It is with great sadness and regret that Bolesworth Events have taken the difficult decision to cancel Liverpool International Horse Show 2020.
Over the past six months, the team have worked with the M&S Bank Arena to model a series of scenarios that would allow us to deliver a viable model for the indoor show in the current challenging circumstances.
With the health and safety, as well as the welfare of the equestrian community at the heart of our decision making, we must act responsibly. As a result, given the commercial implications and current government guidance regarding social distancing and mass gatherings, it is clear an event of this scale poses far too great a risk to host in what has already been a challenging year.
We appreciate that many riders and supporters will be disappointed by this news and would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone directly involved with the event; our sponsors, visitors, competitors, exhibitors, officials and contractors for their continued support.
Managing Director, Nina Barbour said:
“Since the start of the pandemic, we have been working tirelessly to develop a model for an indoor event.
Having successfully hosted a series of outdoor competitions at Bolesworth over the summer, including the NAF Five Star British Showjumping National Championships, the Al Shira’aa Bolesworth Young Horse Championships and the Al Shira’aa Training Show Summer Series, we know it is possible to host competition safely behind closed doors when using an outdoor venue. The key challenge has been to transfer this model into an indoor environment with the public in attendance; it simply hasn’t been feasible from a health and safety or commercial point of view.
Earlier this year, we hosted ‘Equestrian Relief’; bringing together the equestrian community to raise money in support of our NHS heroes. Having raised over £300,000, we very much hoped that Liverpool would be a celebration of this campaign and herald the end of what has been a challenging year for so many, and we are currently scoping alternative ways of achieving this.
In order to support our riders and partners, we are exploring the feasibility to develop a 2* International Show, which will strictly be behind closed doors in line with current Government guidelines, for competitors only, on the same dates as originally planned for the Liverpool Show (31st December 2020 – 3rd January 2021).
As with all our events this year; we are keen to support the UK equestrian industry back into competition at the top level and it feels only right we continue this work and support our elite riders as they prepare for Tokyo 2021. We aim to better understand the viability of running this event by the start of October, with further information released as soon as possible.
We wish everyone well in these uncertain times and look forward to welcoming you all to a truly incredible show in 2021.
Liverpool International Horse Show will return in 2021, taking place Friday 31st December – Monday 3rd January.
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