The first horses have arrived at Herning ready for the 2022 World Championships — and the message is “we are ready!”
After over three years of planning, the arenas, stables and facilities are ready, the first volunteers are on site and yesterday (2 August), the first horses arrived. The first horse will enter the arena on Saturday (6 August).
At a pre-event press conference yesterday, Jens Trabjerg and Casper Cassøe, CEOs of Herning sports and operations respectively, gave updates on preparations.
“The operations team have been working for some time now and things are going well. Everything is on schedule and right now we are just working on tying up the last of the loose ends”, said Mr Cassøe.
“Almost 12,000 tons of sand have been laid out in the arenas and they are now all finished and ready for the horses. We have even had some heavy rain to test the footing and the drainage layer, and everything is working well.”
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Professor Lars Roepstorff was due to carry out final tests of the footing, and Mr Cassøe is “feeling confident that all arenas are in top shape and ready for the competitions to begin”.
Mr Cassøe said riders have been assigned specific arrival time slots to prevent queues.
“Every horse must pass a meticulous health check before being allowed into the stables, and as we are very attentive to the welfare of the horses, we wish to make sure that they do not spend longer time in transport than necessary”, he said.
The organisers are expecting just under 1,200 horses in total.
Asked what they hope Herning2022 will be remembered for, both Jens Trabjerg and Casper Cassøe agreed: “We hope that the event will have lived up to the high expectations that our guests and all the athletes have and that Herning2022 will be remembered as a championship with great sport and great experiences for everyone.”
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