Q&A with Michael Stone
Cynthia Hampton: Today we're speaking with Michael Stone, President of Equestrian Sport Productions. Thank you so much for being here with us today. Michael is sharing his ideas on this pandemic. We all are in this together and I’d like to see what everyone is thinking.
Classic Champions Founder & President Cynthia Hampton speaks with Michael Stone about the status of the horse show industry and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Michael Stone: It's a difficult time for the industry. There are so many levels. The top trainers, the top horse show producers like we are, and the higher echelons of the sport have no problems. They will get through it, they will survive. Tighten your belt for a few months and we'd be fine. I'm more concerned about the smaller trainers, the smaller riders and the people that don't have the options that a lot of us have. How are they going to survive and what can the industry do and what should the industry do to support them?
Hampton: Do you have any ideas of how or what we could do to improve it?
Stone: What we're trying to do, at the moment we have about 300 horses that are stuck at the show grounds because they have nowhere to go. They don't have farms here. They can't go up North where they're from because it's all locked down. So we have 300 horses that need to be exercised. You have trainers, grooms, and clients of these trainers who need something to do. So rather than just allow them to commingle around the showgrounds and ignore all the safety rules and the CDC rules, we've organized ticketed schooling. We don't allow more than five people into the arena at any time. We don't allow people to congregate anywhere. Our security keeps them separate and people are good. Almost everybody, as we are, is socially distancing now. So, I think the message has got through.
But what's good is, at least what we believe we're doing that is good, is that we're working on protocols that will allow the sport to get going quicker if we all work together. So far this has been good. What it's done is it's enabled the trainers who don't have big barns here where they can bring their clients. They have somewhere to train their clients. They can keep their horses going. They can keep paying their grooms, they can keep paying all the other people they have to pay. They can pay their feed bills because they're generating some income. Not a lot, but they're generating something. Similarly, for us. We can help our jump crew, dry crew and maintenance people. They offer a little bit of work to do and we can pay them. No one’s making any money, you know, all we're all doing and just keeping going in the midst of a crisis. And we believe that if we can keep it safe for everybody, we have a template for when things open up, and we have an opportunity to get the sport going and get going quickly. And that's going to benefit everybody.
Hampton: Do you have anything to say about how you see things changing over the next few months? Or is it just a question mark that's too large?
Stone: I think unfortunately at the moment it's just a question mark. We go from, we're going to be open at Easter, to we're locked down for 30 days. So, I think it's such a fluid situation that nobody knows. And the difficulty for this country and for everywhere is that just because New York might get fixed, other states are going to be behind so there will be no movement. The horse shows can’t start. Because what's going to happen if people from Florida will go up to New York and they won't be let go because the states are going to lock themselves. If they get fixed, they are going to lock themselves down and not let anybody else in. And it's the big problem the FEI are facing internationally. It’s that each country in Europe is, they've all started at a different time with this virus. So they can’t just say ‘well, international shows start on the first of August’ because maybe Poland is way behind them. Then Poles can’t come to those shows and then it’s not a fair playing field. So that's the difficulty. I don't think anybody knows. I'd like to think that if the experts are correct and we're very careful for 30 days, we can look at maybe a June/July restart.
Hampton: Well, that's very kind of you to share your thoughts with us, Michael. I can't thank you enough for being with us today and we all can get through this together.
Watch the full interview from Palm Beach International Equestrian Center.