designs the cross-country courses for both New Jersey events.
Essex Horse Trials co-organizers Ralph Jones and Morgan Rowsell, who also designs the cross-country courses. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
Ralph commented that the easing of restrictions on the number of spectators who can come to the event in Somerset County “will allow us to better promote the Essex Horse Trials in July at Moorland Farm, as we have many vendors and tailgate patrons waiting to hear about our summer plans.”
With Essex nearly three months away, restrictions likely will be eased even further to permit more people to attend what has become a popular community event since its revival in 2017 after a 19-year absence from the scene. Its new date in July was arranged to avoid the wet ground that the event dealt with last year after intense June rain.
As Far Hills Mayor Paul Vallone noted, “We all have been through much and it is so great to see the beginning of normalcy and families coming together once again. It is my hope that the traditions that have defined our communities can once again come front and center. The Essex Horse Trials and the steeplechase (the October Far Hills Race Meeting at Moorland) are signature events that define equestrianism but equally important, are events that our residents have supported for 100 years.”
The borough will celebrate its centennial May 15.
Essex has dropped its advanced division for this year, hoping to reinstate it in 2022, but is offering sections up through Preliminary. Still on board are its sponsors, MARS, Peapack Gladstone Bank, AIG and Running S Veterinary Services.
