08.31.16
WEG Roller Coaster
First, let me apologize for not having posted earlier in the month as the news was breaking in regards to Lexington and the 2018 Games. In reality its been a busy couple of months and I knew I would need some time to put my thoughts together in a coherent way. Obviously I was disappointed(again) when the news came out that Kentucky would be passing on making another bid for the 2018 Games. In some ways I can’t blame that State, we made a legitimate bid last year when things initially fell through for Bromont and the FEI still went back and gave the Games to Bromont anyway. Yes, the clean venue clause that Longines has with FEI was the reason given for us not getting the Games and on face value that was a hurdle and everyone just excepted that, but in reality I think if the FEI had wanted to clear that hurdle it could of been cleared, certainly the FEI knew of that hurdle before Lexington made its bid, so why even have Lexington make the bid in that case. Ultimately I do not know the answers to that and even though I have my theories, to speculate on that in a public forum doesn’t serve any good purpose and my ultimately goal remains the success of the Games overall as well as their return to Kentucky.
Now some of my disappointment is self inflicted in that I believe you have to keep a positive attitude about things if you want them to succeed. Sometimes I am accused of being overly positive, which is funny because I fancy myself a very logical person who prides himself on being able to look at a scenario from all sides. So in reality I was disappointed but not surprised because there is a lot of competing things going on in the Commonwealth and for the powers that be, there probably isn’t an upside for them to us hosting the Games, certainly not as much upside as potential downside for them.
All of what I have just written is the past now, I have had an excellent summer even with the disappointment of us not getting WEG for 2018 which when you think about it means my life is pretty great and I am very blessed so I continue to move forward with the purpose to improve the lives of those around me and of this great Commonwealth.
Now what I did find to be a happy surprise was the announcement of the bid by the Tryon International Equestrian Center in Mill Spring, North Carolina to host the 2018 Games. The Tryon International Equestrian Center is a very new facility that only first opened the summer before the last Games occurred in Normandy and apparently there is some chatter that the developers plans were to bid for the 2022 Games which makes really good sense. Here is the Google Maps view of the Center , if you compare it to the Kentucky Horse Park it looks about half the overall size but its actually listed at 1,500 acres compared to the Horse Park’s 1224 acres. Of course a large portion of the Tryon acreage is wooded, almost like somebody was trying to hide the fact that they were building a world class Equestrian Park, I am only half joking as it would seem they didn’t want to get the word until the had the park completed though they have been hosting events there, almost as test runs as they build out the rest of the park. Now I do not know Mark Bellissimo who heads up the Tryon Equestrian Partners, but I will say at this point my hat is off to them for this endeavor and not only do I wish them much success, I will support them anyway I can.
Now for most people who know me, I probably don’t need to make this next statement, but for those who do not and think I am doing a dis-service to the Kentucky Horse Park by saying I will support Tryon with all the resources I can muster, understand my first responsibility is to the horses themselves because there is no place I am happier then being around horses and events like WEG put horses in front of people who might not otherwise know the majesty of the horse. As the population of the world has grown and technology has taken us away from nature the percentage of people who know horses has dropped significantly and I do fear for a world that one day has no horses. On that note I probably need to close this post before I get too philosophical and end with what is probably my favorite quote;
There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man!
I will be back sooner then later with more on the Tryon Center, our plans of support and the other potential contenders for the 2018 Games.
Kentucky Colonel
Thomas P. Demond
KyWEGO®
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