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‘The costs are exorbitant’: major venue cancels dressage as numbers don’t add up

Eleanor Jones Eleanor Jones

    • There will be no dressage competition at Hickstead next year, as the event cannot be made financially viable.

    The All England Dressage Festival at the West Sussex showground ran as a three-day Premier League show in 2021, after the cancellation of the Dressage at Hickstead series, and grew to a six-day CDI3* and CPEDI fixture by this year.

    But the decision has been made not to run the competition in 2025.

    “Regrettably, we’ve made the difficult decision to end our running of our dressage fixture, but we would like to thank all our sponsors, especially ICE Horseboxes, as well as organiser David Crockford, and all the riders and owners who supported the fixture over the past four years,” said Hickstead director Lizzie Bunn.

    “The timing of the event in May made things challenging due to the weather, but the main reason is that we cannot make it economically viable. The costs – particularly of judges and officials – at over £50,000 are exorbitant and, despite our best efforts, the event still ran at a loss.”

    A spokesperson for the All England Jumping Course at Hickstead said the venue has recently invested in a new £1.5m stabling complex including hard standing for 40 horseboxes, allowing use of the showground all year round including for hires, clinics and camps.

    “It is essential that any additional events are financially sound,” added Lizzie. “This year we added the British Young Horse Jumping Championships to our fixture list in August. This was a huge success, and we are looking forward to developing this event even further for next year.”

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    Eleanor Jones
    Eleanor Jones

    H&H news editor
    Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.
    Eleanor Jones

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