Text © World of Showjumping

The last two weeks, Ken Ruysen – Managing Director at Equestrian Centre de Peelbergen – has had his hands full with tackling the shutdown of the national and international jumping calendar. Going from a fully scheduled outdoor season at Equestrian Centre de Peelbergen to closed doors has hit Ruysen and his team hard. Nevertheless, Ruysen aims to turn the situation into something positive and come back stronger than ever.  

“The Covid-19 outbreak shows us how fragile the world is,” Ruysen begins. “The current situation will have a huge economic impact on all of us, and there is no exception for the equestrian industry. At Equestrian Centre de Peelbergen, our main income comes from organising national and international shows – and this is also the case for many other venues world-wide. Now that it has all come to a sudden standstill, so has our income. Our arena crew, course designers and officials are also all affected – and are currently without jobs. It’s a big financial blow to the entire equestrian industry.”

“The challenges we are facing are humbling,” Ruysen reflects. “On a global level in terms of health and economy, on a more personal level I think about my team and many friends in the horse-industry. We are all having to deal with a trying time. From a business perspective we are set on improvement, such as investing in our facilities throughout the year. However, our budget for this year has now been turned upside down and all plans have collapsed.”

“On a positive note, due to the structure of our facilities here at Equestrian Centre de Peelbergen we are in a privileged situation compared to many others show organisers. Our venue is right now fully prepared for the outdoor season. Although we won’t be organising big events straight away after restrictions have been lifted, we hope that when the situation is under control we can start up slowly with private trainings and then follow with competitions. Our team at Peelbergen aim to contribute to get horses and riders back in shape. We have a big team here ready for that, and they are all impatient to get going again seeing that they are used to hosting shows 200 days a year here,” Ruysen tells. 

“While there are pros and cons with having such a big facility as here at Equestrian Centre de Peelbergen, the same goes for the show organisers that host events at non-permanent venues. With venues that are not fixed, organisers have considerable start-up costs – that’s also why we now see many of them calling off their events at an early stage or postponing. The financial risk is simply too big, because no one knows how the situation will evolve and where we are in two or three months time – will the same restrictions apply, will it be stricter or will it loosen up? There is so much uncertainty. On the other hand, these organisers don’t have the same running costs as those with a permanent venue so they can limit their losses if cancelling early enough,” Ruysen says. 

“At Equestrian Centre de Peelbergen, we are in a continuous dialogue with the authorities and the Dutch Equestrian Federation. We do not intend to start up again until the situation is under total control. We must all remember to fulfil our social role to help prevent the spread of the virus,” Ruysen continues.

“A big upcoming challenge will be the FEI calendar, and how to structure that once the sport is allowed to return,” Ruysen tells. “It will be a very short outdoor season this year, and the FEI will have to keep structure to give the horses and riders equal opportunities to get back in form bearing in mind that each country has their own guidelines which makes it difficult to resume sport events collectively at the same time or to travel to shows. Competing for world ranking points is only fair if everyone can compete again. The rescheduling of events is another challenge, for the organisers, and the FEI. They need to carefully restructure the calendar. Events that are cancelled or postponed should retain the opportunity to pick up their event later, without disadvantaging other organisers... It will be a tricky balancing act, and it is the FEI’s responsibility to ensure that no one benefits more than others.” 

“On our part, we will do our best to answer to the needs of horses and riders. We will try to re-schedule as best as we can and mobilise all our resources to be there for them, to get them going again and to get the wheels turning so that the equestrian business can resume,” Ruysen tells. “We expect huge pressure, as we are in the equestrian hot-spot of Europe with a huge amount of top riders in a 200 km radius around us. We might have many national flags here during our competitions, but in reality, most riders are local as they are all based in the area. The hardest part right now is that none of us know what the scenario will be, and what restrictions might apply so we can’t plan with any certainty.”

“We use the quietness to prepare for the upcoming time,” Ruysen continues. “Although our team physically cannot work together, everyone is involved – both our permanent staff as well as our regular officials, arena crew and course designers. We are using this break to develop new concepts and ideas, looking at our organisation and how we can improve.”

“I am hopeful that something good will come out of this standstill. This is a time for reflection, and we will be forced to reinvent ourselves. Equestrian Centre de Peelbergen is fortunate to have a group of established partners and founders, but we are all confronted with the same challenge. Facing this as a team, means we have the opportunity to use this break to try to come back even stronger than before,” Ruysen concludes. 

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