British Eventing season start delayed

The Covid-19 pandemic continues to disrupt the eventing sporting calendar into 2021.

Following the Government's announcement of a 3rd National lockdown, stretching into February 2021, it was announced that no eventing sport would take place before 26th March 2021.

The restart will be dependant upon the easing of Government restrictions and British Eventing will work closely with the BEF, Organisers, Owners and Riders on an effective sport resumption plan.

Jude Matthews, BE CEO, commented, “We understand that our members cannot wait to get out eventing, and we are confident that with our protocols in place we will be able to resume sport quickly once government guidance allows us to. When sport resumed in July 2020, we demonstrated that with the support of our hard-working organisers and our army of able volunteers, high-quality events could be prepared quickly. We were able to shorten the timescale for taking entries for events and react to demand by adding extra days of competition where required.  Work will continue to ensure we offer members the full calendar of competition they require as we restart, and throughout the season.

“We are in continual conversation with those early season event Organisers and are discussing potential alternative formats such as Training Competitions to ease members’ transition into the full season, subject to the restrictions in place at that time. In addition, we are reviewing the qualification criteria and timescales for our Championships to help ensure that members are able to gain their qualifications.” 

Rachael Faulkner, Chair of the BEOA, added; “We fully support the decision not to start the season until the latter part of March. With current restrictions in place and deadlines to book contractors, pay deposits and secure volunteers fast approaching, we agree that pushing back the start of the season is a sensible choice. We all look forward to welcoming the eventing community to our events as soon as possible.”